Disclaimer: Please note, this is opinion piece. There are many benefits to a solid community and I’m not dismissing that. The text below is my belief and observation on how a company has successfully monetized failure.
Why I don’t compete in the worlds largest fitness competition.
If I told you that for only $20 I would let you log into a site and post your score of a public competition for the next 5 weeks, would you whip out your credit card and pay me $20, right now? Probably not, right? Seriously, why would you give me $20 to do something so rudimentary? Ok, ok, its a competition – maybe you can win. I get it. Lets keep going.
What If I also told you that more than 98% of you who do pay me the money to compete will not make it to the next round of eliminations, would you pay me still? Probably not, right? Why wouldn’t you make it? Simply because you’re not on the same level as the top 2%. Lets assume you’re average person (most of us are), you’re not a professional athlete and this is an elite physical competition. Knowing this fact, would you still pay me $20 to log in and post your scores online? Probably not, right?
If I told you that you got nothing out of it other than seeing your name online for $20, would you still pay me $20? Probably not, right? Doesn’t make financial sense. Sure, its only $20. Big deal, Donn, its $20 – who cares?! But why waste $20 when you can write down your score and see how you rank against the others by simply comparing your score on a free public website. The thing is – $20 is not much, but most people freak out over a $4.99 app on the AppStore. In my opinion I’d recommend saving the $20 to spend it on apps and get some stuff you can actually use. If you don’t really have a chance to make it to the next elimination round, then why spend the money to compete? Thats like showing up at a NHRA race with a 76′ Ford Courier pick up truck trying to race against the nitro funny cars. I hate to tell you this my friend, you’re not going to win. Save your money and compare your best times to the pros. You’ll still have fun and you’ll save $20.
Ya see, I don’t see the point in giving a company $20 for no reason than to simply log in and post a score online. I can do that on Facebook, I can do that on Twitter. Its free. Kind of ridiculous if you think about it. Kind of seems like a scam, right? That’s how I feel.
Folks, this is exactly what the CrossFit Open does. You pay them $20 bucks so you can log in and post your score and not move to the next round (pro athletes are the exception). Let it be known, I’m a huge fan of CrossFit (I’m even L1 Certified) I’m just not competing in the games.
I simply don’t see why I’d spend the money. There is no need to. However, nearly 170,000 people at this time have paid $20 to register for the CrossFit Open. Thats nearly 3.4 Million dollars, cash, pre-paid. This is monetizing at its best. CrossFit has monetized failure. Now that, is impressive.
People are paying for the feeling of being tested. The very act of paying increases your commitment and it’s significance.
Do you think if you asked the competitors if they were competing because they stood a chance that the majority would say yes?
Consider moments where you’ve run a race or participated in other athletic or intellectual competitions. Isn’t in fun? Aren’t there a lot of benefits to having made a commitment to achieving a goal?
You should pay ME to achieve your goals. It will help increase your commitment and significance.
One of my goals is to be a millionaire. I’ll pay you $7 if you do this for me.
Touché good sir
I completely see your point and don’t dismiss it. If someone chooses to pay $20 to increase their commitment level, thats great. Thats what they need to do in order to raise their commitment level. Every person has different personal motivations for what they do. Example: I wanted to finish a 5k at one point simply because I had not done it. I paid the entry fee, raced, competed and finished. Item crossed off the bucket list. I wanted to do a 1/2 marathon. I did the same thing (paid the fee, competed, finished and crossed the item from my bucket list). For me I got what I wanted out of it. I paid money, I fed the system. nothing wrong with it. This is simply an observation.
As for the average person – I feel that most people would reply with “I’m competing because I want to and it feels good. I want to be part of the Open. I’m part of a community I enjoy and I want to compete with my friends at my local box and across the country.” IF thats the case, I’m happy for them! If one can spend $20 for happiness then I congratulate them and applaud them.
As the note at the top said, this is purely opinion. For me, I don’t see the point in paying $20 to do the same workout I’d be doing at my box for no additional gain other than my info online. I can still compete against my friends without paying money. Does the psychological pressure of “I’m competing online, against the world and against my friends.” play into anyones preparation and performance? Absolutely and I’m sure thats the case for many people, I don’t dismiss that.
Every person has different motivational factors and this is simply not something that motivates me. That’s all. 🙂 Good luck on the Open. 🙂
Take a scredriver and apply it to yourself, Donn, because I come here from Hacker News and I try to read your vaunted wisdom, but I can’t, because there is a big black band obscuring the left sidfe of my netbook screen, full of your movie-star looks and words like “HOME” and “ABOUT”, but I can’t find any way to remove the black band. Your website makes me want to off myself and never experience such frustration again. Why do you do this black-band-thing to Netizens who want to reaqd your ideas?
Every athletic event does that. 50,000 people each pay $150-300 to run in the NYC Marathon, and almost all of them lose miserably (literally *hours* behind!) to the elite runners at the front. As a runner, I can tell you that it’s fun to run with other people, but there’s nothing magic about an organized marathon. You can look up the course route on their website, and go run the exact same route yourself, and post your time on Facebook or Twitter. You’ll probably even get a better time because you won’t be stuck behind thousands of slowpokes for the first 5 miles!
I see no reason to single out CrossFit Open for this. If they did a similar competition in the real (non-virtual) world, it’d cost you $100 or more. They’re saving a bunch of money by doing something online, and passing most (but not all) of the savings to you, and pocketing the difference. That’s pretty much the same as every other online business. Netflix saves a ton of money by streaming rather than sending DVDs through the post, but they only cut 50% off the price, for example.
I agree that I don’t personally see sufficient reason to pay for CrossFit Open, but I also don’t see why tens of millions of people pay for Netflix, when they can borrow movies from the library for free.
I was so eager to read Donn’s ideas on “Monetizing Failure” that I cooked up a workaround to Donn’s annoying black band of personal self-promotion. (Not that self -promotion is bad, but there should be a way to read the article underneath the self-promotion.) Anyway, the solution was to use the mouse to highlight the entire article, then drop it into Wordpad, then change the font to Times New Roman and the size to “14”.
This is a great idea for an app, thanks! 🙂 (if its making money, there is some hidden value to be teased out)
I am not going to win the Crossfit Games, but I still like to see where I stack up against my peers all over the world, how much I have improved since last year, and also have a great time at the gym with 50 of my sweaty friends. Donn is missing the point; it isnt me against the 123,000 other contestants, it is me against the clock, and me against myself. 4th year in the open, probably wont crack the top 500 people in my state, but still consider it money well spent. Also, we have an obesity problem in this country, why hate on something that gets people moving and in great shape?
I think you are underestimating the role of ego in this matter. There is a value to many to say ‘I participated in this brand-name event/activity’. It conveys more legitimacy because it is monitored, structured and branded. Building on MMF’s point about marathon
s, people do not run them to win obviously. Following your logic, you would say about marathons “Why go through all of the expense and bother? Why not just run 26 miles and then tell everyone you did so on your Facebook status?”
I am not underestimating it .This post is my opinion. Some people LOVE this event and WANT to be a part of it just to say they were a part of it. I am not personally motivated by paying $20 to do something I’d normally do anyway with no added benefit (for me). If someone does get a benefit from it, good, then pay. I see nothing wrong with this.
There is a difference between a marathon and the CrossFit Open. With a marathon I get to show up with 20K other people and run with them on that specific day. This is a significant difference. Its an experience (though some argue that the CrossFit open is an ‘experience’ as well, but thats where I differ – I don’t see it that way). A marathon is an large community event where folks get together to do something together that they normally would not do on an average Saturday/Sunday. With the CrossFit open members pay $20 to the CrossFit Games and then simply show up to the same gym they normally would, with the same people and do the same workout that is prescribed for that day (the open workout – and lately the workouts from the open have been repeated … so its nothing new). The only difference is that they paid $20 and get to put their names on a website next to someone else for ranking purposes. If their ego plays into that, then they are getting their $20 worth.
IMO, its not worth $20. I’m not motivated the same way 170K+ people are.
I’m not hating and I’m not missing the point. Unfortunately everyone else is missing the point: this is an opinion piece. If you want to spend $20 to see how you rank, feel free. I’m simply stating you can do the same thing without paying $20 and still have a great time with your friends at your favorite gym while getting in shape. Thats what I choose to do. Not everyone chooses the same path and I’m OK and happy with that.