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!

This is a wacky road I have decided to walk. I just realized that—without even thinking—I had marked all my Idea Blueprint Girl content by-nc-sa, instead of by-sa. Not because I didn’t want to share it with money-making entities, but because I’ve gotten so used to the idea that we need to keep things from other people who might make money off our hard work, I didn’t even notice the mistake! On a site meant for the free dissemination of ideas, bruiting the dangers of idea “protection”!

Riot.

I fixed it, of course. If I want people to be able to benefit from my ideas, I don’t want to restrict them to only those who won’t make money from them. As vilified as money gets to be, it’s important to remember that in its purest sense it’s just energy—an exchange of value between individuals and entities. The most balanced way to be able to create value for other people is to be able to receive some kind of value in return. Money isn’t the only way to do that, but it’s the most prevalent way and probably the most logical way, at least for the moment. (Maybe. Accepting challenges on this point.)

The “non-commercial” part of that license is the hard part of the leap for most people, myself included. If I’m not the only person who can make money off my idea, who’s stopping someone else from taking all my business? That thing should be me, not a law. I should be able to ensure my own success by putting forth effort, being quick on my feet, and making the best thing I can possibly make. If my thing is better than someone else’s thing (for my people, that is), if I am clever enough to make something people really want, I’ll be okay.

It’s like natural selection, right? If I am faster than the bear, I don’t have to be lunch. ;}