At F5 Project, we pride ourselves with the title of this post. We are not prone for asking for permission, or waiting for a response. A lot of times we don’t even know if we will have the money to do something or not. Sometimes we upset people because we didn’t wait. This is why in April we opened our first house, and at the December we had 7 houses.
When we started F5, the goal was to create something no one else was doing for the people that needed us most. There was a lot of processes and procedures with everything we wanted to do. Hurry up and wait, seemed to be the game with housing, employment, transportation, recovery etc… Most of the organizations in town didn’t want to meet, or take us seriously. I think because things have always been done a certain way, for a very long time. But the more we dug in, the more we found things weren’t working. Too many unemployed, too many homeless, too many people eaten up by the system.
We made a decision not to let anything stand in our way. Not ask for permission. If we have to break things and sort it out later, we will. We became hyper-focused on innovating new ways housing, and developing new way for employment. Yes, there was a lot of risk in how we were doing things. We made a lot of people and organizations upset. But, I think we weren’t the risk involved in any of this. The risk is doing nothing.
Too many organizations lose out on opportunities because they see too much risk. It’s funny because we constantly telling our residents, or clients to take risks with us, but when the tables are reversed, we are way too cautious. It makes me believe that all organizations should take on a new kind of employees. One that will take risks, break things, push forward instead of asking for permission. We need less managers, and more business minded doers. Less self-interested, employee minded ‘yes men’, and more thinking and visionaries.
2017 was hard for us. But we did it, and we are in better footing today then we were last year. If I can contribute it to anything, it would be volunteers who just showed up. Staff that didn’t ask questions and just performed. Donors who saw us as the solution and not a risk. Organizations that joined us without regard. Business leaders that told their stories of “just do it”
We are not the risk. People who do nothing, or the same thing over and over again, are the risk in our community.
So, for 2018… We will continue to not let anything stand in our way. We will continue to just perform and get results. We will sort out the mess later. So, consider this out apology for making you upset.
100 people though out houses.
2000 people though our meetings
7 houses
Happy New Year.
