Hi All:
I've been reading along here, and wow what a lot of great insights and suggestions.
We all know that there will be a market for self-directed integrated practices for a long time to come. What we don't know is how fast it will grow or how big it will get. I think assuming it will continue to be a growth market (and possibly big) is a safe bet. We also know that no one is servicing it very well right now -- speaking of everything else besides asanas, as Jim points out.
Maybe this market has not even been defined until we came along with self-directed integrated practices, and it, like AYP, is still forming. It has been in 1000 tiny pieces until now. Are we the market here in AYP, and determining its growth? If so, we may be sitting on something far bigger than we can imagine, particularly if society is in the process of making a major shift in this direction. How to play it?
I think it is a matter of timing our actions so as not to get too far ahead of ourselves, while at the same time having a blueprint for addressing demand as it emerges. Setting up $50,000 AYP franchises willy-nilly now, or any time soon, would be sure to fail. But five years from now, who knows? Maybe even renting space for gatherings right now is premature. Living rooms are the best place for the grassroots to take root, I think, and then see where it goes from there. It is a lot easier to expand to meet growing demand than to retreat from insufficient demand. Much easier on the pocket book too.
Getting the yoga teachers involved is a great idea. I guess there are several ways to do that. Maybe they can be our guinea pigs, since they already have studios and students. They can find out in a hurry how many of those folks on the mats are looking for more. Would we lose control by going that route? I don't think so. AYP owns the books.
For me it is all about the books right now -- both writing them to address the mainstream, and selling them. It is also about completing the material for advanced practitioners. Books -- maybe 10 more over the next few of years. After that, we’ll see what is happening.
Groups can use the books. Yoga teachers can use the books. Word of mouth can use them. Everyone that is involved in the expansion of AYP will need the books. And that is good for both the practitioners and funding the growth of AYP from here. At this early stage, donations are still accepted too. It is all still on a shoestring here.
Obviously, for expanding the knowledge horizontally, it isn't only about distributing the AYP books. It is about teachers gaining the necessary experience to teach the AYP knowledge. I'm not sure how to do that. Certifications? Not sure. That part I know little about, so someone with experience in that would be needed. I'm willing. I just don't know anything about running training and certification programs.
As the market begins to take shape, and I expect it will in the coming years (we seem to be creating it as we go), then it will become clearer how far we can go with this. If it looks like a huge growth market coming up, then we should have a plan for expanding to meet the demand as far as it can go. This isn't really about me. It is about creating something that will have international reach and be able to carry the knowledge of self-directed integrated practices forward and far into the future. It is also about creating something that meets the demand in an attractive economic way, and provides a living and long term economic security for those who are doing the work. We should not repeat the mistakes made by others in the past.
A normal business model has not been a good match-up for spiritual teachers in the past (good economic supply to the market with reasonable compensation for providers), but do we know that it cannot be achieved in the future? We do not know. Just because others have failed in the past, this does not mean it cannot be done. This is spiritual, but it is also business. And we may be sitting on top of one of the biggest business opportunities of the 21st century. If we do not address it, you can be sure others eventually will. Right now, who is in a better position to do it than us?
I know nothing about non-profit organizations, but do know something about business, having spent 30 years in it and having the degrees as well. I'm certified in business, but not in yoga!
I'm sure much can be done with a non-profit structure. But I have no experience with that. If we go that route, experts will be needed. I do know that a lot can be done with a for-profit business structure also -- the possibility for shared ownership among the participants and long term continuity being a couple of the most important things from my point of view.
Whichever way it goes, there will be the need for business plans, curriculums, finance, facilities, marketing, administration, all that stuff. I am not the world's greatest manager of people, so we would need to find expert managers too.
But not all for today…
I am only projecting some general ideas, just in case we are sitting on the equivalent of what the PC revolution was in 1980. At that time, a man with a vision came along and said, "There will be a PC on every desk." And 25 years later we all know that he was right.
Well, there is a man here with a vision too -- "There will be self-directed integrated practices in every home." It is a shared vision among many of us. Will we be right 25 years from now? Time will tell.
I hope the brain-storming will continue, and that it will translate into action.
It is an honor to be here among so many wise souls...
The guru is in you.