The million dollar question & The Fire App that saved Mijas mountains last weekend.

These are the two questions I ask entrepreneurs at each event.

1) What would you do if you won the lottery tomorrow?

2) What would you do if you never received any funding?

Here is the best example I can give you of an entrepreneur who has made a difference and all of that on his own and some voluntary contributions from the users.

Just over two years ago a young dutch, under 30 entrepreneur, Bas Buur, started creating an App to help locals report forest fires that would alert authorities of the location, situation, and local data. Additionally, the App has developed further into a communication tool where local residents can help each other with accommodation, transport and stay informed about what is happening as the firefighters post back into the system.

During the recent fire that burnt through the Mijas mountains in Andalucia Spain, nearly a hundred thousand residents connected to the App to help each other and report on the situation. The firefighters did an amazing job in controlling and putting out the fire and the online users did a great job helping each other.

All of this would not have been possible if wasn’t for the Wild Fire App Andalucia https://lnkd.in/dZNE9NrR

This is a simple example of an exemplary entrepreneur whose passion for helping people, saving the environment, and software development brought about an amazing product that helped people connect and save the planet.

This is a startup idea that started without funds, without investors. It started out of passion, he continued with only some basic voluntary donations from the users of the App. He spent hours, days, and months, developing, listening to users, meeting with authorities, and much more.

If I were to invest my money it would be in these types of entrepreneurs and startups. The ones who follow their passion no matter what. Far too often I hear startups and entrepreneurs say well if we don’t receive funding we will have to call it a day. We can’t do it without funding. We need at least a million dollars or euros. Yet when I analyse the situation, most of the time, they are involved in projects which can easily be done in your spare time, with no money and no funding.

So before you start your next project, ask yourself these two million dollar questions:

1) What would I do if I won the lottery tomorrow?

2) What would I do if I never received any funding?

If you won the lottery and you decide not to invest it in your project, then you are not dedicated and even more, if you would not embark or continue with the project in the absence of funding, then maybe you wish to reconsider your decision.

Of course, many people still push for funding and succeed but from 20 years of reading about success and studying successful people, it has mostly come from those who simply followed their passion.