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Reply to Accusations that I’m Greedy, Money-Hungry, and Corrupt
I recently had someone publicly attack my character for the changes I’ve been forced to make at FIMP, in order to keep it alive.
This was my response, after he’d accused me of being arrogant and aggressive in my replies to his accusations.
This should provide some insight into how hard it’s been to keep this project alive & free for almost 415,000 unique visitors since starting it over a year ago:
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Imagine giving every spare moment and spare ounce of energy you have to a project for 14 months.
Imagine trying, and trying, and TRYING to avoid the traditional forms of monetization, but nothing actually moves the needle and gets your project remotely close to paying for itself.
The project continues to drain you mentally, emotionally, and financially. Despite you giving away your life’s work for free and only asking one small thing in return, only 1 in every 1,111 people actually say “thank you” by keeping the project alive.
But no matter what you try, the numbers don’t move. The project continues to drain you and take you away from your startup in the optical/optometry space, with no ability to hire help without continuing to dip into your own personal finances (for a massive community of people whose majority aren’t doing anything to reciprocate your hard work and financial investment).
You have two choices:
Do what you never wanted to do (premium training add-on) so you can hire more team members and get back to your startup, but keeping the original, core training 100% free….
-OR-
Shut the project down so that it’s no longer draining, but know that it’s going to become a spammy, out-of-date wreck if you abandon it and let your team members go.
What would you do?
This may look “overnight” to you, but this has been a 14+ month struggle for me to try and figure out how to keep this alive because I’m passionate about helping people in this industry.
Now imagine you make the difficult decision to fund the project through an optional premium add-on (the stuff you wanted to add to FIMP for free when you started out, but never could because it would just add to your already-unsustainable support burden)…
And after over a year of struggle to keep your passion project alive, someone on Reddit who’s never met you comes along:
They “know” your character.
They “know” your ”true” intentions.
They “know” you’re a greedy, money-hungry fiend that represents everything you’ve always hated about this industry, and that this was a “long con” after all.
And there’s nothing you can say to convince them otherwise.
No matter how much of your Saturday you waste going back and forth with them, their mind is made up.
How would you respond?
Calmly, because some stranger on Reddit who’s never met you in your life decides they know your true core and motivations?
Someone who has the liberty to think this hasn’t been the longest, most arduous struggle of your life…
After you’ve stuck with FIMP this long JUST because you want to help people the way you’ve never been helped?
No.
I’m not going to be calm.
I’m not going to act like this isn’t the exact thing that’s made me consider shutting down FIMP time and time again since it was started Q3 2017.
So think what you want of me. By all means, go find other training to study (even though there’s still a MASSIVE library of free training available to you that will now stay up-to-date and effective thanks to the new optional, premium add-on that makes you feel “betrayed” in the first place).
But please don’t act like you know me.
Don’t act like you know “why I really did this” because you have NO idea what it’s like to put something so valuable into the world, something others are charging thousands of dollars for, and have 99.91% of your audience do nothing to help keep the project alive.
I know where my heart is, and I will continue to help as many people as I possibly can (in the free product as well as the new add-on).
And genuinely, regardless of how much you’ve attacked my character here and in other posts, I wish you and your online business the best of luck.
I know you’re tired of this industry, and I know you don’t believe it, but so am I.
And that’s why I’ll continue to keep fighting, even in the face of such harsh, personal, and unsubstantiated criticism.