Defining Success

“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” ―   The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

This is definitely not another article on running but I do have to start it off with me participating in the Sydney Herald 1/2 Marathon last week. It was a tough run and the training for it was this long-drawn love and hate relationship. It had been 200 km in training distance since I started, or at least that is what my app states but I am sure I have done much more this season. In fact, I am building momentum to a full marathon end of this year.

My colleague, Judd, was glad to hear that I was raising funds again for the Sydney Children's Hospital Foundation as his wife works as a researcher for the hospital. This is the second time I am raising funds for the foundation. Fundraising had been an interesting enterprise this time around and I would like to share my efforts with you.

This year, I had an idea that I should have a different approach to fundraising instead of just depending on the circle of friends that had been supporting me. I was also afraid that the circle would become smaller if I kept knocking on the same doors year after year. My mind rehearsed the possible conversation that my friends would have behind my back, ''It's Giri with his crazy ideas again about running and charity'

In the light of my reservations about annoying my family and friends, my new idea was centered around getting a business entity to support my fundraising efforts. Larger businesses were out of the question as they would have their own efforts and agendas in supporting charities and I did have anything in my toolkit to make a convincing value proposition to them, especially if I am cold calling. I looked around in my address book for a while and mustered up the courage to call on a good friend who was a business analyst with an online food delivery company.

I sent him a text message which briefly explained the proposal of the company he was working for possibly being a charity sponsor for my run and asked him if he could flick the idea 'up the ladder'. He was really enthusiastic about the proposal and told me he would get back to me once he had the conversation with the relevant parties and he did have some clout in the company. I was pleased with myself that this went easier than I originally thought. It should be an easy sell right? Who wouldn't want to support sick children? I congratulated myself as it brought some new hope.

Then I had another 'brilliant' idea while waiting for his response. What if I could get strangers to donate to the chosen cause? And how would I do it with the most effective manner? I decided that I will buy some Google Ads for my charity page to attract traffic into my site till the race day. I ran the idea by my partner and her first response was "I think you are better off just donating the money to the charity which you are planning to spend on the ads." Of course, I dismissed this remark quickly.

I am not an expert setting up Google Ads but I knew the simple mechanics of it because I had set it for my studio business years ago. This process in itself was so educational and the premise of the idea was when someone searched for a particular keyword such as ‘marathon’, my ad will be served to them. Then the kind-hearted surfer will click on the ad and will be routed to my charity page and readily donate some money. Easy!

I started bidding for typical keywords such as ‘charity, fundraiser and marathon’, and then moved on to adding ‘children’s charity, world vision, cancer council’ and then to cheeky ones such as ‘Australian newspapers, Nike, Adidas’ and when I grew desperate I included ‘swimming, cycling, and tax-deductible donations.’ Meanwhile, no there were no updates from my business analyst friend.

The ads were running and I continued to brainstorm other ideas. What if I hit on the business units within my organisation which was fairly large and extends over several countries? But how was I to reach out to all of them? I sent an email to the Corporate Affairs Manager with a short blurb detailing my intentions.

She replied immediately and was really helpful. She asked of further details of the marathon and other questions pertaining to the fundraiser and then asked me for permission to share these details with the corporate comms teams. I agreed, of course, and some emails away from the PR officer, I had a fancy new article written up on me, titled “Giri Runs for Sydney Children’s Hospital’ and published on various channels, including the company website and social channels such as Yammer. I deeply appreciated the support that I had been given.

Meanwhile, on Google Ads, I had a few click-throughs per day but no one was donating yet. I was not disheartened and kept the campaign going. These things usually take a few weeks to warm up, I was telling myself. And there were still no updates on my proposal on being a charity sponsor.

To add another dimension to the campaign, I decided that I would utilise social media tools that were available to me. I had only two active social media accounts, LinkedIn and Facebook. I would not usually get on to LinkedIn unless there were some interesting email reminders that came through and I used Facebook to browse for second-hand audio gear on Marketplace. It had been almost a year since I posted anything on both platforms.

However, I was very intrigued by LinkedIn Pulse, which is a publishing platform for articles or blogs. I then decided I should write an article about my running journey to incite more interest, of course, the ultimate outcome was hitting my fundraiser goal. I eventually got to publishing an article which was well received and it got me interested in continuing to write. I loved the process of researching, drafting ideas, and then going through the editing stages.

Meanwhile, there were still no donations from the Google Ads campaign but had numerous click-throughs to the webpage. I kept wondering what these people thought when they landed on my fundraiser page when all they wanted to do was buy a new pair of Nike shoes.

One afternoon, as I saw my partner flicking through Instagram, I asked her ‘Do you think I should reactivate my Instagram account?’

‘Why do you want to do that?’ she answered not even looking up from the phone. She knows that I live a pretty unplugged life, very little social media or any other types of media. I haven’t watched TV for many years and did not even own a set. My only self-indulgence was some Netflix comedy or documentary on my laptop during dinner for less than an hour and then the eight to ten minutes of Steven Colbert’s monologue on YouTube over my phone before I fell asleep.

‘Well, I was thinking that I should try promoting the run and the charity over social media’ I said sheepishly. She was quiet for a while and then said ‘Let me help you get all set-up.’ I did not refuse as she was the only Instagram expert I knew. She has the necessary credentials too; she is a millennial.

Days later, I was posting pictures of myself in ‘philosophical’ poses, the ones that you don’t look directly at the camera tagged with cryptic messages that try to make one sound more intelligent than in reality but in fact are ridiculously mediocre or updating Instastories on running at 4.30 am in the morning. There were again moderate responses to the posts but more importantly I was grateful that I actually connected with friends that I had not for a long time.

As I was nearing the race and the end of my fundraising campaign, the donations slowly trickled in, all of which were from my friends. In the meantime, my business analyst friend responded back stating that my proposal was turned down by the online food delivery company and they were not going to support the charity this time around. He kindly offered to gather a few of his colleagues in the office to make a donation instead. On the Google Ads front, there were hundreds of page visits but none of them translated into donations. The anxiety in the process of checking the ad stats every day and slowly coming to a realisation that it is just not going to work the way that I had envisioned, was a sobering lesson in reality. Lastly, there was only one donation that came through my work organisation, a very supportive colleague from my office who had seen the write-up online.

When this entire episode ended, I was initially disappointed that I was a failure in achieving my fundraising goal, I was shy of 30% of the fundraising target amount. I was sure that I put in a great deal of thought and effort but it did not pan out the way that I had expected. However, after peeling the layers of this effort, I came to the following realisations;

1. Fundraising for a charity in itself was a step forward - On the race day, I was proud to wear the charity t-shirt and run amongst the thousands of participating runners and the supporters on the sidelines. Why should I define this effort as a success only if I had reached my fundraising target? I had decided to do something back for a select group, children who needed access to medical care. How is that a failure? These lines of thoughts finally appeased the ‘judge’ in my head and I was slowly finding my peace with the events that had unfolded.
2. I had a great adventure, navigating through the assumptions that I made and testing them, whether through Google Ads or on social media. Although there were no donations that came through these channels, I was elated to have bought a “billboard space” on the Internet to promote the charity and raise awareness for it. Perhaps, visitors who came to my site would donate to the charity in the future or be compelled to contribute in their own ways. Others who liked my posts and articles on my social sites might even start thinking about supporting charities that resonate with them. In addition, there were so many valuable learning points that I would have never have come across if I did not embark on this project.
3. In the same process, I rekindled my love for writing, whether they were LinkedIn articles, social media blurbs or just texts reaching out to colleagues and friends. I hope to continue writing that helps connect people, writing that is honest and thought-provoking and perhaps elevates social awareness and well-being even if it is just for a tiny moment in time. The use-case for social media for a person who had been a 'Social Media Luddite' for a long while had become less murky. I am hoping to use social media to promote general well being, mental, physical, social and cultural, instead of posting food pictures, no offense to those who do, or much worse, deepening the cracks of discontent, disagreement, and prejudice which seems to on the increase on various platforms these days.

I am now realising that although I had failed in one very specific metric, I had a range of successes in many other areas and an arena of creative possibilities that opened up only because I was being persistent. Should we focus on a single crooked branch of a bonsai tree or take a step back and admire the beauty of the tree as a whole? The Japanese concept of 'Wabi-Sabi' comes to mind where the imperfections are part of appreciating the wholeness of life.

Lastly, I want to thank everyone who had supported me throughout this interesting experience. Support came in many ways, from liking, commenting and resharing my social media posts to making generous contributions to the chosen charity. Furthermore, I do have a lot of respect for anyone who is involved in any social work, I know it is not easy and I do aspire to be you.

And as always, please feel free to comment and share your thoughts and experiences. Reach out to me either through LinkedIn or my website, I am happy to share any resources that you may find interesting, including book recommendations, articles, etc. I am also interested to hear your topic recommendations for the next article.

P.S. - I do highly recommend the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, a story of a shepherd boy finding his way through life. I personally found the interview between Paulo Coelho and Oprah Winfrey filled many interesting takeaways.

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