What Is The Start Experiment?

The blog post was only live for 24 hours.

Jon Acuff was in the middle of a bus tour to promote his latest book, Start, which had recently hit the New York Times Bestsellers list, when he posted it. Readers had already lined up to buy the little black, white, and red hardbacks, and what a powerful book it was. Start shined a light in the dark corners of readers’ minds and asked them to confront the thing that held them back in life. The message was ambitious, but simple: We are born to do something great. To do great things, you must punch your fear in the face. Ignore the negative voices in your head and just start. You will go from average to awesome.

As START landed on kitchen tables and gathered coffee cup rings and Hi-Liter marks, the next part of the START experience went live: a website called Nomorevoices.com, where people anonymously posted their deepest, darkest fears on a virtual bulletin board and hit a “Me too” button on fears already posted. Within hours, hundreds–and soon thousands of people–emptied their darkest dreams into that sacred public space.  Strangers silently bonded from behind computer keyboards across America. As it turns out, we all want to matter. We all want to be somebody, but most of us are terrified to try the things we know would make our lives un-average. We think we’re stupid. Unlovable. Unqualified.

A few weeks later, Jon’s cryptic blog post went live, and it brought the START experience full circle. It went something like this:

“If you are ready for an adventure, message me with your name, address, phone number, and e-mail immediately. I’m not telling what the adventure is. You will have to punch fear in the face and sign up for it. This post will stay up for 24 hours, and then I’ll delete it.”

Jon thought 50 people might respond. 2,600 showed up.

I was one of those people.

It took a few days for Jon and the good folks at Dave Ramsey’s organization (Lampo) to corral the response. One by one, they invited participants to a closed Facebook group called The Start Experiment. Those first few days were terrifying and glorious, like packing up and leaving home for the first time to go to college. Jon was too busy to micromanage, so it was left to us to introduce ourselves to each other. Perhaps he was standing somewhere in a lab coat laughing with maniacal joy at his creation.

“Hello, this is my name. This is my current job. This is my greatest dream.”

On July 6, Jon broke his silence.

 

Welcome to the Start Experiment. Do you know what fear, fears? Fear fears community. Fear always tries to isolate you and put you on an island as if you’re the only one on the planet bumping into challenges. But how do you build community in a rapidly disconnecting culture?

 

That is the question the Start Experiment seeks to answer.

 

And it starts with an adventure….

 

The START Experiment was a gift: for 24 days, we would support each other as each of us named our dream, broke that dream down into small goals, and attempted the risky but necessary steps that would help us reach that goal. Each day, Jon e-mailed us a simple task to complete and discuss. 

What will you dare? What will you risk?

Within the virtual walls of that closed group, the power of safe, positive community hit us like the lightning bolt that awakened the Frankenstein monster. On day 2, we started our journals at Jon’s request. A couple of STARTers photographed theirs and posted pictures, and it was a catalyst.

The whole group’s masks seem to come off at once, and we became downright vulnerable with each other. Introverts gushed like tv game show hosts. Lone wolves asked for help. Task by task, we cheered each other on as we left our safe, passive ways of doing things and waded into treacherous surf.

 

“I just started my own company!”

“I’m going to fight my food addiction, one bad habit at a time.”

“This is my product, Beard Sauce. It cures beardruff. What do you think?”

“I’ve been writing 300 words a day.”

“I’m going to stop dodging calls from Sallie Mae.”

“I’m applying for my dream job right now!”

“My family doesn’t believe in me, but I’m going to try anyway.”

“Check it out, you guys, I just wrote a book.”

 

This is an experiment, so expect it to be messy.

Jon gave us a lot of space and creative trust to make our fresh start. By Day 4 we were openly sharing our biggest fears. As our relationships solidified, the group created its own subgroups based on goals and interests (singles, writers, bloggers, entrepreneurs), which spilled over to Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Lampo seemed fascinated with the whole experiment. Halfway through the experiment, Dave Ramsey went on the air and called us a “tribe.”

 

A few of us started to meet up in real life. My favorite image from the first round is of Jon standing in a circle of people in the chip aisle at a market, talking to an impromptu gathering of STARTers on his family’s Disney vacation as Jenny, L.E., and McRae patiently look on.

    

The START Experiment evolved into a place where the formerly timid among us walked boldly where angels fear to tread.

The more the STARTers worked together, the more audacious we became. There’s nothing like waking up in the morning and realizing that your talent, your dream, and your purpose has not been dead all of this time, but only asleep.

It’s time to go on an adventure.  I believe your risk and the reward it generates is going to be fantastic. 

 When the 24 days were done, we had books, businesses, beautiful resumes, invention prototypes, fully-funded Kickstarter campaigns, stamped passports, airline tickets, and repaired relationships to show for our collective efforts. The best part? The story isn’t over.

The START Experiment came full circle a few days ago as the original 24-hour call went out on the blog for more STARTers. The freshmen just joined us on Facebook for another round in our brave new world.

Where we go from here is limitless.

Teri Modisette is an author, blogger, theologian, and advertising critic who is on a quest to find the job of her dreams. Visit her blog at indyink.wordpress.com.