I asked this question on Triiibes and at Social Work prn. Bob and I talked about it, too. I even asked on Vloggerheads. Now I’m going to ask it here.

What do you need?

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!

You guessed it—my first post since I was nearly killed by a little sinus bug from New York. It was huge! They live in the sewers there, you know. Like. Giant… Alligators.

A lot of things have happened in December. I was wrapped up in one of them—the race for Seth’s Alternate MBA—nearly all month (whew!). But several other notable projects have been going on at the same time, and one of them is the awesome Triiibes Blog Project. A particularly dedicated portion of the Triiibe hijacked Ed Welch’s Tribe Building blog (with his generous permission) and the posts that have been going up for the last few weeks are short, to the point, and super insightful. If you are on the tribe-buildin’ bus—especially if you enjoyed the Tribes Casebook and the Tribes Q&A—I suggest taking a look at these.

Here’s the fantastic, still partial index. (Hint: My post with Marty just went up today.)

The Triiibes Blog Project (Pace Smith)
What You Don’t Know… (Becky Blanton)
Tribes: We Have Better Food ™ (Tom Bentley)
What’s Your Tribe’s WHY? (Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian)
Brown lawn lands man in jail (Jodi Kaplan)
Raising Hell (Bette Miles-Holleman)
Help your tribe flaunt their tribeness: Create the t-shirt (Michael Donk)
Tight Tribes Are Made of This (Tom Bentley)
What is a comfortable size for a tribe? (CoCreatr Bernd Nurnberger)
A Crash Course In Tribe Building (Marcos Gaser)
Tribal Connections: Making them Stronger (Ed Welch)
Egg your Tribe (Michael Donk)
Thinking Outside the Tribe (Betsy Wuebker)
The Down Side of Tribes (Stephen Martell)
How long does it take to form a tribe? (Judy Vorfeld)
How long does it take to destroy a tribe? (Jodi Kaplan)
Ants: The Oldest Tribe on Earth (Bonnie Larner)
Doing the New Archimedes (Megan Elizabeth Morris & Martin Whitmore)
Sine Tribu (Jean-Philippe)
How To Be A Leader (Pace Smith)

There will probably be a few more before December is over, so keep an eye out! [Edit: That’s a wrap! Thank you Triiibes Blog Projecteers!] You can get more of Ed Welch’s Tribe Building blog by subscribing to the Tribe Building feed. (It’s a great blog—even without the rest of us!)

I’m done with my planes for the day, and the word is in: I’m free for brilliant things in the next six months! (In unambiguous terms, no, I didn’t get chosen for the !MBA. And that’s completely okay.)

We made a huge effort (and it did not go unnoticed). I am so, so grateful to all of you. I had no idea we would get as far as we did, and I’m proud of myself too. I was a real warrior the last few weeks, I don’t mind saying! And I’m really touched that there was such an outpouring of enthusiasm about the possibility of me going—so much that I actually DID the whole fund raising thing, mixed feelings or no. It’s hard to ignore that many vehement emails. When I look back and consider that, it is a teeny bit astonishing and mind-bendingly awesome.

If you offered me your support—pledges, donations, anything—you’ll be hearing from me pretty soon. We have some things to iron out! After that, it’s time to start thinking about what happens next, and to top this it’s going to need to be pretty damn awesome. (I’m not worried.)

Thank you, guys. You propelled me through an incredibly intense period of self-discovery, and I won’t forget it.

[Update: Brendan Mitchell said something that made me realize… my title would be a great intentional pun if I had gotten in! My brain sure is doing funny loop-the-loops—sorry if that confused anyone. I didn’t even notice it before. What a riot!]

I have had the most insanely amazing day, I can’t even process it properly—at least until I get a nap, or some food. New York is amazing, the people here are amazing, people on the street will smile back if you smile first, just TRY it!

I am quite behind on the blogging I meant to do, so I’ll put this out there: If there’s something you were looking forward to hearing me yammer about, poke me about it and I’ll make sure it gets up sometime soon.

I can’t tell you much about the !MBA meet at Seth’s office… but I’ll tell you this. That was more awesome people than I’ve seen stuffed into one room in… a really long time. Possibly ever. (I’m thinking. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything that comes close.)

I can also tell you that I have a very limited amount of time to come up with the remaining pre-paid work that would allow me to go. And that my brain is so fried after today that I’m having trouble figuring out how to move forward, tight deadlines and all. So I’m going to list what I know, and you can tell me what you think.

* I am in fact happy to accept work in smaller chunks. I’m even happy to accept pledges of monthly installments (especially if I can do work for you when I get back in August), so let me know what you WANT to do and we’ll find a way to make it work. (I hit $8000 in the last few hours—that’s more than a third of what I need!) This may not have been clear from my original copy, for which I’m saying Der! and redrafting.

• I’m pretty sure I need a mailing list. Email me if you want to be on it—I’ll use it for quick updates on my situation and last-minute requests for advice or assistance. (I still love you a LOT even if you don’t want to be on this list.)
• Advice for Megans: I may send out a few emails to help me clear my head. If you feel like helping me clear my head, feel free to email me first. ;}

Growing is uncomfortable. I am uncomfortable! But how could I possibly trade this experience? Uncle Henry’s Empire State Building, the amazing cityscape view from my aunt’s apartment, half-second connections with happy people on sidewalks, friendly construction workers, brilliant vegan restaurants, that great crowd of sharp minds this morning, and then I walked out of Grand Central Station and it was snowing, all those buildings and the sky and the people and the vibration of this crazy fantastic place, what a thing someone built by coming here and deciding it should be something! What a great brilliant beast this city is.

Holy. Cow. Guys.

Time to regroup, and get my brain back. Here goes…

I’ve been thinking a lot about this.

I don’t like “fund raising”. I don’t like asking for something without giving something—or more—in return. (As you might have gathered.) I don’t like the obnoxious overtones it often takes on—even when obnoxious overtones are being specifically avoided!) and I don’t like what it does to people. It sometimes disconnects them, gives them guilt, and it’s hard to steer clear of those things even with the best of intentions. Maybe someday I’ll have perfected the formula, but that day is a long time coming.

The positive side of it is the part that trips me up. (It’s easy to stop doing something with no upside.) I’m pretty thoroughly certain that I can do great things for great people, if I can just find the people who want the opportunity. Second-guessing the urge to fund raise—and no, I haven’t thought of a better term for it, but please feel free to suggest—means not only closing a door for me, but closing windows for potentially dozens of other people. People who could use those windows.

It’s just that I’m not willing to go too far to find those people. I’m not willing to engage in tactics that would alienate half my audience and guilt the rest into putting a dollar in the pot. It’s just not worth the ugh feeling, all around.

This may mean that I’ll have to create another opportunity elsewhere and make this my big trip to New York, but I won’t budge on it. It’s too important. So the question is… what do I need to do to go as far as I can, responsibly, consciously? And maybe succeed?

That’s a damn good question.

Most of you know already that I got my application in, and was invited to the open office session + interview in New York on December 16th. I thence purchased a last-minute plane ticket (for what is probably an absurdly reasonable price) and I am at this very moment sitting in the Austin airport.

G’ness!

The part of my brain that identifies “normal” situations, feelings, and experiences… has shut down. If it was awake, it would be shrieking about how I’m supposed to be home watching TV or making myself a smoothie. I don’t think it can handle me hopping off to New York on (quite a bit) less than two week’s notice, so I’m going to let it sleep. (I’m probably better off, come to think of it…)

My intent was to do a lot more blogging through the end of my application process—but as you might guess, I found myself seriously crunched for time. I’m not going to stop here, and maybe I can be of use in other ways as I go. Tiara was poking me for more fund raising information so I think I’ll yammer about that while I push to raise !MBA attendee funds. I haz a plan. ;}

For the moment, though, I’m waiting to board to Houston and trying to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything important. If you’re waiting for an email from me, you are awesomely patient and I adore you. I have a huge lot of messages in my mailbox, so I’ll be making time this week to plow through them and make them manageable. (If you need to send me a reminder, I certainly won’t be offended!)

And finally, if you fell off your chair when you found out that I got an interview, and you want to pre-book my time—which will be necessary if I’m going to say “yes” when Seth asks me to join them in January—go on and read all the details right here. ;}

I’ll see y’all when I land. Here we go!

My application is just about finished (it’s here, if anyone would like to go through it and help me look for typos while I continue finishing up—ha!), and I’m moving fast! Here’s a run-down of all the stuff I’ve gone through, in case it comes in handy:

• I used highlighters to turn a print-out of Seth’s !MBA lens into a checklist. I took notes on the conference call (linked near the bottom of the lens) and I’m using that as a checklist, too. I’m not going to turn this thing in until every one of my boxes is checked off!
• I’ve been collecting references like mad. I have a feeling that putting them in the comments on this page was a really great idea, because I can keep them on my site for future endeavors—or look at them when I’m feeling down. (Note to self: Make Happy File for stowing all the nice things people say for cheerin’ up on lame days. GREAT idea.)
• Don’t get discouraged if a plan of action doesn’t work out! I’m seeing a lot of great ideas and a lot of motivated people sort of tapering off, and that’s okay, but remember, YOU have to decide whether to push it forward and make it happen or not. Don’t depend on someone else to do it if you believe it needs to be done! (And don’t take no for an answer if you’re sure in your heart that it’s right.)
• Things have been quiet for the last few days. Don’t let that slow you down—things are not quiet because of you. (I’ve been telling myself this over the last 48 hours.) Don’t second-guess yourself. Ask trusted confidantes for advice and stick to your guns. We can do this!
• I’ve had a lot of trouble actually sitting down to write my application. There’s way more riding on this than the !MBA for me—my ability to see my own awesomeness, to talk about myself without getting embarrassed, to feel proud of my accomplishments instead of afraid that they’re not like everyone else’s. I know I’m not the only one who experiences those feelings. THEY DON’T MATTER. Only what you DO matters, only what you MAKE HAPPEN. Don’t let them stop you. They’re not worth it. You are the one who’s worth it!

So now that I’ve shared all my internal affirmations… ;}

Very soon I’m going to make a few (or more than a few?) posts about my fund raising efforts, what I did, how I did it and what happens next. But first—I’m going to finish this application!

PRELUDE

This application process has been constructed to be 1100% Megan Safe. This means that Megan M. has devised a wiley plan that will allow her to come to New York without any negative effects on her life, relationships, finances, or existing works in progress. She worked hard to come up with this plan, and it’s a great one. It has been certified Super Duper Bonafide Megan M. Approved to create ultra-positive lasting change in the lives of Megan and those around her. She has also determined that it absolutely must — MUST! — be of use to someone other than herself, and has taken steps to make it so. She is quite proud of herself.

Man, things are busy around here!

I determined today that fear, excitement and indigestion all seem to manifest the same physical sensations. Can I take a Tums for unbearable positive anticipation?

In the first eight hours after I posted my fund raising ideas, I tallied up over $4000. Things have been mostly quiet since then, but I’m feeling very grateful to the folks who have offered, no matter what happens in the end. What a rush, to be able to make something happen!

Marty set up something really amazing and is offering almost the same deal I am in order to help me raise money for the possibility of New York. (Yes. If your response is that he’s a huge sweety, you’d be right.) If you need illustration work, hiring him will help me out too—because our finances are one and the same. Anything that helps pay our bills for six months makes a difference, very much including work for Marty. And you’ll get a great deal on insanely awesome illustration work. !MBA or not, Marty is fantastic.

This evening I left recommendations for Becky and Jon because they are truly fabulous (and they asked sweetly!). If anyone else needs one I am happy to provide! (Well, if I worked with you on a project, or know you well enough to say something!) So please don’t hesitate to ask. :}

Speaking of which, I’m collecting references for my application in the comments on this page. Please drop by! :}

More amazing things are in the works. Stay tuned! (That high C is a doozy!)

I’ve been feeling really… vehement lately. Please raise your standards. You might be the pivotal factor that makes everyone else raise their standards, too. And if you’d like to hear more about that, you’ll have to watch the video! (Hint: I wear a very awesome tie, and talk about subject that really means something to me: POTENTIAL.)

Below is an image of how I started my application mind map! Markers make me happy. I made boxes for each of Seth’s questions, and put some mind maps in the boxes. (The boxes are particularly nice because they change the shape of the information I’m working with—that is incredibly brain-helpful. Text as text can get old fast!

Some happy fun marker-using tips:

• HAVE FUN! I’m serious about this part. It’s fun, it’s fun! (Anyway, that stokes your creative energies—and you’ll need ‘em!
• Use as many colors as possible! Don’t use black, don’t use a pencil, and don’t try to do it all in one color of ball-point pen. (Anyway, ball-point pens are seriously low-creativity. BEST IDEA: FINGERPAINTS!!)
• Shameless familial plug: Listen to Daydream on Autopilot while you work. Okay, this might not work for you. But it rocked for me. Their music is pretty freaking motivating. (Careful about that autoplay, though.)
• Highlight things! Highlighting is fun, especially if you have lots of colors. I didn’t highlight a lot of my mind map, but I went through a print-out of the Alternative MBA Squidoo lens and highlighted all the things I wanted to remember, plus added checkboxes so I could run through them before I finish up and make sure nothing got left out.
• Yours can be WAY better than mine. I don’t think mine is all that fantastic, but I’ve had a lot on my plate this week so I’m feeling forgiving. ;} The best mind maps are great organic beasts of information! Think about fractals and vines and tiny flowers, and you’ll have the right idea.
• Don’t use boxes. Yeah, go ahead, laugh. I think boxes are overrated. The shape-changing bit was awesome, but with a little more thought I might have made the whole map organic. Man, that would be cool! Don’t do it the way I did it. :D

That’s all for now!