I know it's been ages since you last heard from me and since this campaign ended. 

I did drop the ball on the communication with the supporters of my project, and I shouldn't have because, in a way, you are investors in this. You helped me kickstart this, and I owe you regular updates at a minimum. 

In this update, I want to shed transparency on what's been happening, how the funds were used, how I fund my trips at the moment, an updated timeline, and a few inspiring stories.

Grab a cup of *something* as this is a long one :-) 

HAVE I FAILED OR GIVEN UP?

I admit that I was a bit over-optimistic about how fast a project like this would take me to complete. I had massive success in connecting with influential people in the beginning, and I thought it was going to be a straight line up from there. 

However, I had a few failed attempts and trips that taught me that this journey is more like a heartbeat. It goes up and down. 

Hanging with people who are 20 or 30 years ahead of you and who have amassed significant amounts of wealth seems like a fun experience. And it is, until it breaks you. 

Changing your old mindset and beliefs is not a smooth process. I wish it were as easy as hearing a story and getting enlightened. It felt easy in the beginning, but when my infatuation vanished, it left me alone with all my bullshit from the past 20 years. 

The different reality I came close to crumbled my reality. 
Do you want to be a better you? You have to let the old you die. It's a very uncomfortable but necessary step. 

To keep writing this book, I had to go through a spiritual type of death and destroy the old to make room for the new.

One inspiring entrepreneur/ investor I recently met and spent some time with at a speakers retreat, Adeo Ressi, was the first such person to talk about The Healed Entrepreneur. He was abused as a child, and he shared how healing is such an essential step before you proceed with your plans to change the world. 

No one openly talks about that in the world of successful entrepreneurs. And that's funny because I found that ALL of the millionaires and billionaires I talked to are spiritual and sensitive people. ALL. 

You can watch his talk from here. 

Healing my childhood traumas and dysfunctional beliefs made room for a new mindset.

I am sharing this because you will go through the same if you want to reinvent yourself and follow your potential. 

Also, the experience I've had so far with the story curation and interviews now help me explore the deeper layers. 

I found some of my questions from the past to be rather shallow and basic. The good thing about this is that I keep in touch with most people and I can ask them additional questions to make the story stronger. 

Some stories didn't withstand the test of time but many did. 

So the short answer is NO. I have not given up. It's been 3 years since I started this, and 2 since this campaign ended. And I hope you haven't given up on me too.

We are in the insta age when people write and publish books in weeks. However, most people who have written a similar book to mine have done it over the course of 5 years on average. It took Napoleon Hill 10 years to write Think and Grow Rich. 

Although I am no Napoleon Hill, I want to produce something that will live longer than me. I estimate that 5 years will be the maximum for this. I am now aiming for 4, which will be 1 more year from now.

RAISED FUNDS 
This campaign received $4,600. After the platform and the transaction fees, I received $3,000. By the way, the guys at Publishizer were great at supporting the campaign. 

The purpose of the platform is to help writers connect with publishers and also help kickstart their book projects. And it fulfilled its promise. 

These funds were used to kickstart the project and will also be used to repurchase paper books and ship them all over the world. 

After the campaign ended, I have NOT taken additional funds or sponsorship money.

I had the intention to attract sponsors, and some showed interest, but in the end, I decided not to proceed with sponsorship and bootstrap it. 

All trips after the campaign ended were self-funded by me, even when I was on a tiny budget. I have always been a stoic and that won't change soon. 

It's funny how I managed to grow my Instagram account to 7200+ followers, and many people think I'm an influencer now. But I'm not, and I don't currently work with brands. Maybe I should since I give this impression anyway.

I am using the page to build a platform (@averageofgreat - please note that I changed the name of the book as well. It is no longer Founders and The Underdog, it's now Average of Great).

WHO FUNDS IT NOW?
Writing the book helped me start a business. Again, there were a lot of ups and downs in this. There were months when I had to scrape by and struggle to make ends meet, or got into debt until it gained traction and things took off. 

That business is now providing me with the financial stability to be able to travel on more than a tiny budget. 

I don't feel like an underdog anymore, or a hustler. This gave me more confidence to call myself a businesswoman. 

And of course, my goal is to share all my learnings to inspire people who want to quit their job or start a business. I know how scary and daunting it was at the beginning. 

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS YEAR
This year, I crashed the World Economic Forum in Davos with a campervan

I shook hands with Steve Forbes

I won and had a private dinner with Booking.com/ Expedia founder and billionaire Jeff Hoffman who talked about his information sponging concept and how he invests in the unreasonable entrepreneurs

Started and grew my copywriting agency that gave me more stability to continue the project

WHAT'S NEXT?
I was about to visit Somaliland last year, but this trip got rescheduled to November 11th this year. I finally have those tickets booked!

It wasn't easy to plan such a trip as it's technically in Somalia where there's still civil war, and I didn't want to do it alone. Somaliland is relatively safe and yet I managed to convince a friend who's as adventurous to come with me while I also coordinate it with the entrepreneur who runs the local tech startup accelerator there. 

I will also visit the Sustainable City in Dubai. It's funny how I met the people behind this project on an airplane, where I least expected it. This proves a point that it's sometimes useful to talk to your airplane buddy! 

After that, I have booked a trip to LA at the end of November. My trip to LA last year was a complete failure, and I want a rematch. I plan to meet one of the featured entrepreneurs there. It's also close to Argentina, and I need to curate stories from South America. 

The curation is what's taking most of the production time, if not all. Writing is easy. I have written a novel in 2 months before. But collecting so many stories from so many places is a mix of successful and failed attempts. 

Australia or New Zealand are also on the list of what's left to cover. And Australia already denied my visa TWICE! Here's to not giving up! :-)

Ultimately, it will be a round-the-world trip in a book. 

I will keep sharing the inspiration regularly from now on. You can also read my bite-sized blogs on Instagram. Keep in mind that Instagram is not real life though and behind these happy pictures, there's also sweat and tears!

Finally, if you feel that I've let you down, I am happy to give you a refund. I acknowledge that it's been a very long time and I might have given you different expectation and over-promoted this. Just send me a private message on Facebook or an email and we can arrange this, no questions asked and no hard feelings. I would rather do that than push it and produce another average book. 

Thank you! 
Anna