2) Project: Arêteen (FAQs)

Hello, hello again! It's Josh here. If you're a new visitor: welcome! If you're returning: thank you!
Here are some FAQs about Project: Arêteen...

What is it?

Project: Arêteen represents Phase 1 of multifaceted goal of mine to create a company that through it products, programming, and industry collaborations will serve as a positive guidepost for all young adults to live by.

What is the word Arêteen? How do you pronounce it?

Arêteen is a portmanteau of the words "teenager" and "Arête." It is pronounced: r a teen.

Arête primarily means two things: 

1) The Greek virtue of excellence of any kind/in all things. (1st link)

2) The French word for fishbone, and by extension, a thin, knife-like ridge of rock. (2nd link)

Clearly, I meant the first meaning.

How did you come up with the name/the idea?

Honestly-now don't laugh- it came to me in a dream. Seriously.

It was October 2009 and I had just come back from working my web-based talk show, "Talk of the Hill" when I decided to take a nap. When I awoke, I had the idea for this company that would explicitly cater to young adults primarily in high school and college and it would be called Arêteen. Along with that was the knowledge that "it had to be a book." A succinct book that young adults could carry around with them and live by.

Now, that's putting it simply. Truth be told when I woke up I felt as if I couldn't breathe. I felt so excited and overwhelmed by all of the information swirling around in my head I started laughing uncontrollably and realized that my hands were trembling. So, I grabbed my favorite pen, my green Moleskin, and started writing as fast as I could everything that was in my head.

So, where are you now? What are your plans?

Good question. Well, after finding myself overextended and pulled in too many directions last spring (my own fault of course), I began to lose focus. Hey, it happens. I am only one person after all. As a result, I decided to take this summer and really work on the development of the company. 

I am a big picture thinker-really big. Since I knew in my head how I wanted the company to function at its apex, the hardest thing was to find a way to get there. Thus, I've developed phases with Phase 1 being Project: Arêteen.

What is Project: Arêteen about?

Project: Arêteen has 1 main goal:

1) To raise grassroots awareness and support. This includes actual people and their word-of-mouth as well as financial support.

How?

First, the easiest, cheapest way is to establish our viral, or internet-based presence. To do this, I've set up this blog detailing Phase 1 progress as well as the Arêteen Facebook & Twitter pages. Our Youtube page will come later.

With the Facebook & Twitter pages, I will be notifying followers of when a new post has been added to the blog (weekly) as well as asking them daily questions or providing daily insights. It's gonna be really fun!

My goal with establishing a viral presence is to get people talking and supporting the Project. We're in our nascent stages right now, so it's really just about raising peoples base level of consciousness regarding everything Arêteen. From there we can begin asking those who are most interested and involved to begin taking a more active role in making this company what I quite literally dreamed it would become.

When it comes to the internet, (as well as most forms with EMC) since it's still really new, I think the only way to continually build momentum and maintain interest is by being consistent in one's output to those supporters as well as letting them know from the beginning, what to expect for the long term. Just because they may not be a financial investor or major stockholder, doesn't mean they shouldn't be let in on the larger vision.


Hope this helps! Spread the word & "Live Excellently." 


-Josh:)