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Unexpected Lessons in Self ConfidenceFebruary, 2003 What started out as a request to make a few fundraising phone calls turned into a massive personal, professional, and logistical challenge for this '96 graduate.BY KATHLEEN O'TOOLE
SETTING OUT TO GIVE THE WORLD a different view of Africa, she wound up getting a different view of herself. So says Ariane de Bonvoisin, the senior advisor for the coffee-table book A Day in the Life of Africa, which was released to much fanfare in October. The 14th book in the “Day in the Life” series, this is the first for a charitable cause—AIDS education in Africa—and thanks to de Bonvoisin, also the first to feature a CD with photos and music, a world-traveling photo exhibit, and a documentary to tell how all were made. Working without pay and living frugally in Manhattan on her savings and unemployment checks, the 1996 MBA graduate raised millions of dollars to finance the project, which involved airlifting 95 photojournalists across the breadth and width of Africa for a day of shooting on Feb. 28, 2001. It also involved seeking endorsements from United Nations and African leaders and finding sponsors to donate digital cameras, computers, and other equipment. Donations also finance the traveling exhibit that held its grand opening in New York’s Grand Central Station last fall. For de Bonvoisin, it all began at a lunch where she volunteered to make a few calls to potential sponsors. “I had just left AOL Time Warner and thought I could use the skills I learned there and at Sony, where I was on the other side of the desk, with people asking me to get the corporation to invest in their startups.” Later, because of her business training, she realized the “Day in the Life” brand could be extended to other products—an insight that launched her into a year’s worth of volunteer activities. Logistically, she says, one of her important challenges was making sure all the sponsors were kept involved. “I know from experience that people in large corporations complain that once they write the check, they never hear from us again.” The experience has spoiled her for large corporate jobs in the near future, however. “I had self-confidence before, but it wasn’t the same as the belief I have in myself now,” de Bonvoisin said one day last autumn, as Oprah Winfrey’s producers were tracking her down for a look at the documentary, and the book had landed on the bestseller list of Barnes & Noble.com. “I knew that as Ariane from Sony or Ariane from AOL Time Warner I could get the World Bank to call me back. I didn’t know I could do that when I was Ariane calling from my home office.” That is not to say she did not get plenty of rejections, but “because of them, I’m a lot less vulnerable to other people’s opinions,” she says. “Yes, there are a lot of reasons why putting 100 photographers in Africa on a single day should not work, but it did.” So, what is her encore? “I’ve hired a wonderful agent and am pursing my own publishing idea,” she says, not volunteering to reveal details quite yet. Check out the ’96 class notes in about a year. |
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Photos from the book, A Day in the Life of Africa
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Unexpected
Lessons in Self Confidence
