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In early 2008, about the time the stock market had fallen 2,000 points from its peak a few months earlier, Mike Marker and a friend, Jeremy Chastain, decided it was time for America to change its mind-set.
America was going through another of the slumps it had experienced since 2000, and everyone was glum. You are what you count, though, Marker says. If you count your troubles, you’ll be miserable and bad news will be all you see. If you count your blessings and learn to be grateful for what you have, if you are alert for bright spots, things will look up in time. In general, you’ll be a happier person.
So Marker and Chastain came up with the idea of selling T-shirts with messages of hope – positive thoughts. Eventually their fledgling company, based in the little town of Fortville, north of Indianapolis, morphed into Bring The Hope.
The idea sort of fits in with both their backgrounds. Marker has worked in public affairs, public relations and corporate communications for LL Bean, Citibank, Tootsie Roll and Lands’ End. Chastain has a business that makes team jerseys and jackets for high schools and other organizations.
Of course, it took some time for Marker, a Harding High School and Ball State University graduate, and Chastain, also a Ball State grad, to get their venture off the ground. They didn’t formally launch any products until March 2009, about the time the Dow Jones industrial average was bottoming out nearly 6,000 points below where it was when they first came up with their idea.
“We launched the company at the worst time,” Marker said – about the time that people started comparing the economic downturn to the Great Depression.
Curiously, about the time their T-shirts hit the market, the Dow, if not the economy, started to look up. It’s recovered more than 3,000 points since then.
Whether we can attribute this recovery to Marker and Chastain’s positive-thinking T-shirts is debatable. I’ve never heard of them, and Marker acknowledges sales have been modest.
But the company is plugging away, and it has launched a national contest, inviting people to submit ideas for slogans to their Web site, where the public can vote on the ones they like the most.
All slogans must be eight or fewer words and have a positive, hopeful or humorous message, and people have until Nov. 30 to go to www.bringthehope.com and submit their ideas or vote for their favorite slogans. The company will make T-shirts out of the three slogans that get the most votes.
The winners shouldn’t count on getting rich, though. The only compensation they will get is bragging rights. The company, though, says it will donate 25 percent of the profits from sales of the shirts, up to $5,000, to charities chosen by the winners.
“Optimism can go a long way,” Marker says.
He remembers the late 1970s, when there was staggering inflation, high interest rates and lines for gasoline. To some, it may have seemed like the end was near.
America came back, though. Things got better. You just had to believe it would.
“Attitude, in a lot of ways, is everything,” Marker says.
Right now, Marker says, “America has lost its mojo. People are questioning the future.”
Who’s going to lead the world in the future? Where are we going to be in 10 years? It’s up to us to decide, Marker says.
“As individuals, we all have a voice, a say” in what will happen tomorrow, he says. “We can sit on the sidelines and say, ‘I hope someone else does something.’ Ultimately, it’s up to individuals.”
