Failure Coach XL

Dress Rehearsal

“I’m delighted to be here at your end of the year meeting. I appreciate the invitation. I want to share with you today some highlights of my next book which will be available (hopefully) at a bookstore or online retailer of your choice as some point next year.” Alan agreed to this meeting at the Missouri Athletic Club West for two reasons: 1.) He kind of liked the familiar surroundings of the venue and 2.) This was an opportunity to test drive his new material. The group, ExecLink, was an organic local group of executives who hoped to leverage quality programs for membership growth, sustainability and sponsorship and and was trying to build a following.  

After he showed his customary introduction slides and as he broke the ice with this smallish gathering of 50-60 folks seated in rounds of 10 at the Missouri Athletic Club West in this meeting room tucked behind the dining area and bar where a few club members still lingered, he showed an outline slide by which he was able to frame his talk.

What is Negative Space?

Three examples in art

•  The Last Supper - by Leonardo daVinci
•  Henry Moore – Reclining figure bronze sculpture
•  M.C. Escher – Sky and Water

Three examples in environment

• Nature vs. Nurture
• B.F. Skinner and radical behaviorism
• Stanley Milgrim’s obedience Experiment

Implications

• Your positive space
•  Your negative space
• Reconciling the positive and negative

Alan had encouraged some colleagues on the book and speaker circuit to show up on short notice however he was as not successful as he had hoped. Kimberly Schnieder was in Ireland, Bill Ellis was in Dubai, David Hults was at an human resource professionals meeting, Bill Donius was talking to a group of bankers in California, Dixie Gallaspie was in town but recording an interview for a radio program, Jeremy Nulik was writing copy for an advertising campaign and Chris Riley was in Kansas City meeting with a business prospect. He had not been able to attract much of a crowd on his own. All had politely excused themselves. This was okay by Alan. He knew that some others were not present because it was not possible to be everywhere you wanted to be. He had personally experienced this dilemma, especially when it comes to supporting a fellow in the process of working through new material. In the language of stand-up comedy, no one is anxious to see you die. On this occasion, Alan did not die. In fact, he was assured that his Negative Space concept would resonate with failure fans and that book three would reinforce the Alan Edgewater franchise another year at least.

The presentation was an easy sixty minutes reinforced by powerful ideas that motivated Alan and animated him as a speaker. He knew his team would help him secure images, copyright, permissions, etc. for such things as compelling visuals of art, abstracts from research on heredity, behavioral science and overall fact-checking. The subject matter, Alan is certain, will appeal to business executives. He answers a variety of questions about art, behavioral science, business, books, publishing and the story of his career journey.     

 “Mr. Edgewater, can you elaborate a bit on your Failure First Scholarship Fund and why it is structured with as an unconditional award full ride scholarship to the college or university of the winner’s chosing? Couldn’t that money be better used to offer need-based or merit-based scholarships?” It was the last question of the evening. It was one Alan had not anticipated and it was coming from a writer of whom he was not familiar. The structure of the question, the determined note-taking and follow up suggested a reporter on assignment.

Alan knew he would have to talk to this guy further to get a sense of what he is after. His answer on this day would be acceptable for most. “Our scholarship winners through the Alan Edgewater Failure First Scholarship Fund are granted unconditional awards that allow them to pursue any educational path they choose and the college or university of their choice. Through the generosity of Coach Robert Siena and supporters like you, we have made two awards so far. The program is unique to be sure.”

As expected the reporter was polite but wanted more. Alan took his business card and agreed to schedule a time when they might talk more fully about the AEFFSF. Alan could not wait to dish this card to Jan Abbeshire.        

Failure Coach XXXIX

On the road again

Alan was pretty busy in Q4 with book signings and group presentations arranged largely by the Ambrosia team. This felt to him more like a book tour than being the big ticket keynoter he wanted to be but he knew group sales depended on high touch. So he found himself at chamber meetings, association functions, fundraisers, churches, holiday parties, retail stores, and malls from Boston to San Diego. Ambrosia was able to schedule much of this tour with various groups agreeing to travel reimbursement and minimum book sales. So net-net, out of the box, he figured in 13 weeks he pre-sold at least 1,200 books and would speak to 50 groups and sit in on at least a dozen book signings. He assumed additional group sales and incremental volume would follow.

Ambrosia representatives did the advance work with staffers when events were within a short drive from their offices in New York, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco. Contract event marketing firms accustomed to sampling and product demonstrations covered appearances in outlier markets like Nashville, Richmond, Birmingham, Mobile, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Austin and San Diego. Alan was only home about 10 days in total during October, November and December. He was on the campaign trail. Along the way he did interviews, some live remote and some recorded radio segments arranged around the Ambrosia schedule. He had visits from Julie Chase, and Grace from Ambrosia at several intervals along the way. Tony Blank showed up in California. Mostly Alan was on his own and working it.

Coach Siena arranged, through Ambrosia, for Alan to visit with a small group of top Sazerac sales people in Mobile. Alan enjoyed seafood with Fontenot, Siena and Bluestone at a restaurant on Mobile Bay. Over Mahi Mahi, they laughed about the escapades of nearly a year ago in New Orleans. Fontenot was excited about several promotional initiatives outlined by Bluestone. The Coach was excited about progress he was making with several accounts in the Midwest. Fontenot indicated that he planned to purchase 250 books to be used as holiday gifts.

Road weary though he was, Alan was encouraged over and over again that he has an audience and the failure fans were alive and willing to buy books, sign up for webinars, attend seminars and recommend Alan Edgewater as a keynoter. He tried to track contacts and collect business cards but often encouraged people to either enter their information on his website or call Julie Chase at Ambrosia.

“Tony, I haven’t forgotten our chat about recapitulation and assessing where we are by the end of the year. Your team has done an incredible job of booking me from sea to shining sea. And that, my friend is why I haven’t been anywhere more than a couple of days since September. How about planning this recap for the first week in January? I really want to understand our expenses before plan for marketing the next book. Negative Space is on a fast tract now too.” Alan was hoping Tony was genuinely looking after Alan’s best interest but he wasn’t convinced. Invoices were comprehensive summaries of hours, blended rates, materials, meals and miscellaneous expenses which were provided along with copies of expense reports. He had time while on the road to study this stuff but he really didn’t want to. He couldn’t help thinking that if his grass roots team of St. Louisans were on the case he would get quicker and straighter answers. Of course visits with his front four of Dan, Jan, Laurie and Bob were fewer and further in between. The Ambrosia monthly invoice arrived almost like clockwork on or about the fifth of the month in October, November and December; $11,500.70, $12,769.50 and $15,250.80 respectively. There was so much documentation that Alan was forced to printout these multipage PDF documents in order to study, what was looking to him, the steady cost creep upward. 

Meanwhile, it seemed like Jan Abbeshire’s monthly retainer was consistent and steady at $7,000 per month. Of course, Coach Siena was managing the bulk of the day-to-day related to the AEFFSF and it was his contribution that assured administrative expenses were available for incremental surprises which were managed in a separate process that Alan was spared.

“Geez,” said Alan out loud and to himself “I cannot sustain an annual $200,000 to $250,000 in agency carrying costs. Most of this stuff is fee-based with a few irritating restaurant bills sprinkled in… I wonder if, when they take me to lunch, it gets charged back to me…” Alan knew he might be over-thinking it. He also knew he was in a pickle because he wasn’t sure his front four could come close to the road show he was currently on. “Is this the price of fame?” he said, again, out loud.

Alan Edgewater was alone in the dark again. Drifting off to sleep in his hotel room he almost drifted back into the dream again. But he woke up in an instant and laughed. “I am king of the world!” he said out loud.

Failure Coach XXXVIII

Ambrosia Offices in St. Louis

Tony Blank was looking comfortable in the conference room of his office downtown. Big windows overlooked the recently completed Ballpark Village complex and what looked like a renaissance of downtown revitalization. He was in the office, even though workers were still doing tenant finishes from case-work to carpeting.  He was happy to have his high profile client in for an unstructured meeting.

“I’ve got to tell you Alan, our folks love working on your account. And I hope you are happy with the results so far. I think we’re making a pretty big splash starting with the mini tour in the Midwest. You got some pretty nice press and it looks like sales of book #2 are brisk.” He said this as he closed his laptop computer and straightened some file folders in order to focus more on his guest.

“Thanks Tony, I’m flattered but I’m reluctant to give you all the credit. You are being paid pretty well or at least fairly, I hope you would agree.” Alan was impressed, maybe a little jealous, of the trappings of the agency offices taking shape. After all, he never really was a corporate type. Even his stints among journalists publishing and corporate communications were confined to modest work environments.  

“Okay, sure I’ll give you a lot of credit for building a pretty strong brand. As I understand, even you were caught somewhat by surprise at the popularity of your first book.  You did a mountain of work promoting it. I won’t lie to you – I’m very impressed with what you accomplished with just local talent with regard to making yourself almost a household name. Book One – It’s not easy being anybody – But nobody is better at being you already sold 100,000 by 1Q and into Q2 you were well on your way to selling another 100,000 in paperback. That’s a great starting point. But you have to understand our challenge was to help you sustain that brand. When we started working with you we helped you launch Book Two – You can’t give 110% - just one year later in a rush. We wanted to capitalize on success of book one and keep the momentum. And you enjoyed another wave of success inside of about 18 months.” Tony had a good command of the business metrics important to Alan Edgewater and wanted him to know it. He was always a pretty good study when it came to such things. The data regarding the first two Alan Edgewater books sales was provided to him as a matter of routine by account managers in New York who had access to Nielson Bookscan. This data, Tony knew, was more comprehensive than an author would have.

“Of course I am grateful for everything that has happened. I just want to make sure we’re being prudent. The first book is now available in paperback while the second book You can’t give 110% looks like it’s going to do pretty darn well too. All that being said, I’m basically a small business that has to watch nickels and dimes. If it wasn’t the seminars and keynote addresses I wouldn’t be able to invest in the marketing. I think I’ve spent close to half a million bucks on marketing stuff. That may not seem much to you but it comes right out of my pocket with precious little help from my publisher.”

“I hear you Alan. Ambrosia has your best interests at heart. We are going to pull back if that is what you want to do. But let’s leave that conversation open until the end of the year. By then we can sit down and really look at where we are relative to the Alan Edgewater brand.” 

“Okay, but I want to do that sooner, rather than later. I’m excited about the next project and looking a production at an even greater pace than the second book. Negative Space, if we can hold to our timetables will hit the market by the end of next year. We’ve got a nifty plan to give Walmart an exclusive product and simultaneously have Negative Space in a unique paperback in time for holiday gift season. So, I can’t bitch too much. I’m gonna need to keep building on the momentum we’ve started.”

“I get it. You like what we’re doing but you don’t want to pay us to do it. I’m kidding. I’m kidding.” Tony was skilled at light hearted jabs like this when it was necessary to mollify clients but he understood this was not a typical corporate CEO type. He caught himself and tried to be more assuring in tone. “I know we have to be a good steward of our client’s money. I think you will be satisfied when we pull together a complete recapitulation by year end. Naturally we will be sensitive to your budgets as well as the reality of marketplace.”

Three hours later, Tony was still camped out in the conference room. Alan got the grand tour of the space, such as it was. He was careful not to elaborate too much on the expense of this premium office space. In reality, it was going to be more like a satellite office for Ambrosia to stake out a presence in Saint Louis. Tony was going to become the managing director, a promotion that carried with it the responsibility for growing the business. There are only two ways to do that: 1. Increasing fees and income from existing clients and 2. Attracting new clients. Tony didn’t mind schmoozing Alan Edgewater but he was convinced that this client was not going to be profitable in the long term. But for now, anyway, the success of Alan Edgewater as an Ambrosia client was helpful in attracting interest. In the context of the agency business plan, he was trying to formulate a way to showcase Alan Edgewater and attract new business prospects. Schmoozing Alan was a cakewalk compared to the razzle-dazzle required to impress the executives at Omnicom in New York.

Failure Coach XXXVII

The artist studio

Alan was hunkering down now. He was writing furiously toward completion of Negative Space. He was working with post it notes, scraps of paper, yellow pads. He learned from the first two books that short chapters would help him down the line when he started breaking down content for inclusion in seminars, workshops and keynote addresses.

His publisher and editor really rallied with support and bundles of research in his last effort, You can’t give 110%. In addition to getting a team of researchers to prepare and fact-check profiles on dozens of athletes from MLB, NFL, NBA and the Olympics, the publisher agreed to pay for statistical analysis based on career data for 100 NFL Hall of Famers. In so many cases it was easy to identify how these star performers were able to overcome adversity and excel. But, perhaps more importantly, to Alan’s way of thinking, so many athletes managed not to exceed their potential as much as they were able to play within their strengths. This was as much a tribute to coaching and studying opponents as it was about prowess. Hard work was always apparent and a given. But what Alan was able to show statistically was that victory was about playing within one’s self. A section of this book was devoted to some of the winningest coaches of all time. The research and statistics, while generally directed by Alan was fast and efficient. In hindsight, relative to his first book and the one on which he was currently focusing, 110% practically wrote itself. Which of course it did not. In reality it was an astounding collaboration that produced a handsome product on the heels of the blockbuster first book.

He was hoping for a different kind of collaboration in book #3. This book would rely on a lot of visualization. He wanted to include reproductions of paintings, sculpture, and photography. He wanted this book to be visually engaging. He credited Daniel Bluestone in part for inspiring this approach. He noticed how books about art and artists were often copy heavy while it seemed the typical reader of an over-sized book about art would be perused but not purchased to be read carefully. Instead such books were for coffee tables. He noticed, that books about art were often sealed shut with maybe one copy available for paging through and skimming. Unlike an Art Book however, his book would not be for your coffee table as much as your office or study. His books were in the aisle marked - Business Books.

And this book would not be available in hard cover. The strategy that started with the Walmart presentation about three book sleeve including this third volume in a sort of trilogy set gave birth to the idea of making this book widely available everywhere in paperback right out of the gate. The creative team on this project included graphic artists and project interns who would secure the necessary permission to use art from various museum collections.

Another portion of his book would talk about surroundings and environment. The premise allowed him to segue into sustainability and global climate change. He would also feature images of landscapes and natural disasters like the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri that took 161 lives in 2011. That tragedy and the billion dollars spent in that community afterwards allowed the author to illustrate how such a radical and focused change could actually result in significant improvements to the community. In effect, that community in completely re-building itself was able to enhance certain aspects of its surroundings or in the language of his premise the negative space. The Joplin Schools Superintendent, C.J.Huff EdD, would be cited for his leadership in the tornado aftermath. Huff acted decisively to reopen school for the entire district just 87 days later. Although insurance money would cover basic rebuilding of Joplin High School, Huff saw an opportunity for something more — a state-of-the-art facility fit for 21st-century learning. Some residents objected loudly to the expense of an upgraded facility. But Huff persisted educating the community about why it was so important to the city and the futures of all students.  

Another example he liked for its story and its visual appeal was the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. The scale the process of sculpting by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum, was all about making something remarkable by applying the principles of negative space. Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of four United States presidents: George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). Construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents' faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Upon Gutzon Borglum's death in March 1941, his son took over construction.until a lack of funding forced construction to end in late October 1941. Mount Rushmore is an iconic symbol and attracts nearly three million people annually.

The concept of making the best of surroundings from climate change, natural disasters like the Joplin tornado, monumental sculpture like Mount Rushmore and countless examples of fine art from antiquity to contemporary art would make his point for even a casual reader.

Failure Coach XXXVI

Pending Sazerac Review

“You have got to be kidding me. This guy wins the lottery. He retires as a high school teacher and coach. He takes the lump sum payout check for $218,000,000. He pays his taxes leaving about $110 Million. He funds a crazy annual full ride scholarship program under the banner Alan Edgewater Failure First Scholarship Fund with a lump sum $4.5 Million. An unconditional scholarship that is not based on merit or circumstances? And he’s working for us in sales?” The executive board at Sazerac met regularly. One agenda item required a command performance and appearance by the fountain of information, Mr. Joseph Fontenot.

“Yup.” Joseph Fontenot offered somewhat sheepishly. “He’s been opening doors for us and everyone of our key account people in the Midwest love the guy. Sales are showing steady increases in his region.” Fontenot had only just pieced all this information together himself. In his analysis of sales across the country he noted positive increases in Illinois and Missouri first. As he reviewed sampling activity he noticed that the coach getting sales behind nearly every sales promotion he ran. He Googled Siena and a press release from Abbeshire & Bluestone lead him to more information on the coach.

It was the transparency policy at Abbeshire & Bluestone with regard to the AEFFSF that made it simple enough to understand the good fortune of Coach Siena. Alan Edgewater’s website had a link to a separate micro site controlled by Abbeshire & Bluestone, the content of which was managed by Jan. There were pictures of Johnny Appleseed and Andrew Valentine and their respective stories.

“Well then, Fontenot. How do we learn from the coaches best practices? Can we sustain this growth?”

“I think so. The coach has been working with an agency in St. Louis that has really gotten results with strategic thinking, sampling, display initiatives and publicity. He’s been doing it on a shoestring budget I might add.”

“Well, let’s see if we can clone this guy. Or at least, as I said, formalize best practices. I’m sure the board would be supportive if it means growth. This is a business dang it!”

 “Yes sir. I’m on it.” This was such an unusual exchange for Fontenot with the executive board but he felt it was a green light to ramp up some marketing. He knew Bluestone was the guy to get on the horn A.S.A.P.”

Bluestone was happy to take the call in his office. He was careful not to pester Fontenot since Coach Siena was the primary agency contact with Sazerac Brands. The coach was too important as the AEFFSF primary contact to jeopardize to break the chain of command. But the call from Fontenot changed the playing field.

“I’m hoping to make a trip to St. Louis and the Midwest as soon as I can schedule something. I hope you don’t mind but I’d like to hear about what your agency feels we are doing well and what we might do better with regard to sales and business development.” It was like music to Daniel Bluestone’s ears. His head started to spin. He knew he was going to have to rally the troops for a bit of show and tell. But he knew a 

“Dog and Pony” show for a client that was initiated by the client had a higher probability of success. The only concern that lingered in his mind was the feeling the departure this was from Abbeshire & Bluestone SOP. Jan had grown the agency with fundamental fee based staffing and measureable outputs and ultimately media placements. Daniel philosophically wanted to swing for the fences – generally an approach with higher risk.

Bluestone spent the afternoon in the conference room briefing writers, art directors and freelancers about Sazerac Rye Whiskey. Late in the day, he called Coach Siena.

“Coach, I want to let you know we’re pulling out the stops for an agency review on behalf of Sazerac Rye Whiskey. I know you are not asking for this so I don’t want you to worry. We are a creative shop and we pride ourselves in being proactive with our clients. We think there are opportunities some of which we’ve only scratched the surface…”

“Well. I’ll tell you what. I understand Fontenot is planning a trip to St. Louis. Would you folks object to me bringing him along to this review?”

“That would be awesome. Will talk soon. Just let me know what works best for you guys.”     

Bluestone hung up and exhaled. 

Failure First XXXV

AEFFSF

On Monday morning, Jan Abbeshire was looking over one of the first presentations her team gave to Coach Robert Siena regarding the Alan Edgewater Failure First Scholarship Fund. Alan was comfortable with Coach Siena’s decision to let Jan’s firm take the lead on managing this program even though they has no experience in such matters. Still, if Siena wanted to made this grand gesture and commit nearly $4.4 million to assure the foundation would last 100 years, she was confident that she could get a suitable team to manage the fund and disbursements. Laurie Ripp was part of the team along with a boutique investment firm.

She still couldn’t believe the coach entrusted Abbeshire & Bluestone on an ongoing basis with such a responsibility. As a consequence, she insisted on accountability and transparency over and above generally accepted practice. Part of that policy was to clearly spell out all fees including publicity and marketing expenses.

	Portfolio Return	8%
	Tuition Growth/year	4%
	Base Tuition/year	$   50,000
	Tuition		Discount	PV
Year	(per year)	Funding	Factor	Cash Flow	PV SUM
1	50,000	50,000	0.925926	46,296.30	46,296.30
2	52,000	102,000	0.857339	87,448.56	133,744.86
3	54,080	156,080	0.793832	123,901.34	257,646.19
4	56,243	212,323	0.73503	156,063.89	413,710.08
5	58,493	220,816	0.680583	150,283.75	563,993.83
6	60,833	229,649	0.63017	144,717.68	708,711.51
7	63,266	238,835	0.58349	139,357.77	848,069.28
8	65,797	248,388	0.540269	134,196.37	982,265.65
9	68,428	258,324	0.500249	129,226.13	1,111,491.78
10	71,166	268,657	0.463193	124,439.98	1,235,931.76
11	74,012	279,403	0.428883	119,831.09	1,355,762.85
12	76,973	290,579	0.397114	115,392.90	1,471,155.75
13	80,052	302,202	0.367698	111,119.09	1,582,274.85
14	83,254	314,290	0.340461	107,003.57	1,689,278.42
15	86,584	326,862	0.315242	103,040.47	1,792,318.89
16	90,047	339,936	0.29189	99,224.16	1,891,543.05
17	93,649	353,534	0.270269	95,549.19	1,987,092.24
18	97,395	367,675	0.250249	92,010.33	2,079,102.58
19	101,291	382,382	0.231712	88,602.54	2,167,705.12
20	105,342	397,677	0.214548	85,320.97	2,253,026.09
21	109,556	413,584	0.198656	82,160.93	2,335,187.02
22	113,938	430,128	0.183941	79,117.93	2,414,304.95
23	118,496	447,333	0.170315	76,187.64	2,490,492.59
24	123,236	465,226	0.157699	73,365.88	2,563,858.47
25	128,165	483,835	0.146018	70,648.62	2,634,507.09
26	133,292	503,189	0.135202	68,032.01	2,702,539.09
27	138,623	523,316	0.125187	65,512.30	2,768,051.40
28	144,168	544,249	0.115914	63,085.92	2,831,137.32
29	149,935	566,019	0.107328	60,749.40	2,891,886.72
30	155,933	588,660	0.099377	58,499.43	2,950,386.15
31	162,170	612,206	0.092016	56,332.78	3,006,718.93
32	168,657	636,694	0.0852	54,246.38	3,060,965.31
33	175,403	662,162	0.078889	52,237.26	3,113,202.57
34	182,419	688,649	0.073045	50,302.54	3,163,505.11
35	189,716	716,194	0.067635	48,439.49	3,211,944.59
36	197,304	744,842	0.062625	46,645.43	3,258,590.03
37	205,197	774,636	0.057986	44,917.82	3,303,507.85
38	213,404	805,621	0.05369	43,254.20	3,346,762.05
39	221,941	837,846	0.049713	41,652.19	3,388,414.24
40	230,818	871,360	0.046031	40,109.52	3,428,523.76
41	240,051	906,214	0.042621	38,623.98	3,467,147.74
42	249,653	942,463	0.039464	37,193.46	3,504,341.20
43	259,639	980,162	0.036541	35,815.93	3,540,157.13
44	270,025	1,019,368	0.033834	34,489.41	3,574,646.54
45	280,826	1,060,143	0.031328	33,212.03	3,607,858.57
46	292,059	1,102,548	0.029007	31,981.95	3,639,840.52
47	303,741	1,146,650	0.026859	30,797.43	3,670,637.95
48	315,891	1,192,516	0.024869	29,656.79	3,700,294.74
49	328,526	1,240,217	0.023027	28,558.39	3,728,853.13
50	341,667	1,289,826	0.021321	27,500.67	3,756,353.80
51	355,334	1,341,419	0.019742	26,482.13	3,782,835.93
52	369,548	1,395,076	0.01828	25,501.31	3,808,337.23
53	384,329	1,450,879	0.016925	24,556.81	3,832,894.05
54	399,703	1,508,914	0.015672	23,647.30	3,856,541.35
55	415,691	1,569,270	0.014511	22,771.48	3,879,312.83
56	432,318	1,632,041	0.013436	21,928.09	3,901,240.92
57	449,611	1,697,323	0.012441	21,115.94	3,922,356.86
58	467,596	1,765,216	0.011519	20,333.87	3,942,690.72
59	486,299	1,835,824	0.010666	19,580.76	3,962,271.48
60	505,751	1,909,257	0.009876	18,855.55	3,981,127.03
61	525,981	1,985,628	0.009144	18,157.19	3,999,284.22
62	547,021	2,065,053	0.008467	17,484.70	4,016,768.92
63	568,901	2,147,655	0.00784	16,837.12	4,033,606.05
64	591,658	2,233,561	0.007259	16,213.53	4,049,819.57
65	615,324	2,322,903	0.006721	15,613.02	4,065,432.60
66	639,937	2,415,820	0.006223	15,034.76	4,080,467.36
67	665,534	2,512,452	0.005762	14,477.92	4,094,945.28
68	692,156	2,612,950	0.005336	13,941.70	4,108,886.98
69	719,842	2,717,468	0.00494	13,425.34	4,122,312.33
70	748,635	2,826,167	0.004574	12,928.11	4,135,240.43
71	778,581	2,939,214	0.004236	12,449.29	4,147,689.72
72	809,724	3,056,782	0.003922	11,988.20	4,159,677.93
73	842,113	3,179,054	0.003631	11,544.20	4,171,222.12
74	875,798	3,306,216	0.003362	11,116.63	4,182,338.76
75	910,830	3,438,464	0.003113	10,704.91	4,193,043.66
76	947,263	3,576,003	0.002883	10,308.43	4,203,352.09
77	985,153	3,719,043	0.002669	9,926.63	4,213,278.73
78	1,024,559	3,867,805	0.002471	9,558.98	4,222,837.71
79	1,065,542	4,022,517	0.002288	9,204.95	4,232,042.65
80	1,108,163	4,183,418	0.002119	8,864.02	4,240,906.68
81	1,152,490	4,350,754	0.001962	8,535.72	4,249,442.40
82	1,198,590	4,524,785	0.001817	8,219.59	4,257,661.99
83	1,246,533	4,705,776	0.001682	7,915.16	4,265,577.14
84	1,296,394	4,894,007	0.001557	7,622.00	4,273,199.15
85	1,348,250	5,089,767	0.001442	7,339.71	4,280,538.85
86	1,402,180	5,293,358	0.001335	7,067.87	4,287,606.72
87	1,458,267	5,505,092	0.001236	6,806.09	4,294,412.81
88	1,516,598	5,725,296	0.001145	6,554.02	4,300,966.83
89	1,577,262	5,954,308	0.00106	6,311.27	4,307,278.10
90	1,640,353	6,192,480	0.000981	6,077.52	4,313,355.63
91	1,705,967	6,440,179	0.000909	5,852.43	4,319,208.06
92	1,774,205	6,697,787	0.000841	5,635.67	4,324,843.73
93	1,845,174	6,965,698	0.000779	5,426.94	4,330,270.67
94	1,918,980	7,244,326	0.000721	5,225.95	4,335,496.62
95	1,995,740	7,534,099	0.000668	5,032.39	4,340,529.01
96	2,075,569	7,835,463	0.000618	4,846.01	4,345,375.02
97	2,158,592	8,148,882	0.000573	4,666.53	4,350,041.55
98	2,244,936	8,474,837	0.00053	4,493.69	4,354,535.24
99	2,334,733	8,813,830	0.000491	4,327.26	4,358,862.50
100	2,428,123	9,166,384	0.000455	4,166.99	4,363,029.49

This model assumes some level of tuition growth each year (50k doesn't do it for a full rise these days at a tier one institution.). Foundations are required to distribute 3% (or maybe 5%) of assets each year to, so if a student pool in any give year didn't "cost" 3-5% of assets, the foundation would have to find some other way to give the cash away (maybe some form of one-time grant).  

Typically foundations have indefinite lives. Although Coach Robert Siena may set up a fund while he is alive, the general idea is that the scholarship program, in his care, would continue indefinitely. So, we don’t want to limit our thought process to only a ten year horizon. 

If we assume $50K as an average starting tuition that grows at 4%/year and a portfolio return of 8%, we can sustain a foundation on $4.4 million for 100 years (assuming 4 years of school for each recipient). See the "PV SUM" column for the amount you are looking for based on the life of the foundation (100 years used as a proxy for an indefinite life).  

**The model (attached) is very sensitive to portfolio return input, base tuition rate, and expense growth.

Note:  The $4.4MM referenced assumes NO additional contributions to the fund throughout the life of the foundation.  Essentially it would be a lump sum at the start of the foundation that could, by itself, sustain the initiative for 100 years.  The sum would be significantly less if there was ongoing funding through the years...at the awards ceremony (if there were such events), donors would likely make contributions.

Jan, in hindsight was impressed that the projections and the plan was supported by the coach with timely funding. Her not for profit experience and connections were a valuable asset to the coach's dream. It added value to Alan Edgewater too. AE was grateful that the fund was so well managed with only a minimal amount of effort required of him