Ian has photography gig that sometimes generates a little cash on the side. He has had a very successful gallery in Houston a year ago and was able to showcase his work for the first time. This gallery has enabled Ian to continually sell his photos to interested people. The photos above were sold to his department head today for a total of $225. Using Guiding Principle 10, acting like an agent for Ian Dalton Photography, 100 Million Cents gets a commission of $78.75 added to our CENTS. This puts at $1.25 to go before step 15 is done. 

If you want to see more of Ian's work, and possibly buy your own piece of fine art, head over to his on-line gallery and take a look. 

• Click HERE to be taken Ian's online Gallery to see his work
  
• Click HERE to be taken to his photography website to learn more about what he offers. 
  

Principle 3 is very important to us and is one of the motivators behind this project. We want to be a family of giving. This is not limited to just our money but also in our time, support, talents, etc... As mentioned in our Guiding Principles, giving is an indicator of a person’s character. As this relates to the 100 Million Cents Project, every transaction that puts us over our step goal involves us giving away the excess CENTS. We want to continually give our CENTS away while we earn it. It is easy for people to say they will start giving money away once something else happens. You know what we’re talking about. People say things like, “Once I get promoted I will start giving” or “I need to get out of debt first”.  We’ve been there and understand the thinking. But with this project, we are planning on changing our tune; giving should be a part of everything we do.

Do you know what sandbagging as a sale's term is? When a sales person has made their quota, earned all their bonuses, and received all the other rewards available to them that year, they push off any new deals until the following year. They do this because landing another deal, after they have received all their rewards, does not benefit them anymore. Closing that last deal does not get them closer to a quota, they cannot earn any more bonuses, and they have dried up their rewards. Sure, that deal gives them a commission but they don’t ‘need’ it this year. They would rather sit idly until the next year, when they can close that deal in the first month, when it matters. By holding off on that one deal, they start the year closer to their next quota, bonus, and other rewards. Sandbagging also work for reps who know they will not make quota even when the deal they're working on closes. Therefore, they will wait until the next year to close it for the same reasons mentioned above.

For the company, this is not a good practice, All the money that can be brought in for a calendar year is important even if that means the sales rep does not get anything extra for it. For the company, bonuses depend on total revenue and profit, and every closed deal is vital to the operations of the company. There arises a conflict between the motivations of the sales rep and the needs of the business when a sales rep starts to hold back their deals. In essence, sandbagging stunts the growth of the organization.  

The 100 Million Cents Project is the organization, we are the sales reps, and we have been sandbagging.

While working our Step Goals, we have found ourselves needing only a couple dollars here or there to make the goal. As principle 3 reads, if we need $10 to complete step 13, and the last transaction give us $13, we must give the excess $3 away. That makes us happy and is all fine when the excess is relatively small. What happens when all we need is $10 to finish step 14 ($40 - $80) and the last transaction brought in $100? Following the step goal, we would need to give away $90 but that’s more than the entire sum of the money we have earned to date. What are we to do? We sandbag and it is not beneficial for our step goals. Instead of selling that item for $100 we will find something else to sell, with a smaller price, to get past the step then we will sell that big ticket item once it really counts towards the new step goal.

We had a long spirited discussion about this problem. Although the issue at hand is relatively small now, what happens when were at step 22, need $500, and the last transaction brings in $6000? Giving the excess $5500 away is really awesome but how does it help us get to the next goal if we keep giving away everything we have earned? Essentially, we will end up giving so much at the ends of the goal that all the work it took to make that money feels wasted.

We know how this may sound to some people. We know that it sounds like we are trying to give as little as possible. That is not what we are saying. We love to give and that is why we baked it into our project. What we are learning is that too much giving can halter us from giving even more in the future. It can stifle progress to the next step goal and that means it will take longer to give again.

From step 15 forward, at the end of each step goal, we will give away 5% of the total CENTS in our possession. At every step goal, we will be giving twice as much as the previous step goal, and in some cases, more than double.  

As an example: At step 15 ($80-$160), if we end the step goal with $160 in our CENTS, we will give away $8 (5% of $160). Then, we will start working towards Step 16 ($160-320). If, at the end of step 16, we have $360 in our CENTS, we will give away $18 (5% of $360).

In the end, we will have given away 10% of the total project once we accomplish step 28. That's a lot of CENTS and that is one of the reasons we are doing this project. The Guiding Principles page has been updated to reflect the change. Also, keep going to the Giving page to see how much we have given so far.

We are so very excited about this project and appreciate you following our Progress. 

All the items above sold today. The ladder shelving unit was given to us by a friend for this project; we painted it up and sold it for $30. The two items on the right are the chalkboards we made with the materials bought, as described in yesterday's post. We sold the pair for $20, meaning we made our money back with a little profit.

We're going to take the rest of our chalkboard materials and make more chalkboards to sell. It is our hope that this will prove profitable for the next couple of steps as we try to figure out what to do next.

Were done with step 14 of 28 steps! That means we are halfway to completing 100 Million Cents! Ok, so we're not halfway to $1,000,000. In fact, we're sitting at $80 and still have a very long way to go. But life is all about perspective, isn't it?  From our point of view, it is encouraging to know that each step completed, from this point forward, means we have accomplished more steps in the past than what we have remaining. It's a small win but we'll take it!

We have been busy, both with 100 Million Cents and otherwise. Ian's mom came to visit for two weeks and watched our son, Nehemiah, while we vacationed in the Bahamas. It was the first time we ever had a night (or 4) away from the little guy, but it was fantastic! The picture above is where we stayed. 

However, we should have been updating this blog more frequently before then but failed to do so. A lot has happened since the last update a month ago. 

We have finally parted way with some of our CENTS. Above are the supplies for chalkboards we are creating. It involved us buying the frames, mounting boards, sand paper, and chalkboard paint. Total cost for all that with tax was $18.29. Our goal is to get our money back with those two chalkboards so we can turn around and use the remaining supplies to make our profit. We already found an old mirror our neighbors were throwing away so we decided to pick that up. The frame will be used for another chalkboard, once we spend $2 on some wood for the backing. 

With our money down to $6.76 we were nervous. What if we can't make our money back on these items? Karina did find one CENT around the same time, reminding us that we can always scrounge for whatever we can't makeup in sales, right? We will find out the results of that soon enough. 

Current total: $6.76

"See that?", Karina exclaimed, "It's money!" 

"Yes, but is it American?", thought Ian. 

This 10 CENTS was sitting on the edge of a pedestrian bridge spanning over shark infested waters in Nassau, Bahamas at the Atlantis Resort. It was about 4 feet below making us ponder how we were going to get it. Ian MacGyvered something with chewing gum, his tripod, and determination. Actually, it was not as impressive as it was tedious. 

While lowering the one tripod leg with freshly chewed gum at the bottom, Ian tried to grab the dime by smashing it's face with the gum. The problem is that freshly chewed gum is not all that sticky, instead it is wet and slippery. It took several tries to get the green dime to stick so Ian could carefully pull it back up. We risked the bond between tripod leg, gum, and dime failing at any point, causing the dime to fall off, bouncing into the water below. It almost happened with a 25 cent Bahamian coin we found just a few seconds earlier. Lucky the bond was solid and the 10 CENTS now resides with us. 

Current total: $6.86

In the last post, we talked about some items that the neighbor was throwing away across the street: a chair, two trellises, and two 22' lighted strands of garland. We were able to sell the chair for $25 and the trellises for $10! Cool! So add that $35 to our current total of $6.87 and we're at a total of $41.87! 


Just a side note: People in our neighborhood throw away a lot of decent things that others find value in. So far we have made over $50 selling the few things we found others throwing away.


Step 13 is now complete! On to step 14! The best part of all of this is that we already have a plan and items to sell to complete step 14 and step 15. All of  that should happen really soon.

Current total: $41.87

We're not superstitious about many things. We've both stepped on cracks and our mother's backs have been just fine, our black cat brings us more happiness than bad luck, and we own a few ladders that we've walked under from time to time and we're still alive to tell you about it. We're doing ok even though our life should be in shambles. However, there are some ideas out there that start out sounding pretty weird on the surface, but in principle they actually work; the Law of Attraction is one of them.

What is the Law of Attraction? In essence, what you think about will start to gravitate towards you. It started as a New Age concept and some people have taken it to a weird level. They open their AT&T bill hoping to see a credit instead of a bill. Their expectation is that their thoughts will dictate what they actually see. To us, that's just silly on many different levels. However, in some cases the Law of Attraction does actually work. This project is an example of that.

We are extremely excited to do this project and we hope it shows. We wake up thinking about it, go throughout the day talking about it, and end the night writing about it. It's fun, challenging, and rewarding. Many people around us have been inspired to do the same thing while others have encouraged us in our endeavor. We never expected to get this kind of buzz going this quickly. But, we did believe it would happen at some point. What we have thought about regarding this project is actually coming to fruition. But why? Why is it belief attracting the results we expect? Because belief influences attitude.

We go through the day believing we will accomplish great things and that makes our attitude positive. We're happy and energetic. We talk about it with enthusiasm and cannot wait to share our success with others. We high-five each other over finding our first nickel on the ground and giving away a single CENT. Imagine if our believe was that of a defeatist, always saying it is going to be a tough road and we only hope we can do it. What would our attitude be like? Probably pretty boring if you ask us. There would be no pride in what we're doing and no excitement. This positive attitude feeds directly into our behavior.   ImafasdfasdfasdfImadfsd

A positive attitude begets positive behavior. We set goals for each step and focus solely on that step. We advertise this website to everyone we know. We tell everyone about the progress we've made. We think outside of the box and do things most people wouldn't, and you know what? It's starting to pay off. We went through 8 steps in one day and somehow we were able to make it though three more in six days. We're getting habits put into place that will be the foundation for further steps.

Our belief controls our attitude and that controls our behavior. All of that works together to attract our success, and our success starts with other people. We cannot do this without involving others. People are the most important part of success and we believe the more people we involve the more success we will have. People want to gravitate towards something compelling and they want to be a part of it. Whether it is following and commenting on a blog post, sharing our website to their friends, or contributing to our CENTS, people are attracted to what we have started. It is our hope the attraction is a positive change in their life as well.
 
We knew at some point we were going to have to see if we could gather support from Ian's co-workers. In the past, Ian would have just gone up to someone and asked to do a money exchange (Ian trades $0.25 for $0.50 from David). This has worked the first few times Ian stared the project but only up to a dollar. This time was different though. Ian didn't ask anyone for money at his workplace; he hadn't even eluded to it. Instead he went to work talking about what we are doing and why we are doing it. Guess what has happened? People started to contribute to the project freely on their own good will. We are very humbled and grateful for their support. The Law of Attraction works and this is proof of that. A week ago we said we wanted to complete Step 11 in 7 days and we did it! It's because the law of attraction controls our attitudes and it has rubbed off on those around us. Today, Ian showed up and on his desk was $5.00 from someone at his work with the note: JJ's Contribution :) We are very grateful to Jeff for his support. This $5 has put us over the top for step 11.

Ian had one of his best friends come over to our house tonight, Chris Shay. As Ian was updating Chris on our project, without even asking, Chris proceeded to pull out his wallet and said, "I've got $5", then handed it over.  Naturally, he wanted us to trade up. He got 250 dirty CENTS we found on the ground in malls and gas stations while we got a crisp-ish $5 bill. It just did not seem fair. 

Chris claimed that since he would be along for the ride, and would see our ups and downs in the project, he figured there would be less at stake to trade when the amount of money is low. He was trying to convince us that he is now entitled to 1/28 of our earnings when the project is over. We figured that would be a total of $45,714.29, should we agree to it? 

This doubling has given us the opportunity to give one CENT! YAY! 

Now our plan is to get a few free items and sell them. We will do this for as long as we can while we figure out what to do in terms of buying low and selling high. Actually spending our CENTS seems like a big hurdle right now. Do we find antiques or do something crafty? If we buy something low like an old fan, how do we ensure we make our money back? Guess it is time for us to grow a little more. 

Back to Katy Mills Mall tonight to scour coin returns and floors for change. Only .89 short of Step 10 when we walked in. While getting some great exercise in too, we proceeded to find change throughout the entire mall's walkways and our first nickel to date in a coin return. Not only did we find money, but we also found two kids' sweatshirts and a high schooler's wallet, which prompted us to take an extra detour to security. 

It was getting close to Nehemiah's bedtime, and we were still 31 CENTS short of our goal but we decided it was time to leave the mall. 

Upon leaving, the mall door slid open to the chilly outdoors, and we were greeted by a lovely cloud of cigarette smoke. Six young men were hanging out puffing their cigarettes and unbeknownst to Karina, Ian had decided to give a go at asking someone unknown for change. We think it is awkward asking strangers for money. We don't need the money and we are working off a self imposed timeline so asking strangers for change felt kind of ridiculous. However, Ian's rational was simple; if we cannot ask strangers for $0.50 now then what makes us think we can ask them to buy something that costs more later on? This was one of those times where the steps and principles of the project worked together to make us grow. 

"Do any of you happen to have like 50 CENTS?" Ian asked boldly. He was met with awkward pauses and blank looks all around.

"I have a dollar," replied one guy. 

"Cool, that would really help us out." Ian answered. 

He pulled out his wallet and handed us the dollar. We thanked him, and as we were grasping for the dollar bill, one of the other guys proceeds to comment, not so under his breath, "That's weird; white people asking for money..."

We could barely walk away without laughing. Little did they know the one who gave us a dollar also gave us an opportunity to give to others. After all, he gave us more than we asked for. Even though it's only 69 CENTS, we are still sticking to our Giving Principle (3) and will give away any extra money we make beyond the step goal. So, on only the third day in to this project, step 9 is complete!