Was ‘Awesome August’ Crazy?

A few months ago I had this ‘crazy’ idea. But anyone who knows me, knows I have this whole ‘Redefine Crazy’ mantra thing going on. So for me, crazy doesn’t get chucked in the (looney) bin, it as often as not, gets done.

But first, let me backtrack a little.

Five or six years ago I had the idea of taking people on trail running and adventure tours. The idea made literally no sense. It would be a shit tonne of work, I’d never organised anything remotely like it and had very little reason to believe I could, and there was literally no way to make any money out of it. I was walking a trail with my then partner, who was a very logical and down to earth person, and nothing at all like me, and I looked at her and asked “So whadda ya reckon, should I do this tour thing or not?”

Truthfully, I asked her because I genuinely expected her to tell me “no” and to stop being ridiculous, so I’d be off the hook. Instead, quite unexpectedly, she said she thought I should absolutely do it.

I was pretty chicked by her answer and quizzed her on it, and she very matter of factly said “Because that’s what a Swashbuckler would do”. Fuck. How could I argue with that? So off I went and launched the first ever Bali Runeventure Tour, as it was known back then. I dragged people around the jungles and mountains of Bali, didn’t kill anyone, (although there was one one close call), and since then we’ve gone on to do tours in Bali and Cambodia, and as predicted, make absolutely no fucking money what so ever. But we’ve had a pretty fucking epic time. So whatever. Money schmoney.

Which brings me to Awesome August. After coming up with the idea, this time I discussed it at length with my creative partner Sam. I agonised endlessly about whether I should commit to the idea or not. We developed all the creative and were ready to go, and again my balls were on the line for a whole bunch of time and money, and if it didn’t work, humiliation, when at the 11th hour I panicked and called him to ask the same question I asked all those years earlier. 

“So whadda ya reckon, should I do this Awesome August thing or not?” I asked.

And that fucker gave me the same bloody answer I got back then.

“Yeah, I reckon you should” he said. “Out of all the crazy ideas we talk about and do, this one’s the most you” he explained. “The most me”? What the fuck does that even mean? The most crazy?

Needless to say, I listened to him and we launched, and when after that first weekend we had a grand total of one, single, solitary registration, I messaged him and abused the fuck out of him asking what the fuck he had gotten me into.

Well, since then, two really important things have happened.

First of all, more than one person signed up. Thank fuck. I didn’t have an actual goal so I honestly can’t tell you if it’s a good result or not, or what I was expecting or not, but I can tell you I’m pretty relieved it’s more than one.

And secondly, and more important than anything else, even though we’re only 19 days into the month, the whole thing has already been awesome beyond my wildest expectations. I’ve had a massively diverse bunch of people get involved, with massively diverse goals for the month, and it’s truly been a more perfect demonstration of ‘celebrating all kinds of awesome’ than I ever could have imagined. And let me tell ya, I’ve got a pretty good imagination.

These people, my first group of Awesome Augusters, (See how I say that like there’ll be another one?), have shared their stories, shared their hopes and goals, they’ve inspired me, they’ve made me cry, and beyond what I expected because this was supposed to be about them, they’ve supported me and kept me accountable to my own goals in a way I can’t recall ever experiencing in my life. 

I guess if you’re not in this year’s Awesome August, you’ve missed your chance to be involved this time around, but rest assured I’ll be working hard on coming up with some other stuff you can be a part of, and if we don’t quite manage to create a new event, there’s always next year.

So until then, stay awesome.

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PHOTO: Taken in Luang Prabang, Laos.