My Application for Seth's Business School Extravaganza

If you thought Donald Trump's "Apprentice" was a dream opportunity, here's one that trumps it: http://www.squidoo.com/alternative-mba

Seth writes (in part):

Six intense months working with a few other amazing people (and me.)

There are plenty of reasons to get an MBA, especially in a down economy. I'm not sure exactly what they are, though. A typical MBA might take two years out of your life and cost you more than $150,000 in tuition and opportunity cost.

On this page, I'd like to invite you to consider (and apply for) something very different.

First, I'll describe what's in it for you, then I'll explain how to apply. Please read all the instructions before hitting the send button. Thanks for checking this out. Please don't hesitate to forward this page to someone who might enjoy it.

If you're stuck in a dead end job in publishing, or if you made a not-so-great choice in getting your career started, or if you thought Wall Street would be a different place, or if you just got laid off, or if you're not crazy about fretting away the next six months waiting to get fired and you're not quite ready to start your own gig... this might be the turbolift you were hoping for. Yes, it's free.

It's a chance to get off that track and onto a new track, faster and cheaper than most of the alternatives. And it might even be fun.

[The rest of Seth's page has various details about the program, so I don't have to answer the same questions again and again. It also has a bit of encouragement to it, since I realize it's a very big deal for you to drop everything to do this. It's also a big deal on my end, so hopefully it'll all work out.]

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Amazing right? Have you got what it takes? If you do, create your own lens, answer the same questions I'm answering here, and then cross your fingers and hope you get a call - while still doing whatever remarkable thing you're already doing. That's it. Go for it! I am!! And good luck! It could change your life!

Of course blogging about this opportunity (www.thecorporategarage.wordpress.com) is one way I'm getting the word about business school with Seth out, but by getting my application in early and in fast - I'm giving squidoo readers a headstart on creating their own application!

After quitting my job as a photojournalist with a major media company I launched myself into freelance writing with elance.com last summer. I have a 100% satisfaction rating there and it pays the bills. I'm also putting together a business plan I'm actually implementing as I go - working on projects for the Small Business Development Center here in Danville, VA. I am the webmaster, photographer and writer-in residence for SIPS of America,[www.sipsofamerica.com] the latest project of Jimmy Farlow and his wife, Sandra Giles. Jimmy is a serial entrepreneur, his wife is a retired IRS investigator.

I don't keep regular hours. I work for myself. I'm always pleased month-to-month when I manage to keep the power on and the rent paid, but I'm planning for more than that by putting together a "Road Tour," sponsored by businesses and the SBDC. The "tour" will highlight the efforts of small businesses, teach the "tribe" concept, and encourage and support small business connection through social media groups.

I do what I do because I value three things in life:

(1) Helping others
(2) My freedom
(3) Doing what's right

Working for dinosaurs and the status quo has never satisfied me. Working for myself does. Working to combine all three things above really does.

I'm primarily self-taught. It's been fun, but there are huge gaps in my education. I want to learn:
(1) How to give kick-ass presentations
(2) How to work within a corporate environment without succumbing to a corporate attitude
(3) How to present myself well personally and professionally
(4) How to write a business plan
(5) How to effectively and efficiently manage a project from start to finish
(6) How to give good direction
(7) How to lead consistently and well
(8) How to prioritize time, projects, people
(9) How to make money and lots of it so I can invest in the things, projects and people I want to support
(10) How to get good sponsors (ie. supportive both financially and goal-wise)
(11) How to really create a great video
(12) How to be more multi-media oriented
(13) How to move people to action

Road Trip. I'm currently working with the Virginia Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to create five social media groups for five economic regions in the state. I'm also in the process (this week) of partnering with VECTECH to establish an outreach plan for going into rural areas and teaching small business owners how to use the internet to connect with other businesses, with customers, with their "tribe" and with their community to grow their business and their connections.

My mission - to teach those with little or no internet experience, to learn how to use social media, the internet and blogging and vlogging to create opportunities for themselves, their community and their region.

I'll be traveling in an RV (Sponsors - I'm still looking for one!) into rural areas in Virginia, videotaping and writing about small business owners around VA and later, the country. I'll post those videos to social media sites where other small businesses can learn, be inspired and connect with them as well.

In Knoxille, Tn historic homes were in big demand in the 4th and Gill Neighborhoods. Many of the century old victorian homes were run-down, worth only $50,000 of their $200,000 potential. A lot of citizens saw that potential and bought the homes, investing time, money and resources to restore them.

But many of the owners, the elderly who had grown up in the homes and wanted to die in them, chose not to restore them. Local judges and housing inspectors took advantage of this, buying and selling them to each other and other attorneys without the homeowner's knowledge or consent, then condemning the homes and forcing the homeowner out - thus, effectively and apparently legally exercising the right to eminent domain to benefit.

Taking it to court was useless - the judges themselves were involved. They ruled in their own favor. Or they did until I wrote a series of newspaper articles in 2003 and 2004 condemning the practice and exposing how they had cheated a former NASA rocket scientist, then suffering from dementia, (and now deceased) out of his childhood home.

A state senator picked up the story and instituted a bill - making such cases jury cases in order to give homeowners a chance to fight off corrupt judges who condemned the homes and sold them before the cases ever went to court.

The bill passed, but was later vetoed since the corruption extended up into government - and I had moved to another state to work for a larger paper and wasn't there to champion the thing I'd sparked. Did it change the world? For a bit.

I exposed green mailing environmentalists in Washington State (so-called environmentalists who threatened to sue corporations if they weren't paid off to stay out of court).

So, I've made some toe-holds, but nothing like what I'm planning with the Road Trip...because I'll be empowering OTHER people to change the world too. One person can't do it alone unless they bring their tribe with them, find a tribe, or create one.

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In 2001 in a little town called Goldendale, WA I was the editor of a small town newspaper. I stood up to the publisher, who wanted to back down to appease environmentalists who threatened to sue the paper over a story I ran that exposed their green mailing (black mail to get money by threatening to sue to delay construction by large corporations. Typically a "settlement" to a private, non-profit set up and administered for the environmentalist - in this case, the funds paid for the environmentalist's kids to attend college). I wouldn't back down - short story, he fired me. The townspeople were angered and got together and collected five pickup trucks full of stuff and held a yard-sale and raised $250 in a town with a population of LESS THAN 4,000 people. They gave me the money which I used to pay the rent on the first month's rent of my new newspaper office. I left my apartment, moved into the two-room half-bathroom office, showered in the state park near Maryhill, about 20 miles away. I wrote, photographed, laid out and picked up the paper two hours away every week in Portland, OR and delivered it to 32 retail locations in two states. In six months the circulation was 1,500 - in a town with two other newspapers I was only a few hundred papers shy of matching their circulation. I traded ads for food at the diner next door - doubling and tripling their customer traffic. My paper became the first paper in the state of Washington to become a legal paper of record in 20 years.

Why the popularity? Because I didn't mince words. I wrote the truth and covered both sides of the story and feared no advertiser. There were times I had the paper laid out and ready to go - but didn't have the $200 to have it printed...and someone would show up at midnight and hand me a check or cash so the paper would go out. It was the most amazing time of my life.

I learned then that when people believe in something or someone they WILL support it. If I had missed even one week of publication I could not have made it a paper of legal record.

It was hard. I slept on a couch in the office and would get up at all hours to write and do the layout. I never had a day off. I got pneumonia and almost died - then decided to sell the paper so it didn't kill me. The new owners totally changed the format, the tone and the voice and went under two years later. But what a learning experience! I learned (even though I didn't know the term tribe at the time) that people who are passionate about the same thing you are, will find you and support you if you're supporting them.

The name of the paper? The Klickitat County Monitor. Google it. You can go to www.ravenscreek.smugmug.com to see back issues. Check out my portfolio section there.

Yeah...I do dips pretty well!!! And I have definitely made a change in the world...or at least in several states....

From March 2006 until about July 2007, I lived in a 1975 Chevy Van in Denver, Colorado with my Rottweiler and my cat. I worked full-time, as a temp, a freelance photographer and a writer. During that time I managed to write an award winning (Society of Professional Journalists) series of stories about the death of small town soldier, the return of his body and his funeral.

The Dip wasn't living in the van. It was fighting the perceptions and obstacles people put up because I was living in the van. Overcoming the perception that "being homeless" means "being incompetent, crazy, worthless or useless" was the dip. I entered an online contest while "vandwelling" and won a laptop, a cellphone and some other items that I used to get out of the van and into another job.

In 2001, after being fired from a newspaper job, I started my own newspaper - right across the street from the paper that fired me. I did all the writing, layout, photography and even delivery myself. The dip? Financial, living (I lived in a two room office with a bathroom, but showered at a campground 20 minutes away. I bartered ads for food, talked 30+ merchants into stocking my newspaper and battled threats from ELF (Earth Liberation Front), and others to turn the paper into the first new paper of legal record in the state in 20 years, the first in 40 years to start with less than $1 million in funding. I started it with $250 raised in a yard sale by the town's residents. Not bad.

I have dozens of similar examples...but not enough room to cover them.

I lived in a van. I traveled. I dared to explore my greatest fear - being homeless, by becoming homeless.

I was selected out of 60,000 entries to become the inspiration for a chapter in Tim Russert's book, "Wisdom of Our Fathers, Letters from Sons and Daughters."

I dared to follow my dreams. I dared to fail. I failed. I got back up. I failed. I got back up. Rinse and repeat 100 times. I kept dreaming. Kept doing. Kept risking. Kept throwing myself headfirst into life.

I took more chances. I got to know myself better. I laughed. I ate meals with strangers. I cooked for friends. I loved. I hated. I cried. I aspired to greater things. I joined Triiibes.com.

I lived. I didn't just talk about it, think about it or plan it. I did it. And that in itself is pretty astonishing.

I wish money, the coming up with living expenses, giving up my apartment and finding a way to finance this opportunity wasn't an issue in this opportunity; that there was a generous stipend that would allow me to participate without struggling and being consumed with financial fears if selected to participate.

I had lunch with a homeless man last spring. My treat. I could only afford all you can eat Taco Bell because I slipped my last $20 before pay-day into his pocket for groceries after I bought his pain medication. He didn't have any money.

He'd been beaten, robbed, almost killed by teens (gangs) the night before as he was sitting on some stairs smoking a cigarette outside his tiny motel room. He was staying in a motel for a change (rather than on the street) for a week because he'd gotten an insurance payment from worker's comp from his former employer (the result of a lawsuit).

A loyal employee for years, he was about ready to retire when a fork lift accident (not his fault), caused him to fall and strike his head. The resulting head injury rendered him unable to work. It ruined what had been a good marriage and family life until then - his wife told me the head injury caused him to lose control of his temper and simply act out frustration. He'd gone from a good family man to a crying, angry, scared man she didn't know anymore.

So after a life of "doing the right thing," he was now homeless, had an incurable head injury and was unable to find the resources he needed. He was dependent upon the kindness and generosity of strangers. He could never repay me or the people I gathered (Veterans and churches) to help get him into a home and a better situation.

I tell you this because sometimes we shell out money, help and compassion because it's the right thing to do. Sometimes we shell out money, resources and time because the expected return will be greater than if we don't - and that's the right thing to do.

I admire the generosity of your offer for an equal exchange of service for opportunity. But I also challenge it. You are asking some really, really talented people to join you in a really, really fantastic opportunity.

The only thing that will stand in their way (at least some of them) is money. For others, it will mean leaving a job if they have one, or investing what's left of their life savings, if they have it, or giving up more than some of them can afford - family, lifestyle, home, apartment, current opportunities etc. to go to New York. If they go, they are essentially cutting all ties where they are. A risk for sure, but a good one if the long shot pays off and they're asked to remain in NY with you. If it doesn't, in six months they're starting over, or if they had projects, still faced with picking up the pace, albeit with new skills. Either way, it's a risk. You're risking nothing. If the person doesn't work out, you have a signed NDA and a write to work release. Their stuff is in a cardboard box and they're out the door. Life goes on for you as usual once they leave. You invest time, but you spread that risk over how many participants? And at what return?

If you are truly serious about making a difference in the world, sometimes you have to invest more in people, talent, potential and vision than you'll get back personally. I invested in the happiness of a homeless man with little chance of any return other than to his family because of the connections I made with doctors and veterans who were willing to work with him to get him to a better place. We all benefited from that - but not in ways you can see on a spread sheet.

If you'll also provide a stipend or living quarters or something to make this a possibility for those who need it, you'll be the better for it and will attract those who have the creative skills (but not the financial skills) to make your projects a reality.

Because right now the ticket price of the Business school extravaganza is out of reach of those of us who have spent our lives giving, not earning. Those who can afford the opportunity will use the information I'm sure. But those of us who can't, will find our own ways in other arenas, other classrooms - the cost is too high, the return too vague. Yes - it's an incredible opportunity. Packed with potential. But not if half of those who attend are stressed and focused on paying bills and not on your projects. What you'll have are the haves and have nots, resentment from some, depression in others....and always, always the issue of expenses hanging over their heads no matter how thrilled they are to be there.

Maybe that's a lesson you need, maybe it's not. But it's real. And if you don't take it into consideration, I guarantee it will impact your tribe. Thanks for the opportunity. I will succeed whether selected or not. I know that. It may take me longer. It may not. But I'm glad I had the chance to apply, glad I'm still in Triiibes regardless and glad things worked out like they have.