December 2016 – James' Blog

There this beautiful button in the top right corner of this WordPress publishing site. It says, “Write”. It’s a command. It’s an opportunity. I take it.

After writing The Barrel I finished reading Austin Kleon‘s “Show Your Work“. What a wicked book. Today I started pre-reading my course materials for the altMBA in January 2017 (#altMBA8 whoot whoot!) and started with Austin’s “Steal Like an Artist“. It made sense. It’s odd how the universe works sometimes, I talk about stealing from Austin, then read his awesome book which basically says “steal this”. In case you’re wondering I’m telling you that I’m psychic.

I’m working at using my newfound psychic powers to locate as many tribemates (struggling to find a suitable term for future classmates of the altMBA) prior to the course start. It’s not that I have time to kill, quite the opposite actually. I intuit that the longer and deeper we’re connected the better our work will be. Judging by the people I’ve soft stalked so far, some right to the back end of their websites (sorry, Margo @ thatseemsimportant.com and Mario @ IdeaMensch.com), there are going to be A LOT of peak performers in the group.

I have clicked every clickable link on the altMBA website and still have no idea what kind of projects we’ll be working on. All I know is that it promises to be:
1. Hard
2. Awesome
3. Work

I’ve mentioned once or twice that I’m good at work. Now, this isn’t bragging. I consider it the opposite, since I’d love to brag about being able to drain NBA-style 3 pointers all day without trying. That just doesn’t happen for me, I came to terms with failing to make the NBA about 19 years ago. The altMBA looks to be a perfect fit for me since it appears that all you need to survive (there is no pass or fail, you only live through it or you don’t) is the ability to do vast amounts of face melting work. Game on.

I’m going to link this post out to the altMBA and share the heck out of it on Twitter looking for other #altMBA8 tribemates. This might not work, but I’m going to have fun doing it. If you’re in the tribe, hit me up on Twitter @JamesFlawith or email at james@lilworkersafety.ca and get this party started and answer me this:

Why did you apply for the altMBA?*

*I stole this question from Margo Aaron who has an AWESOME website, check it out!

~James

So many people have started here. Great people. Famous people. Unknown people. This blank page, this blank screen. Nothing separates us. Sure, we have our differences, but here, at the beginning, we are all equal. We are all staring down the same barrel into ourselves. It’s inspiring. It’s terrifying.

How do you know you’re not a writer if you don’t try to write?

Why this isn’t scary. It’s not scary because you can’t screw up. Go ahead, try. If fear of failure is stopping you, write about your fear of failure. Use it. If lack of “original” ideas blocks you, write about the ideas you’re ripping off. Here I am, stealing from Austin Kleon right now.

Think about this. How many unknown writers do you know of? What is the risk?

I will tell you the truth. There is another fear. Fear of success. Fear of being held accountable and responsible. If you don’t write you’ll never have to defend something you’ve written. If you don’t succeed there will be no pressure to level up and do more, do better. If you choose this path, you are hiding. Hiding is not an option.

In order to succeed you must believe that you can succeed and, more importantly, that you deserve to succeed. Don’t we all deserve to succeed? What’s stopping you? Write them down right now, those things that are stopping you. Done? Now, kill them. Take your pen and scratch them out. Done. Nothing stops you.

Maybe you don’t have a story. “What do I write, I can’t think of a story?” you say. Then don’t write a story. Document what you’re doing. It’s as easy as that. You do things, you live your life, you have some skill of some kind. Write it down. Instruct, teach someone else how to do that thing you’re good at.

I’m learning how to write. I am also learning how to teach people. My goal is to contribute to society at scale. What contributions would I like to make? I want to eliminate mindless, unnecessary work. I want to inspire people to become self-aware, to stop working for a wage and start working for themselves. I want to teach people. I want people to believe in themselves.

What do you want?