LIFT needed

L.I.F.T. - "Let's Ignite Free Trade!"

I haven't been able to get it out of my mind lately. It was an idea I had years ago. I had worked on it, wrote down a lot of ideas and even started up a web site. You can see how I am about web sites if you've spent any time on this site. Its just something I do. But the team of people I needed to have working on LIFT just wasn't knocking on my door asking me to help. Then came my personal issues. Starting a Non Profit Organization was more than I had time for. I had to get a real job. And then my wife had three strokes. I was Mr. Dad and Mr. Caregiver and Mr. Work-Around-the-Clock. None of that has changed.

Putting it away for a year has given me a little time to rethink it. Could it really do as much good as I thought it could? That's what's got me working on it again. I actually believe it can. Here's what I'm going through. I think LIFT could do this world so much good that I feel as though I would be sinning if I sat back doing nothing. If I just ignored it. I can't leave it alone. I understand my family has needs but I have to finish what I started. A year away from it all has reinforced the fact that there is no other organization like it and probably never will be if I don't start it. It is needed. And I've got to make it happen.

You deserve an explanation. I once had a business that provided technology to some 20-30,000 businesses. I'm not sure how many were duplicates. Anyway, I was unable to get funding for my business. And that ruined me. I had to upgrade my product to stay ahead of the competition and fit it into the market I saw coming. And I was exactly right about that market. But no one would loan me the money I needed to get the business off the ground. Ultimately, everything just imploded because the developers I hired were not sufficient for the task. Sales dropped and I wound up literally giving the business away. This resulted in much wasted time and money by our clients. And the people who acquired the business lacked the wisdom to know what they had. They never developed the upgraded technology.

What was the bottom line? The ProRata Net Profit projection for the company I started, assuming the funding which I never received, was in the multiple billions of dollars. But the real negative economic impact of my business loss was much higher because it was not just me that lost my business. The losses of the many other small businesses I would have been linked with and already was linked with need to be added to the equation. It is difficult to estimate the total impact. If I gave you a number you would probably not believe me so I will refrain. But don't be afraid to think in the trillions.

Part of the difficulty in making an estimation is that I really don't know what businesses might have been started using the technology I was planning to provide. Imagine, for instance, inventing the telephone. You don't just count how much money all the telephone companies have made through the years. You count all of the productivity attributable to the telephone by countless business and personal customers of telecommunications providers. You are then talking in the multiple trillions. That's what I mean by economic impact. Now a lot of inventors don't really see how their inventions will change the world. But I had. And I wonder if you can relate to how I must have felt when I saw my business falling apart. I wonder if you can understand the frustration I felt when I searched for funding from every imaginable source but never could find anyone to help.

I was always an idea person, not a fundraiser. I really never even professed to be a business person. What separates me from most other people is that sometimes I have ideas that I just can't put down. And I will work very hard for things I believe in. And sometimes I will take risks.

Of course, after losing my business, I was no longer in the mood to take risks. For one thing, I had nothing left to lose. I had sold everything I had to keep the business going. I had to start life from scratch. The business had left me destitute and emotionally devasted. My family has been through a raging fire. No wonder I dropped LIFT. I didn't have any energy left.

The thing is that if an organization like LIFT had been around when I was looking for seed, first or second stage funding I might not have gone out of business. That is what drove me to put my thoughts in writing. But when I did it I had to step back because, frankly, LIFT just seemed too good to be true. It was too simple. I thought to myself that I must be suffering from the naivety of youth. Or maybe, I was delerious.

But as I said, fundraising is not my thing. So it should come as little surprise that after writing down my ideas I was unable to find anyone to help me turn them into a reality. And seeing life repeat itself I concluded that if it was ever to be that it would have to chase me down. For now, God just wanted me to think about my family. I only have one life to live. Saving the world would have to be a job someone else was going to do. And if the ideas were from God, then they would come back. He would take care of it. So I let LIFT go. And I did it with a clean conscience.

And that brings me to today. Today I'm just sitting here wondering. Why can't I get this out of my mind?

I suspect it is the Top Gun program I just completed at Church. It was that book by Doug Sherman and William Hendricks, Your Work Matters to God. I had to lead class to discuss the twelfth chapter. I was reminded that Christians have to ask God what their response to poverty ought to be. There are numerous Scriptural mandates to care for the poor and the needy. The question is how to do so most effectively. The answer was LIFT. And I knew it. Nothing compares.

The answer to poverty is economic prosperity and abundance multiplying itself throughout the earth. The Lord had given me the formula for prosperity in the form of LIFT and I had put it on a shelf telling him that it was His responsibility, not mine, to see it through - if indeed the idea was divine. Really, I only have one exceptional gift - that of seeing possibilities and writing down ideas. I am not the guy who gets on the phone and calls everybody who has the money. When I do start making those phone calls the answer is always, "no." I've heard it before. I doubt that will change.

Or maybe I've just grown accustomed to failure. I may have failed in business but I've had a good life. In my home there is love. And there has been incredible value in thinking small. I can't hand a lot of money to my children but I still have plenty to give them, even when I die.

I asked my wife, Lisa, about all this. I told her about these feelings I was having. And I told her that if I had grown too comfortable with failure then maybe it was clouding my ability to hear from God. I wanted to know whether I should start vigorously pursuing LIFT. I've started to work on it again lately. I reject any spirit of rejection. A sleeping giant is waking back up. It could very well be that the Lord wants LIFT. LIFT is needed. I can't just ignore that.

I guess the problem is my audacity. I really had wanted somebody else to take LIFT and run with it. I had wanted them to name it something else. I didn't want my name associated with it. The problem is that it stands to do good on such an enormous scale that thinking about being responsible for making it happen makes me fear I have a Messiah complex. Nothing this good, outside of Christ's redemption, has ever happened. And that just sounds stupid to say. The problem is that LIFT literally is capable of wiping out poverty from the face of the earth in its entirety. It's like biting into a pure clump of sugar or wearing a bright neon orange jump suit to go shopping in. No one ever does those things. No one ever says things like that. It's an embarassment. Who could swallow it? Your naivety has to be sub-juvenile. I may as well just go hug a tree.

But there really is only one way to know whether LIFT can do all I imagine it would do. And that is to try it. It starts out with thousands of people like you contributing monthly to the cause. A basic contributing membership is $25/month or more. If you want to get this fire started just click on the donate link to the left. Mention something about LIFT when you send money and I'll make sure it goes to this cause. Pray about this. I am not the only person from whom God requires a response to poverty. Find out about LIFT. If LIFT is not the best response then let me know what you feel would be more effective. To find out more about LIFT click here.