Alternative MBA Application Party: NOTES!

It’s funny—writing these posts feels a lot like talking to myself. Not because I have a small readership (a small, HIGH-QUALITY readership, thank you) but because this serves a weird set of concentric purposes for me: I can work through questions and confusions I didn’t know I had, I can draw inspiration from talking to myself (always a plus), and I can help people who might be going through the same emotions and discoveries and processes. (Not to mention that any comments I happen to get will provide even more insight—bonus.)

You know the thing where you’re having trouble seeing something for yourself, but you help someone else with the same problem and suddenly it’s crystal clear? That’s what’s going on with me. So regardless of whether anyone gets anything out of this—me going on and on as if I know what I’m talking about, which I assure you I DON’T—it’s hugely benefiting me, and my process, and probably my application too.

…Which is awesome.

So… here we go!

The first thing I did was use the flood of initial motivation that I felt when I read through the Alternative MBA lens. I actually got a late start, but the one thing I did right was this: Once I had made my decision, and recognized that motivation, I acted. I knew that if I waited too long, I wouldn’t be in the zone anymore. Venture forth!

I focused on Seth’s questions… And started scribbling.

I knew I wanted to take a multimedia approach if I could. The more media, the more time, but I felt (and still feel) that images and video are going to represent me better than text by itself… and they’d be more exciting for me to look at, in the end, which is sometimes a great reason all by itself. ;}

I grabbed the nearest paper (fresh printer paper, and backs of other things) and emptied out my brain. I wanted to be completely authentic, and I didn’t want to forget anything. Here’s what I scribbled:

• Give yourself some time. Walk way from it and do something else, then come back and fill in the bits you remembered. Give your brain a break—don’t just push constantly if something’s not working. Do some Shiva Nataor yoga and get a glass of water and see what your unconscious comes up with when you’re not looking.
• Just be real. Don’t spend a lot of energy trying to figure out what you’re supposed to say. Reach down deep inside yourself and find out what you really want. (If you find out you don’t want THIS, that’s okay. If you find out you do… BONUS!)
• If you’re having trouble seeing yourself clearly, think about other people in your life who have complimented you, or reacted to you in some way. I bet you have some kind words stored up for a rainy day, and they might serve to remind you how awesome you are when you’re having trouble getting it. Sometimes we see ourselves through fuzzy lenses that don’t look so good. Find a way to see yourself clearly. You might be pleasantly surprised by what shows up.

My next step is to start typing out a working document based on my notes, so that I can easily tweak and move text around. And then I think I’m going to start DRAWING —because so far, that’s part of my plan. ;}

Thank you for doing this with me! It’s like an !MBA application party. For which I’d totally make raw zucchini-lasagna. (Dude, all this typing makes me hungry…)

Tagged as: Alternative MBA, applications, business, business school, MBA, meganpreneurship, Seth Godin, triiibes