At some point, you have to know when to step back and cut your losses.

Ordinary People is cutting those losses for the time being.  Through the first year, we showed our friends what was capable with an amount of effort, and hoped friends and strangers would take the next step.  We had no grand expectations and no real idea of how people would react to our organization.  While we have gotten a few bites here and there, we just couldn’t garner the interest necessary to continue at this time.

Could this have flourished if the four of us gave a full effort?  That’s hard to say, but at this point in our lives, we can’t commit to that.  Rick and Erin are getting married soon (CONGRATS!) and all of us are entering new chapters of our professional lives.  For this project to succeed, it required a level of effort that we just couldn’t provide.  We are in no way shutting this project down for good, but we’re officially on an indefinite hiatus.

We will continue supporting Phil, but we’re pulling the idea generation promotion due to a lack of interest.

Finally, we want to thank our friends who helped us with design and marketing advice.  Your donations of time have been incredible.

Phil stopped by last night to watch the Mavs demoralize the Lakers and to catch us up on his recently completed Hydrophilic Mission.

First off, it was a pleasure to read his blog and help him publicize global clean water issues.  I urge you read his blog, educate yourself, and spread the word regarding this subject matter.  It’s something we don’t often think about in our society, but it’s absolutely a legitimate yet solvable issue.

Beyond that, we talked a bit about the general feeling of imbalance in our lives.  Even after the epic journey that Phil went through, he still finds himself wanting to help more.  This is a common desire we hear from our friends.  Most of us can’t get up and take on such an adventure, so we feel as if we don’t have anything to contribute.

That’s not true.

Even a small idea can spur great change.  I do believe that the benefit of crowdsourcing ideas and projects is that it allows people to help in the capacity that suits them (be it ideas, effort, or money).  In doing that, we can create streamlined, efficient projects with maximum payoff.  Let us know what your ideas are.  Let us know if you just want to help. Donate.  The strength of each project lies within the balance of the contributor.  We want people to contribute in ways that excite them and in ways that create balance in their personal lives.