Quit your job, start a business. You’ll either succeed or you’ll succeed.
On New Year's Eve every year I write down my goals, ambitions, dreams, and hopes.
On NYE of 2018, I was reading through my past entries and realized I had been writing the same thing every year. I want to own my own business, I want to create something that benefits our planet, and I want to achieve these dreams while traveling the world.
I decided then and there I was going to make it happen. How? Well, that would have to be figured out along the way.
On August 31st of 2019, after saving 80% of my money from January — August I quit my job. It was super difficult because my job was incredible. I was the Marketing Director for The State Room Presents, a collection of the best music venues in Salt Lake City, Utah (perks galore).
I went up to my girlfriend’s cabin on September 1st for two weeks. I took books on entrepreneurship, the climate, sustainability, some poster board, and writing utensils.
I came home with an idea, an idea to start an online blog that provided tips and tricks on how to live a sustainable lifestyle with simple changes. I soon realized everyone on the west side of the Mississippi was doing that same thing. I asked myself, what is it at its core that makes consumption unsustainable?
From there I discovered an economics theory called the theory of externalities. I spent a few months digging deep into the theory before coming up with a way I could utilize this theory to make real and lasting impact.
On December 12th I came up with the idea for an app that connects to your bank account, allowing you to see all the things you purchase. It then allows you to link these purchases to organizations offsetting the unintended consequence of that purchase (for example: buy a tank of gas, send your spare change to carbon offsets or electric vehicle research, or buy a fast food combo meal and send your spare change to heart disease research or animal rights in factory farms).
It can be used for whatever you’d like it to be.
I came up with the designs by mid-February and started looking for funding to build my MVP. I raised enough family & friends money to get the development started…and then Covid struck, the exact same day I was going to collect my funding.
From March 17th until mid-June I searched far and wide for funding until I finally got approved for a bank loan. On July 17th I put pen to paper and started the development of my mobile app!
Since that time I have been building my website (theactiveconsumer.com) and turning the theory of externalities from an intense economics subject, to an easily relatable means of change.
I launched my website on April 2nd, 2020. I’ve been beta testing the app since that time and am set for a full launch on May 20th, 2021!
It’s been a rollercoaster, to say the least, but I am finally to the point where I begin turning this distant dream into tangible change!
I cannot say whether this is going to work out or not, but I can say that my journey to this point has been the equivalent of a master's course; fundraising, marketing, web development, accounting, etc.
The Active Consumer may not work out, but the knowledge I’ve gained will be invaluable throughout the next 30+ years of my career.
In the end, it’ll work out. You’ll either succeed now or have the tools to succeed somewhere down your career path. Whether that’s attempt 2, 3, 5, 10, 27, or 65.
