What are our chances of transforming democracy? What are our chances of success?

This is the kind of thing people ask. The truth is that it’s an inappropriate question.

I’m trained as a mathematician. “Chance” is something you can measure in a repeatable event. You can flip a coin a thousand times and count how many times it’ll come up heads 5 times in a row. And you can calculate that.

PeopleCount is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. And there are thousands of variables. 92% of startups fail. But most of them didn’t do the work I’ve done. Most of them didn’t lay the foundation I’ve created. Many of them were by young people who didn’t have the training I’ve had. Plus I found a great person to head up marketing.

And already I’ve failed hundreds of times. How many times did Gandhi fail?  Mandela was locked up. Jesus was killed. MLK failed a bunch.

This is a creation. It can’t be measured. The current year’s election results were not predicted by people well versed in the election prediction business. PeopleCount is much more of a wild card. While we’ve done good work so far, we’re aiming to perform far beyond any level I’ve performed at. With a team and funding, we’d have a good chance. With two people, late nights and a tiny budget? All I can say is that we’re going for it.

I took a half-hour break yesterday and walked with a friend. He expressed dismay that I am probably going to fail. He said, “I can’t believe you’re trying this with only a budget of $200,000.” I said, “Then you’ll be even more skeptical when you find out it’s more like $100,000. That’s all I had left.”

Then a thought occurred to me. I asked him, “So do you think our chances would be good if I had, say, a million dollars?” He said, “Hell, yeah!”

The U.S. spends several billion dollars on elections, and I can’t get a single wealthy person to pony up a million. I’ve even communicated with three billionaires who say they want this. It’s weird..

You’re welcome to send us a few bucks. And please add your name to our announcement list.

What are our chances of transforming democracy? I say they’re 100%. Or bust.

PS: If you’re new to what we’re doing, please also check out our “How it Works” page.