Seeking brilliant mind to partner in project

[ProjectMan]

I'm a project manager.  I am also a free-thinker with an idea for starting an atheistic movement with a new and interesting approach.  It is a large-scale, complex and challenging concept, and the first step is to develop it into a clear blueprint which can then be 'sold forward' to get the right people involved to finance, represent, create and launch it.

I need to find someone to keep me driving this forward; to help debate and develop each component of the idea and then to take it to the many people needed to turn it into a reality.   Maturity, a clear, mature, businesslike mind and some aptitude in a usable skill will be important, such as PR.  In order to work the project has to add up on a commercial as well as an altruistic basis, so this person should be able to build arguments from either aspect.  Drive, enthusiasm and a very bullet-proof sense of humour are also essential!

It is important that I keep this small at this stage, so will those responding please be prepared that I will probably only proceed with one or possibly two people.   Please don't take offence if it's not you - it's really a matter of finding the right person to fill the gaps in skill and aptitude that I recognise in myself.

Location within the UK would be useful, as I hope to soon move on to a stage where visits to key stakeholders will be required, and these are likely to be UK-based.  However, most of our work up to then can be done online, so beyond that location is unimportant.

I can't give too much up at this stage, as I don't want the whole thing debated and planned out on a forum.  If you're interested, please respond to this in the first instance, giving some idea of your background, aptitude and skill-set.  I'll take it on from there as appropriate.

[SSY]

Wow, you have really given people a reason for why they would want to join this project, who wouldn't want tons of management speak and no mention of pay, nor any information whatsoever about the project?

[Kylyssa]

Wow, you have really given people a reason for why they would want to join this project, who wouldn't want tons of management speak and no mention of pay, nor any information whatsoever about the project?

Hehe, what he said^

[ProjectMan]

Wow.  Constructive.  I think I may be on the wrong forum.  If anyone is on this forum who has any relevant experience to know what I'm on about, please post.  If you're just here to trade arsey comments, then feel free - but do it on another post, please.  I know I've not given much away, but anyone who's suitable for this will recognise enough to just get in touch and find out more.

All I can say about it is:  it's a long-term project to be planned, organised and executed from a business-minded perspective.  It will involve books, events, lots of PR and  a hell of a lot of hard work.  It will aim to recruit wavering religious people over to atheism, but in a way that I don't think has been done before.   It will also make a lot of money if it works.  It's not just a bit of fun or a way to annoy people... although those are great too.  This is something I intend to dedicate a lot of my free time to, until it reaches a point where it can become a full-time, paid occupation.  I need someone else to partner me in it.  That's it.

[Will]

Wow.  Constructive.  I think I may be on the wrong forum.  If anyone is on this forum who has any relevant experience to know what I'm on about, please post.  If you're just here to trade arsey comments, then feel free - but do it on another post, please.  I know I've not given much away, but anyone who's suitable for this will recognize enough to just get in touch and find out more.

All I can say about it is:  it's a long-term project to be planned, organized and executed from a business-minded perspective.  It will involve books, events, lots of PR and  a hell of a lot of hard work.  It will aim to recruit wavering religious people over to atheism, but in a way that I don't think has been done before.   It will also make a lot of money if it works.  It's not just a bit of fun or a way to annoy people... although those are great too.  This is something I intend to dedicate a lot of my free time to, until it reaches a point where it can become a full-time, paid occupation.  I need someone else to partner me in it.  That's it.

[/quote]
My take on this is your scouting strikes me as very odd. Your plan seems to be to develop a plan, but then you talk about paid positions. I can appreciate that you don't want the plan debated on a public forum, but let's be honest: you're going to need to demonstrate a plan of some sort in order to attract the right people. All we have right now is you want to start a complicated project to build an infrastructure for proselytizing that also happens to be profitable, and let's just be honest; that sounds an awful lot like what religious organizations do. Right off the bat, you're probably going to offend or alienate a lot of the atheist community. A lot of us like being different than theists.

Speaking only for myself, I think your intentions are in the right place, and it's possible that your idea could show promise, but what you're presenting may simply not be attractive to people because it's a combination of vague and ambitious. I'm willing to listen, though.

[McQ]

Wow.  Constructive.  I think I may be on the wrong forum.  If anyone is on this forum who has any relevant experience to know what I'm on about, please post.  If you're just here to trade arsey comments, then feel free - but do it on another post, please.  I know I've not given much away, but anyone who's suitable for this will recognise enough to just get in touch and find out more.

All I can say about it is:  it's a long-term project to be planned, organised and executed from a business-minded perspective.  It will involve books, events, lots of PR and  a hell of a lot of hard work.  It will aim to recruit wavering religious people over to atheism, but in a way that I don't think has been done before.   It will also make a lot of money if it works.  It's not just a bit of fun or a way to annoy people... although those are great too.  This is something I intend to dedicate a lot of my free time to, until it reaches a point where it can become a full-time, paid occupation.  I need someone else to partner me in it.  That's it.

ProjectMan, if you came into this forum to entice a group of avowed skeptics to join you in a project that you refused to explain, then what was your expectation? People aren't just going to say, "OK, this sounds great!" and just sign on. You intimated that if people here were smart enough, then maybe you'd consider taking them on to your project. That was presumptuous. Then you decided that if people questioned you, they were not worthy of your project. That was arrogant. This forum is a legitimate freethought and atheist forum, and the membership is worldwide and varied in background, career, race, intellectual strengths and age (among other things).

If you have anything constructive, please feel free to contact one of the moderators or administrators, or spend some time getting to know these members.

We allow for people to advertise their web sites and blogs, and ideas. However, you will not make much headway by insulting our membership. You may actually be missing out on some impressive talent. Perhaps you should rethink your approach here.

[Kylyssa]

Sorry if I sounded like a smartass but the thread comes across as spam.  ProjectMan hasn't posted anything else or filled out any profile information and his first post is a 'help wanted' advertisement.  The post is full of buzzwords and vague hints at a business proposal. All of these facts will tend to raise red flags in the minds of forum readers.

I believe SSY's point (and mine) is that you can't really pop up in a forum wherein no one knows you completely unwilling to share information about yourself yet expect scads of brilliant atheists to come flocking to you and sharing information about themselves.

I'm sorry if I offend but the only people you will attract with an advertisement of this nature will be narcissistic, naive folks who probably won't come close to meeting the "brilliant mind" requirement.  

Your post brought out the sarcastic bitch in me as it is so similar to posts on craigslist and on writers' boards wherein people seek a seasoned, published writer to ghostwrite their amazing story and receive a small percentage of the royalties when the project reaches print.  Yes, the poster may have an amazing bestselling story but the chances are quite close to none and would only become apparent after a great deal of hard work and unpaid effort.  We laugh those advertisements off the writers' boards and send them to each other in emails to share the joke.

When only you can see the pie you are painting in the sky only fools will reach for it.

ProjectMan, try joining the forum discussions, posting something about yourself, and re-writing your advertisement.

[Kyuuketsuki]

Wow.  Constructive.  I think I may be on the wrong forum.  If anyone is on this forum who has any relevant experience to know what I'm on about, please post.  If you're just here to trade arsey comments, then feel free - but do it on another post, please.  I know I've not given much away, but anyone who's suitable for this will recognise enough to just get in touch and find out more.

Check your messages PM.

Kyu

[Whitney]

You can't expect skeptics to be excited about joining a project you are unwilling to explain.  It's hard enough to get skeptics to jump on board projects that are explained in depth!  It's just our nature.  If you were looking for people who are willing to involve themselves in projects they know nothing about and only have the promise of it doing great things; maybe you should try the christians.  Before you start in by claiming I am rude; remember that you are the one spamming my forum and being rude to my members.

If you want to start on a clean slate by being less abrassive from this point on you will be recieved better by others here.

[ProjectMan]

Wow!  I go away for a couple of weeks, and come back to some very interesting posts,  all very reasonable,  and I take your points entirely.  If you go back and re-read the first two responses, though -(SSY and Kylyssa) you'll see why my reaction was the way it was.  They were the sort of thing that didn't exactly advertise the intellect of the average poster here and I had come to the conclusion that I was getting responses from bored teenagers.  BUT - thanks to those who've posted since and changed that first impression completely!  Willravel - you hit the nail on the head in your post.

What I was hoping for from my original entry here was  that one or two people would just post back and say "I work in [this or that profession] - what's it about?" and from there I could discuss the project offline rather than advertise it to the world on a forum.  Of course I won't just say what it's all about here - you just don't do that if you're anything like serious about a project.  I just tried to phrase it in a way that would have brought an enquiry from me.  Obviously the approach wasn't the right one!

All that said, I am probably going to take this elsewhere because I think I've queered the pitch here - but I will take on board your suggestions.  I'm not a 'serial forum poster' so I''ll learn and move on.  Hopefully I'll find the right people out there somewhere.  Thanks again to those who took the time to post helpful responses - it is appreciated!

[Kylyssa]

So you were looking to get people to post, basically, their resumes so you could choose who to contact?  I meant what I said about your approach.  I've signed loads of non-disclosure, non-circumvention agreements and I could talk with more coherency about those projects than you are about your "project" without breaking a contract.

You could start by saying what professions you require for your project, for instance, "I need an accountant, a web designer, a film editor, and a mountain goat wrangler."  No one, and I mean no one is going to guess exactly what your project is and steal your idea from a list of what kind of personnel you are looking for.  Your paranoia about it will not inspire confidence.  Frankly, you come off as an eager and extremely inexperienced teenager with big ideas.  It's mainly your clandestine approach and your certainty of the incredible brilliance of your plan (which you won't discuss) combined with your need for the ultra-intelligent (only) to post their qualifications in a public forum.  

I've helped several people re-write their resumes without charge when I found their "Please, help me rewrite my resume" ads on Craigslist while I was browsing for writing gigs.  People are helpful, you just need to ask for what you need directly rather than obliquely.

I wouldn't suggest advertising in forums if you are too too busy to fill out profile information or unwilling to so much as post an introduction in the appropriate area.  A little, "Hi, my name is ProjectMan and I've come to the Happy Atheist Forum to recruit people for a business venture relevant to atheism.  I have the following degrees and qualifications: ___" would go a long way.  Then you could post your advertisement (hopefully re-written by a professional) in the appropriate forum.    

I strongly suggest that you hire a public relations specialist to write different ad copy and present it in a more palatable way.  You can hire someone to write your advertisements very cheaply if you post to a writing forum which accepts help wanted ads.  If you are asking people to go out on a limb a bit for you, they are more likely to do so if your approach is professional and inspires confidence.

I'm honestly just trying to help you out here.  I belong to other forums where they would have eaten you alive for using the approach you did and I'd like to save you from that experience.  You are fortunate you didn't immediately get written off as a spammer.

[ProjectMan]

Again, thanks for the comprehensive and eloquent response.  I still think you're missing the point: I'm not refusing to give anything away, I'm just not daft enough to post much on a public forum.  THAT is what a teenager might do - not what someone with 20 years of business and project experience, who is married to a legal expert and who has built and sold businesses would do.  

I think people are just getting upset and a bit confused because I've used the forum in a way that perhaps it wasn't intended.  Sorry if that offends anyone, but I'm just using the tools that are out there.  For what it's worth, the project itself is something I think would (hopefully: will) meet with approval from those who regularly post here.

In future, I will take the advice and get to know the forums and other users more before raising the subject.  I think that's good advice.  Suggesting a poster is a teenager who needs a professional writer is less so.  What you have taken as poor writing is simply a failure to recognise when something is not written for someone of your aptitudes.  To be honest, I'd take that as a compliment - the kind of stuff I end up writing as part of my work is the jargon-ridden tripe which should offend most writers!  I hate it, but alas, it's how the world operates these days.  No fun.

One person - thank goodness - has had the sense to just send me a message asking for more info, and now he has it and we're in discussions about the idea.  Was that really so difficult?