On this day one year ago, Triiibes.com opened its doors to its first influx of members. It boggles my mind that it’s been a whole year, and I honestly don’t know where all that time went.

Oh, wait. Maybe I do.

There was the Tribes Casebook. And then, almost by coincidence, The Usual Error—because all of us working on it were Triiibes members. I don’t know how the Tribes Q&A ebook happened, but I know that it did and that it was amazing. And Seth’s !MBA (of which I’ve recently had vivid dreams and recollections), where I found out just how tightly we were all connected—and hopped a last minute flight to New York to sleep on my sister’s keyboardist’s parents’ floor for the best group interview of my life thus far. ;}

There was Bob Poole’s book launch, Listen First – Sell Later, a project I would never have been involved in if it weren’t for the Triiibe and the Alternative MBA. (Apparently I’m an editor now!) There was Becky’s bid to Stay Hungry for the Johnny Bunko Lesson Seven prize, where Marty and I worked our asses off for a few days at the last minute just because we could—and Becky won. (And then she went to TED —the prize—and was asked to speak. It was mindblowing!)

Dozens of projects and collaborations and new friends later, there’s That Idea Blueprint Girl.

Triiibes is the reason I met almost all of the most influential and brilliant people who are in my life right now. Triiibes took my spot of ambition and turned it into a taste for impossible successes that’s only growing over time. Maybe I would have done all of this without the Triiibe. Bob said, Sure, you would have found another way. But I can’t imagine it. I can’t imagine that scenario where these people aren’t in my life.

I’m really madly in love with you all.

Julie’s post ~ Melvin’s post
The whole list of Triiibes Anniversary posts!

More amazing Triiibes Anniversary posts and videos:

• More Triiibes Anniversary videos on Bernd’s blog—wonderful!
• Bob Poole’s awesome Triiibes Anniversary post (I’m in it, too!)
• Paul Durban’s Triiibes Anniversary post, When Opportunity Knocks
• Marcos Gaser’s Triiibes Anniversary post, Triiibes.com
• Michael Vanderdonk’s Triiibes Anniversary post, Who’s On Your Side?
• Tom Bentley’s Triiibes Anniversary page!

I read last week on Boing Boing about Javanese batikers who aren’t interested in copyrighting their work. What? They don’t want exclusive protection for their intellectual property? Whyever would someone do that?

I think I have some idea.

Traditional copyright often seems to be all about money these days. It might be about other things, too—but wow, it is sometimes hard to see anything else through the fog of money. I think money is awesome, personally. But it is not a substitute for real life, or living in the world. It’s not a substitute for the exchange of energy that occurs when someone makes something beautiful or helps someone else solve a problem. It’s not a substitute for human connection or meaningful work.

Besides the fact that you can make money doing what you love without necessarily having to protect it with exclusive copyright (which I believe, unequivocally), there’s a separate point here about doing what you love because you love it—not for the rewards, which can be wonderful, but for the experience, which is beyond price.

You can line this up with any number of specific explanations of why you do what you do. The batikers call it gratitude for God’s work. Burners call it radical self-expression. Tolle calls it being in the Now. If you like cliches, you know that it’s all about enjoying the journey, rather than aching for the destination.

It’s why many coaches and gurus ask this question: If you didn’t need the money, what work would you do?

That’s because the work isn’t about the money, and can’t be about the money if you’re going to succeed. We talked about it in the Tribes Q&A ebook, too:

Selling goods (such as concert tickets, albums, or T-shirts) is NOT what makes you a living. Connecting people and giving them a place in the world IS. There is a huge difference between focusing on one and focusing on the other. Making a living—making money—is only a pleasant side effect of doing this right. But it is a side effect that happens all the time.

We do what we do because we want to make a difference. We want to be happy; we want to make someone else happy. We want to create something from nothing. We want to have quality and meaning in our lives. It’s not about how much we can manage to get paid to do it. It’s about making sure that we can do it.

That’s the only reason money enters into the equation. It’s an exchange of energy and value, that’s all.

Oh yeah, and one other thing…

I decided that for the foreseeable future all Idea Blueprint Girl consulting calls scheduled on Fridays will only cost half of what they normally do. I want to make sure that someone who wants to work with me doesn’t have to reject the idea out of hand because of the cost—and this will help. If you can’t afford my rates, that’s your day. (I might change the day later—but for now, it’s Fridays.)

I’ll schedule as many calls as I can on those days without completely exhausting myself, so if that thrills the bejeezus out of you, grab a slot.

So what if you have no money?

That’s okay too. Tomorrow morning I’m going to open the first Idea Free-For-All thread at That Idea Blueprint Girl, and it will stay open all day. Once it’s up, you’ll be able to find it on this page. If you have projects to cook up and problems to solve and want to do some ideastorming, stop by and share your questions—we’ll find solutions for you.

See? No exclusive copyright, no exchange of cash. Works just fine!