Day 10 : Get Sponsorship

On the Facebook Page, I threw out a proposition; when the page hits 1,000 Likes, I would phone up a few of the UK's largest organisations to ask whether they would be up for sponsoring this project. Well, within a few hours we hit the 1,000 mark and today I fulfilled my promise.

I collated a list of the top entrepreneurial organisations and began phoning them up, one by one. I started with Milkround, the graduate recruitment firm and the wonderful woman on the other end of the line responded so positively. 

Funnily enough, out of the 10 companies I phoned up, Ben & Jerry's and Rapha were the only two to explicitly reject the request. The rest, including Nike, Barclays and Ernst & Young suggested I email in to the relevant people.

I'm holding on to hope. I found that it was easier to do than I thought and the individuals who answered the phone call loved the idea. I will phone and email again in the next few days.

I learnt that getting in touch with these massive organisations is easier to do than you think. Once again, I run with the motto 'whats the worst that could happen?'.

"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure." - Bill Cosby

Day 9 : Lie down in a busy place

It could be argued that this was not really a rejection challenge. I would argue it was. Have you ever tried doing anything that isn't socially acceptable? The look on people's faces alone is rejection.

Whether we know it or not, we are constrained by what is believed to be 'socially acceptable'. This isn't always a bad thing, however I do believe caring too much about what people think can stop us from taking risks, thinking outside the box and chasing our dreams.

I did this challenge with the intention of eradicating my fear of what people think. Who cares what people think (to an extent). After-all, the likelihood I will ever see any those passengers that walked by me on the platform at Waterloo station today is slim and even if I do, so what?! They probably just thought, 'he must be tired'.

I found it to be wonderfully liberating. I recommend you pluck up the courage and give this one a go yourself. It will shock you how liberating it actually is. I'm learning, the harder the challenge the greater the sense of achievement and the freer you feel.

"Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy

Day 8 : Everybody just Stop!

After an eventful Harlem Shake attempt, the challenge from Rich to stop a large body of people in their tracks by shouting, appeared to be very fitting.

As the public made their way to the station in large waves, I placed myself in front of them and requested that they would stop walking. In other words I gestured with my hands and shouted, "Everybody just stop!" at the top of my lungs.

It was interesting to see how people responded to an instruction from someone who clearly had no obvious authority over them. The majority of people ignored my request, however I was once again met with a mixture of facial expressions, everything from bewilderment to wide smiles.

Lesson learnt; Big groups of people are not as intimidating as they look. Target individuals and be personable, if you want to be more effective.

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” - Marie Curie

Day 7 : Fast Food Fun

The challenge for the day was to find a fast-food chain that would be up for accepting my request to cook the raw 2kg whole chicken I was holding in my hand.

This was the first of my food related challenges and it was one experience I will remember for a very long time. Never have I walked into a place and caused such a reaction. Both staff and customers, gobsmacked by the request.

After the initial rejection, I was met with sheer shock and laughter. I sustained my deadpan face but my inner being was experiencing a new found euphoria.

This coming out of your comfort zone stuff has changed my whole outlook on life. In this situation there wasn't much room for trying to convince them to accept the offer. It was more about my ability to sink or swim with my words when put in such a unique situation.

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' " - Eleanor Roosevelt

Day 6 : Find Love

The challenge for today was to find love. I can't say that I found her but I certainly did find a good number of rejections. I also found my mojo.

The purpose of the day was to approach girls and ask them whether they would be interested in a relationship with me or at the very least advice on the best way I go about finding love.

I wanted to use this challenge to encourage and inspire people to overcome their fear of speaking to those individuals they may be interested in. Asking someone out can be a daunting prospect, however it is an ability that is integral to kicking off a relationship.

It was tremendously insightful to watch how people responded to a complete stranger showing interest. Surprisingly I found that I didn't get as many hostile responses as I thought I would.

Lesson learnt; girls actually respect a guy that has the courage to approach them. Courage is key to success. As far as rejection is concerned, I found a smile and a confident attitude will get you very far, regardless of how weird the approach.

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." - Nelson Mandela

Day 5 : London Harlem Shake

The challenge yesterday was to head across to Croydon Town centre to shoot a 'Harlem Shake' video with strangers, however we postponed it to carry out an unmissable challenge that proved to be very fruitful.

Since we couldn't do it yesterday we rolled it forward to today and decided to chose Trafalgar Square as our rejection ground.

On arrival we were pleased to find that another group of youths had decided to do the same thing. With a little persuasion I was able to co-ordinate a fairly noble attempt at the 'My 40 Days' version of the Harlem Shake.

Check out the video. I surprisingly found that more people were up for it than I thought.

Lesson learnt; You have to be imaginative to make things happen in life.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein

Day 4 : Ant & Dec Competition

You couldn't make this stuff up and fortunately we captured what happened today on camera, as proof of the astounding nature of the day's events.

We turn up to Croydon Town Centre to see how many people we can rope in to do a Harlem Shake video and to our bewilderment, ITV are there filming a competition for a show. Once again, the peer pressure from the crew mixed in with sheer adrenaline, launches me into taking on the challenge of participating.

I will let the video speak for itself however I think it is worth noting at this point that every time I have stepped out of my comfort zone I have felt like I have grown or learnt something new.

This challenge, although somewhat spontaneous and nothing to do with what we set out to complete initially, proved two things to me; firstly, with the right amount of peer pressure I succumb to anything and secondly, stepping out of my comfort zone has its rewards.

This time it was 2 tickets to ITV's Ant and Dec's 'Saturday Night Takeaway', showing this Sat. Next time it may be £1 million investment for a business idea I come up with.

"The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks." - Mark Zuckerberg