Have you searched for “Potato Salad” in your favorite web explorer lately? If so, you probably noticed that about 10 of the top 12 hits have nothing to do with recipes for potato salad. Pretty strange? Even stranger is what does come up…Zack Brown and his unlikely $59,623 Potato Salad!
Zack Brown isn’t an entrepreneur; he isn’t looking to start a restaurant or a potato salad company; and he isn’t hopeful to revolutionize potato salad ingredients. So why is his potato salad such a big deal all of a sudden? Because Zack Brown hit it big on Kickstarter.
Kickstarter is a website that can best be described as a poor man’s venture capital. In their own words, they help fund “creative projects and the artists, designers, and creative people who make them.” In other words, the site helps projects that would not normally get funding by traditional methods.
And sometimes, the absurd hits it big: See Zack’s Kickstarter Page
That is the case with Zack Brown. He’s never made potato salad. He isn’t offering anything of real value in return for investors. He just wanted to see if he could raise $10 to make potato salad. His results so far have been an overwhelming 4,840 backers who have sent a staggering $59,623.
My take-away from Zack’s windfall:
1) At least 4,840 people in this world have more money than sense. In the words of David Hannum (wrongly attributed to P.T. Barnum), “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
2) Being a good steward (1 Peter 4:10) doesn’t seem to concern many in our society. The Master is returning soon…and we must not live so frivolously (Luke 12:42-46).
3) Those who have been faithful with very little will be the ones who are trusted with much (Matthew 25:21).
Be wise. Invest your time and money in things of greater consequence. Buy the truth and sell it not. “There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, But a foolish man swallows it up” (Proverbs 21:20). Lord, please keep our eyes from looking at the worthless things of this world and direct us to live in your ways (Psalm 119:37)!
