The Importance of Curiosity

 

 “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
― Albert Einstein

Curiosity just might be the most powerful force in the universe. It's the motivation that's never exhausted. Curiosity is the engine of learning. Curiosity is the driver of innovation and positive change. Great things, amazing things, are routinely accomplished through curiosity. Spark a person's curiosity and you give them the ammunition to conquer the world.

Or something like that.

The science of motivation tells us curiosity is one of the most powerful intrinsic motivators there is. Humans inherently love learning. Our brains are the most complex structure in the known universe for a reason. Curiosity and that love of learning is what drives me to develop this project, and it's no coincidence it's a foundation of our Tribe and our School.

I've long been interested in curiosity. As a public school teacher, I've long understood the sheer value of sparking curiosity in my students. It makes the entire school experience for students infinitely better if they want to be there because they're curious. Grades improve, retention and the ability to apply ideas and concepts gets way better, behavior problems disappear, students become empowered and have the ability to solve real problems, etc.

Unfortunately, it's exceptionally difficult to spark curiosity in a public school setting, at least among every kid. Class sizes are simply too big, we waste too much time preparing for and taking standardized tests, and we have too many required classes and strict curricula. We certainly try; every administrator, teacher, and support staff knows the inherent value of fostering curiosity. The systems, just too big, too impersonal, and too structured. Curiosity requires freedom and maneuverability. Curiosity requires flexibility and the removal of barriers. Our schools can't provide this because we expend all our resources trying to meet totally unrealistic expectations. 

Our School will utilize curiosity as a basic foundation of everything we do, from deciding which classes to offer to deciding who will teach them to exactly what students will learn. In future posts, I'll expand on this idea. But curiosity is also hard-wired into everything we do. Including our Tribe.

“Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.”
― Roy T. Bennett

Our Tribe (and our gym) is filled with genuinely curious people, which includes curiosity about each other. If you eavesdrop on any conversation at our gym, they're never like "so how's the weather" conversations. They're conversations about who were are, what we do, what motivates us to train, or other deeply-inquisitive questioning. It's clearly obvious we have a gym filled with people who listen to understand. 

It's no surprise our gym is filled with people who experience grand adventures; their curiosity towards each other applies to a curiosity about life. And that curiosity about life is what pushes us to experience new, exciting things. It's what allows us to overcome fear and experience real adventure.

It's rare in today's world, and it's one of the things I think makes us a little different. It's why I think we can make a real dent in the universe.

~Jason

***

Changing the World By Starting Local

 

If you spend any time watching Ted Talks, you know there's a whole lotta people out there who have a whole lotta great ideas. Ideas that can literally change the world. The problem, of course, is implementation. Most of the people I've met who care enough to make a real dent in the Universe suffer from the problem of scale. The world is a pretty damn big place. Where do you even start?

It's the classic "how to eat an elephant" conundrum that Tutu dude once talked about. As you stand there looking up at the elephant, the sheer size of the beast is absolutely overwhelming. The only way to approach it is to take one bite at a time. Same deal when I used to run ultramarathons. Running 100 miles is a daunting task. So you break it down into sections, each one a few miles long. As fatigue and abject pain set in at 3am and you're freezing cold and surrounded by darkness, sometimes you break it down to "that stick on the side of the trail eight feet in front of me." You do what you have to do.

When I set out to start this goofy "School run by a Tribe" idea, I had a pretty explicit goal in mind - I wanted to make the world a better place. The venomous divisions created throughout our society troubled me deeply, and I thought I had a pretty good solution. But one dude with a tiny team of passionate idealists, a crappy blog, and zero cash ain't gonna move the needle on the world scale. Or the national scale. Hell, even the state looks pretty daunting right now. 

So I'm starting with our community. That's the goal. Make Montrose, Colorado the best damn place to live on the entire planet. If I can accomplish that, if we can figure out the blueprint for making this place amazing, figuring out what works here, then we can get the momentum to take bigger bites.

~Jason

 

***

The Flawed Martial Arts Model, Part Two: The Solution - Our Tribe and Our School

 

In the first post, I outlined the historical roots of the modern martial arts schools in the United States, and how commercialization has caused a litany of problems. Read that post before diving into this one. In this post, I'll outline how our model solves these problems.

The Brief Summary of Our Model

Our gym offers two programs right now  -Brazilian jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts, which includes an adult program and a kids program. We have about six coaches and somewhere in the ballpark of 25 students. The model we're building will eventually expand beyond martial arts into teaching other classes, such as primitive survival skills (among others), which is how we will expand to generate greater revenue.As such, I will refer to the gym as "The School."

The School, instead of being run by a "Master" as we see in the typical martial arts school model, will be run by our Tribe. The Tribe will replace not only the Master, but also the Master's Disciples. While we haven't actually set up the framework yet, the Tribe itself will likely use a shared ownership model for the School. This diffuses the responsibility of running the School among a group of people, which allows us to leverage individual expertise to tackle the different roles needed to run a successful school. The School won't rely on a single Master acting as a jack-of-ass-trades, which will improve the health of the business. Got a Tribe member who's an exceptional salesperson? They recruit new students. How about a marketing expert? They sell the School to the community. Is there a Tribe member who's a financial geek? They handle the books. And so on.

The real advantage of the Tribe, however, comes from the diffusion of expertise. In the Old Commercial Model, the Master was THE expert. They were expected to know all the "secrets" of the martial art and slowly passed those secrets to their loyal, dedicated disciples. That model doesn't work when the entire operation is commercialized, which I discussed in Part One. The Tribe assumes this role, so expertise no longer resides within one person, but rather the collective. Different Tribe Members have their own areas of expertise, which can then be shared with other Tribe Members and, importantly, the School's paying Students. 

This is kind of like the typical MMA gym is organized, where different coaches teach their different disciplines. Our model differs in that the Tribe is a closely-bonded social group, which will allow for a far more collaborative approach. In essence, the Tribe will have a vested interest in making each other better, thus increasing the sharing of knowledge while simultaneously decreasing the intra-team conflict that can sometimes occur among coaches.

This model creates a clear divide between the Tribe and the Students, where the entire Tribe benefits from the financial success of the School and the Students pay tuition to learn from the School. This clear divide solves the litany of problems with the Old Commercial Model, which monetizes the Master/ Disciple relationship. 

Adopting the University Structure

In our model, the Tribe's collective knowledge is taught to Students in the form of classes offered through the school, but the classes offered would be limited to the knowledge base of the individual Members of the Tribe. This would limit the breadth and depth of classes offered to the collecting knowledge of the Tribe. We solve this limitation by also crating a group that would be analogous to university Professors. 

University professors generally serve two roles within the university setting- they teach classes and they do research to advance their field of expertise. In our School model, our "Professors" would teach any classes that would appeal to members of the Montrose community. If someone knows what they're talking about and there's a market to learn those skills, we provide the space to bring those "Professors" and Students together. Initially, we'll probably focus on primitive survival skills because they're in demand, we have people who can teach them, and they're tangentially-related to martial arts. 

Our school would also embrace the "research" role Professors fulfill by encouraging our Professors to collaborate with other Professors, conduct experiments, and develop their field of expertise. As an example, let's say we have two Professors who have knowledge about building shelter in survival situations, but have two differing philosophies. We would provide the physical space to give them the opportunity to collaborate to develop the best survival shelters possible. 

Another example - let's say we have three jiu jitsu coaches who each have very different philosophies on teaching jiu jitsu. They could collaborate and experiment with different teaching strategies to develop better methods of teaching jiu jitsu. Because this model is inherently collaborative in nature, we also eliminate a great deal of the ego-related issues typically found in the Old Commercial Model.

In this model, the Tribe and the School get qualified expert "Professors" for classes to deliver to our Students, the Tribe attracts more Students from a wider cross-section of our community (thus making more money), the "Professors" get an opportunity to develop their own expertise through collaboration and experimentation, and the "Professors" would make extra money teaching what they love. It's a great model for proving a mutually-beneficial environment for all parties involved AND will provide a clearinghouse of sorts for important knowledge within our wider community. In short, this will make Montrose a better place to live.

The Real Benefit to Our Tribe

This model creates a lot of benefits for a lot of people, but the most important benefit is it provides a safe, secure, well-equipped physical space for our Tribe to train and socialize. If we relied on the Old Commercial Model, as we have since we bought the gym, we're perpetually teetering on the brink of financial collapse. This is especially true given the realities of COVID. 

If we were to continue with the Old Commercial Model, we would have to spend a great deal of time and money marketing to an ever-shrinking pool of potential students just to pay the bills. This also forces us to accept students who may not be a good fit with our culture (we project kindness, open-minded acceptance, and compassion, but also love hard, smashing, violent training... and also dick jokes.) Or worse, it might force us to accept student who are a danger to our current Students, which is ethically, morally, and financially unacceptable. 

This model prevents this by giving us near-unlimited potential revenue streams, gives us the ability to really leverage cheap-but-effective word of mouth advertising, and allows our Tribe to make important connections with key members of our community who have specialized knowledge in a wide range of topics. And it allows us to maintain our physical facilities for training and socializing for the Tribe. 

Conclusion

This model is still in the development phase and is mostly a collection of theories and ideas. Ergo the somewhat fractured nature of this post. :-) In the coming days and weeks, our Tribe's Founding Members will begin discussing the ins and outs of this model with the goal of officially launching it by the beginning of March. As the ideas evolve, I will continue to post the details as they evolve.

If you want to learn more about the structure of the school, check out this post. And this post about the underlying theory. 

If you dig this project and are interested in helping develop the ideas, consider joining our Think Tank Facebook group, which can be found here.

~Jason

 

***

Life Lessons, Revisited.

 

Way back in 2012, I wrote a blog post about the life lessons I had learned in the previous six or so years on a rather all-encompassing quest for self-improvement. Since that time, I've mostly striven to implement these nine lessons as often as possible. It's proven to be a pretty decent roadmap.

The List

1. Help others. If everyone spent time actively seeking out ways to help each other, the world would be a lot better place. Each of us has the power to change that if only we recognized just how much we have to offer to those around us. Whether it’s something big or small, strive to help others. Make a difference.
 

2. Figure out what you enjoy. Do it more. Understand what brings you joy. In almost every case, humans crave excitement, not happiness. Once you understand that concept, living a fulfilling life becomes a lot Hell of a lot easier. Set up your lifestyle to experience excitement more often.

3. Figure out what you don’t like. Do it less. What don’t we like? Most assume this involves avoiding pain whether it be physical, emotional, spiritual… whatever. While it’s not always pleasant, it’s not pain that brings unhappiness. Boredom brings us unhappiness. Understand what you find boring, then set up your lifestyle to experience less boredom.

4. Seek challenges. Humans thrive on challenges. They may come in the form of the physical, mental, social, or emotional. They may involve work, lifestyle, exercise… whatever. Figure out what makes you uncomfortable, then do it with reckless abandon.

5. Learn from everyone. True wisdom is the realization that we’re a lot stupider than we like to think. Every single person we encounter has lessons to teach us if only we accept our role as a student. You have two ears and one mouth; use them in that proportion.

6. Surround yourself with genuine friends. Find friends that you can trust, will help you when you’re down, have the power to challenge your way of thinking, and can ignite your inner fire. The ability to make you laugh and play is important, too.

7. Embrace minimalism. We surround ourselves with way too much stuff under the guise of security. We falsely believe our problems will disappear if we reach some imaginary line of material comfort. Instead of pissing away your days attempting to fill your life with more shit, embrace minimalism. Use your creative energies to develop unorthodox solutions to the minimalism. It makes life a lot more interesting. If you need to spend your cash, spend it on adventure.

8. Realize we can’t predict the future; act accordingly. Too many people spend too much time plotting the course for tomorrow without really embracing today. Don’t miss the opportunity to make today special. In almost every case, you can make today special by helping someone and doing something exciting. Remember, you may die tomorrow.

9. Embrace change. Some will tell you not to fear change. That’s bullshit; change is scary as Hell. Instead, embrace that fear. The exhilaration from the fear of change is what makes it so exciting, and we crave excitement.

~Jason

***

You Get to Set the Rules.

 

Years ago, I wrote a blog post on BRU about Chris Guillebeau. His book "The Art of Nonconformity" was one of the earliest influential books that, ultimately, got me to this project. While Guillebeau talked about a lot of great ideas in that book (many of which are covered in this short PDF), the one that suck the most was the kind of advice that's almost so simple, it never occurs to you:

You don't have to live your life the way people expect you to. 

When I first read that, it was a mind-blowing revelation. I took stock of every aspect of my life, and realized pretty much every decision I had ever made was because someone expected me to make that decision. Needless to say, the last decade has been one long string of pretty damn amazing adventures based on experimental lifestyle design. When you realize there really aren't any rules, you get to make your own. 

That's kinda the point of this current project. Mix equal parts of the lifestyle myself and my family want to live with a genuine desire to solve some tricky social problems and... POOF! We get this project. But this post isn't about this project.

It's about making your own rules. 

You see, society wants us to fit in. Put your head down. Do what you're told. Don't rock the boat. Because society likes predictability. Conformity. Follow the rules. 

And if you don't? Society gives you stern, disapproving looks. Wags a finger. Society may even [gasp!] talk behind your back.  And that's about it.

Turns out society is a bit of a passive-aggressive bitch. 

Which is great you you and me. Because it means there's really nothing stopping us from making our own rules. The rules we want to play by. The rules that work for us.

Yet so very few people actually take that plunge and live the life they want to live. Instead they follow the status quo. And they're miserable.

Why?

I think it's fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of rejection. Fear of failure. Fear of success.

Part of the problem is we imagine this journey to an unconventional life is going to be a lonely journey. Just ourselves and our goofy ideas.

But that's not how it works. Not at all. 

In "Tribes" Seth Godin said "The secret to leadership is simple. Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. People will follow."

When you overcome the fear to try something new, when you venture past "safe" and into "exciting", there will be people, the right people, who follow. And that's your Tribe.

The Two Distinct Reactions

When I describe this project to people, I get two very distinct reactions. This one:

 

 

And this one:
 

There's absolutely no in between.

And that's okay. 

One of the most valuable lessons I learned back in the barefoot running days is that the moment you start making your own rules, most people don't get it. But some do. And you have to trust those few who get it will be your key to changing the status quo. They will be the key to making your own rules.

So stop letting society set the rules that define your life. Become a heretic. Make your own rules. Live the life you want to live. Life is too short to miss out on all the fun.

What do you have to lose?

~Jason

 

***

How We Use Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to Curate the Tribe

A few days back, we were discussing this post on how we vet new members of the Tribe. Ken, a long-time Facebook friend for whom I respect, asked why we used Brazilian jiu jitsu as part of the process. More specifically, wouldn't that unnecessarily rule out otherwise great candidtes?

Yes. Yes it would. 

But. At the early stages of this project, It's more important to assure new members are a great fit than letting potential great members fall through the cracks. And there's no greater filer for our Tribe than jiu jitsu. Simply put, jits reveals a whole lot about a person in an incredibly short time.

And yes, tolerance of calling the sport "jits" is one of the tests. 

For the uninitiated, if you don't know what "BJJ" is, it's basically a sport where we practice breaking limbs and murdering while wearing sweaty pajamas with a lot of weird patches. Here's a more detailed explanation.

The Mats Don't Lie

A popular idiom states "Martial arts doesn't build character. It reveals character. This is certainly true in jiu jitsu. Here's a rundown of the characteristics I'm looking for in students. Note this is what I look for in potential Tribe members. Just regular students don't need all of these characteristics, though the more they possess, the more intrinsic enjoyment they'll likely receive from training at our gym.

• How do they interact with our team in a stressful environment? Starting jiu jitsu is kinda scary. From the very onset in their first class, we can see how a new student interacts with the collection of diverse personalities that make up our team.
  
• Do they have a tendency to do harm? Do they have psychopathic tendencies? This sport attracts people who want to learn or have an opportunity to hurt people. This is a dangerous sport where NOT harming each other takes effort. The folks who seem to get joy from harming weaker people are revealed almost immediately. And we DO get these people regularly. They're either actively or passively dismissed from the gym depending on their veracity and the degree of danger thy represent.
  
• Are they curious? We're more interested in the curious than most gyms, mostly because we create a culture where learning is an extremely high priority. Curious people thrive in our environment. And I've found curiosity to be an excellent predictor of all kinds of other wonderful traits.
  
• Do they have anger issues? When you start jiu jitsu, you lose. A lot. It's simply the nature of the sport - it's designed to use techniques and leverage to defeat strength and athleticism. As such, experience matters. No matter how big and strong a new student might be, they're going to get tapped by our higher belts. And quite often, even our kids. If you have anger issues, this ALWAYS reveals it.
  
• Do they have a huge ego? This is related to the last point, but specifically determines if the new student possesses humility. Can they accept being at the bottom of the hierarchy, and can they accept being there for months and months?
  
• Do they have a capacity to teach and learn? We use a collaborative learning model where everyone is encouraged to be both teacher and learner, which helps support our development beyond what our coaches teach. We use this model in part because we have a lot of diverse, applicable experiences among members, but it also supports the "School" part of this plan.
  
• How they related to women and kids? This is a specific test for our new male students. As soon as a new student proves conclusively that they have enough emotional control and physical restraint, we have them roll (what we call live almost full-intensity sparring) with our older kids. Since most men generally don't like kids and get kinda weird about rolling with women, it gives us the ability to observe how tolerant they will be in relating to other Tribe members who are different than them. This is a subtle but important thing.
  
• How do they handle adversity? As I mentioned before, new students lose. A lot. If a new student sticks around for six months in this sport, they usually have the drive and determination to tackle damn near anything. We like tough people.
  
• What capacity do they have for leadership? This isn't a deal-breaker (bad leaders still play important roles in our Tribe), but we're always searching for people who possess the raw materials that would allow them to become great leaders. Personally, I habitually surround myself with leaders and generally avoid those who can only follow. My operational definition of leadership is basically what is described in "Extreme Ownership" and "Linchpin."
  
• Cooperativeness versus competitiveness. We're insanely competitive. But we're competitive because we understand it's how we make all of us better, so the potential toxicity of competitiveness is balanced with strong cooperative tendencies. Off the mats, this is exceptionally hard to test. On the mats? It's evident almost immediately.
  
• Do they have a capacity for violence? One of the hallmarks of our gym is a readily apparent culture of kindness and openness. We try to be genuinely good people who are helpful and supportive. But this culture is built on a foundation of most of our members being willing and able to use violence when necessary. This usually manifests when new people mistake our kindness for weakness, and we have to given them a brief glimpse behind the curtain. "If you do anything to harm the team or an individual member of the team, we'll fuck ya up a bit." Violence is always the foundation of civility, whether we're talking about our Tribe, our jiu jitsu team, or society.
  
• Do they understand honor? "Honor" is one of Jack Donovan's Four Tactical Virtues of Masculinity as described in his excellent book "The Way of Men." Basically, "honor" is the process of earning the respect of other men in your Tribe. Given jiu jitsu is a decidedly masculine endeavor (masculine, not male... women do just fine in the sport, but they, too, must understand "honor"), it is an excellent test of a person's capacity for honor. One of the simplest things a student can do to disqualify themselves as a potential Tribe member is to do something that dishonors themselves in the eyes of the rest of our team.
  
• Do they understand male hierarchies? This is closely-related to the last item. Do new students understand how men organize themselves socially, and do they act accordingly? Jiu jitsu is interesting in that belt rank is a pretty decent visual indicator of the hierarchy in the gym context. 
• Do women relate to other women? This one is specifically for the ladies. Our culture is kinda unique in that the women in our gym adopt a bit of the masculine hierarchy structure, but still maintain the dynamics of femininity. In the simplest sense, can women successfully navigate the fickle nature of female kinship in a way that doesn't harm the Tribe or the Team? While understanding women is a stupidly-complex topic that requires a small dissertation to explain, jiu jitsu is a pretty decent way to determine if women can relate to each other.
  
• Do they have the ability to work as part of a team? Jiu jitsu is a sport where you really need solid teamwork chops because we need to trust each other a great deal to avoid injuries as much as possible. As such, students who are not team players wash out quickly, which is super-useful because Tribes, by definition, require teamwork. 
  
• Do they have a sense of humor? We like to laugh, and serious people are a drag. If people don't like to laugh, or oftentimes-crude humor usually drives them away pretty quickly.
• Do they like to have fun? Along the same vein, we really like to have fun. "Play" is one of the foundations of not only our gym culture, but how we approach life. We take our art seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously. Again, our gym culture weeds out the "chronically-unfun" quickly. 
  
• Are they selfish? Does a student only seem to think of themselves, or do they demonstrate selflessness? Selfish people who are only training for themselves are fine as students, but this is a deal-breaker for Tribe members. Jiu jitsu usually reveals this pretty quickly. 
• Are they passive-aggressive or otherwise emotionally immature? Given jiu jitsu is a combat sport, conflict between members is bound to arise. How people deal with that conflict is an excellent indicator of their emotional maturity, especially when it comes to using passive-aggressiveness. Like selfishness, this is a deal-breaker. 
• Can they pass shit tests? A "shit test" is a test that determines a few different things about a person. The basic framework involves men teasing each other. To pass the test, you tease them back. If you get pissy, defensive, or have any other sort of similar response, you fail. Usually, it's in the context of women assessing the value of men. But in this case, it's assessing whether or not men are tough enough to have each others' backs in dangerous situations. A "fitness test" of sorts. Men (or women) who fail this type of shit test cannot be part of the Tribe. This idea is tied to the reason we teach boys not to cry, why men "bully" other men (and why women bully other women. Spoiler alert... it's because they're viscous), and why modern fourth-wave feminism kinda sucks. 
  
• How resilient are they? Jiu jitsu is a frustrating, difficult sport. You're served up a regular serving of failure and disappointment. People who aren't resilient wash out quickly, usually after only a few weeks. 
• How willing are they to follow and/or police intra-tribal rules and norms? We have rules of conduct, both explicit and implicit. The rules are in place to keep each other safe and to maintain our desired culture. Are students following these rules? And do they show an aptitude for understanding the nuances and motivations behind our rules? And in some cases, are they good at policing the rules in others? The first two are prerequisites for Tribal members. The last one is an added bonus. 
• How willingly do they accept challenges, and how do they approach said challenges? If we give students what amounts to an impossible challenge (like tapping out a higher belt who is clearly better than they are), how do they respond? Do they express self-doubt? Do they accept the challenge, but have reservations? Or do they take a "Hell yeah, I'll do my best!" approach? That latter one is what we're looking for in Tribe members.
• Do they have "gameness"? Gameness is a term used to describe a willingness to keep fighting. Literally and figuratively. It's best measured by a student's willingness to keep trying to accomplish something (like the impossible challenges mentioned in the last point.) Jiu jitsu itself is a sport that demands gameness because, no matter how long you do it, you will fail A LOT. 
• Do they understand the true nature of masculinity and femininity? Even if they can't articulate it, do they have an intuitive sense that these constructs exist and that they're complimentary? While covering this topic in detail would cover several blog posts, the gist has to do with the hypothesis that is the foundation of the Tribe - we need ideological diversity, which starts with having both gender roles represented in adequate numbers. 

 Conclusion

 

So there's the list of all the things we can discern about someone who trains with us. It's a long-ass list, but the sport reveals a lot about people. We could use all kinds of different tools, but this one works exceptionally well for us. As an added bonus, it's also our primary form of recreation. Just training assures we maintain close contact with each other, which is often one of the biggest struggles of curating a Tribe of friends. 

There are countless activities that probably serve the same purpose for anyone interested in this Tribe idea. Many roads lead to Rome. This road just happens to work for us.

~Jason

***

Abundance Versus Scarcity: The Simple Perspective That Makes the World a Better Place

 

Some people see the world as a collection of limited resources. They have a scarcity mindset. Hoard what you can. Don't share. Don't give. Screw everyone else; they're your competition. That's how they believe they'll win the game of life.

Other people see the world in a far different way. They see the world as a collection of unlimited resources. They have an abundance mindset. The more you share, the more you receive. Altruism and cooperation is how you win the game of life.

What is the Abundance Mindset?

Some nine years ago, I wrote about this idea on my BRU blog, in the context of The Gift Economy, a concept I got from Seth Godin. I utilized the idea by giving away a PDF version of a book I wrote, then turned it loose on the Internet with directions for anyone who read it to then share it, too. While we took a financial hit immediately, the ideas spread like wildfire. Eventually, that was the single action that later provided us with the opportunity to bum around the country for two years teaching the ideas. That adventure would not have been possible without that initial act of giving. More importantly, the ideas allowed a whole lotta people to start running again after injuries, which allowed them to lead healthier, happier lives. 

This is the same sort of dynamic I'm using with this project, which is part of the broader marketing strategy I've been using for some time. In the near future, I'll write a post dedicated specifically to what that looks like.

Anyway. 

The abundance mindset. This idea works because it allows us to look for opportunities to improve ourselves and others. Attention, being what it is, is pretty limited. If we're not looking for something, we're unlikely to just randomly stumble upon it. This article explains the idea well, and gives five really useful tips to put this into action. The second idea in that article - surrounding yourself with others who have an abundance mindset - is the reason I'm bringing this idea to our Tribe. 

What It Is Not

The idea of an abundance mindset often gets confused with "The Law of Attraction", which is a stupid self-help concept most recently re-popularized by the book "The Secret." This so-called "law" basically states that if you think positive thoughts, positive stuff will happen to you. While it sounds great, the idea is actually incredibly harmful as Mark Manson so eloquently explains in this post. I've met a few people who practice this regularly. Their lives were pretty crappy. Their lives got even crappier after they tried this.

The gist of the problem with "the law of attraction" is it gives you a delusional perception of reality that, ultimately leads you to become lazy and make really bad decisions. Conversely, the abundance mindset requires you to actually do work in order for it to work... that was Godin's point about creating what he called "art", which is then shared. YOU NEED TO ACTUALLY PRODUCE SOMETHING!

So there you go. This is another tool to make a real, positive change in the world. Play with this idea. Try out some of those things from the infographic at the top. You'll like the results.

~Jason

***

 

Why We Need a Tribe, Part 3: How Do We Assess Possible Tribe Memebers?

 

In the first post in this series, I covered why modern society kinda makes our life sucky. In the second post, I covered the objective pros and cons of a Tribe as a social construct. In this post, I'll discuss OUR Tribe. Or at least my early vision of our Tribe.

Quick review - in yesterday's post, I mentioned what I called "pseudo-tribes", which are basically individuals or groups who use the collection of cognitive biases our brain uses to make sense of the world in order to exploit us in some way. The formula they use:

Elicit emotion -> Attach way to resolve emotion to group membership = making of a pseudo-tribe

We need to avoid this trap at all costs! The solution is simple. We just use logic, reason, and a scientific methodology to designing, building, and running the Tribe. Simple. Not easy.

The reason? No matter how hard we try, we're not totally objective. Even hard-core objective Logican/ Debaters like me are prone to the likelihood that emotion drives cognition. As such, and really effective Tribe probably needs a leadership team, not just one individual. This team needs to be science-minded (for objective analysis), diverse (to be able to really understand and empathize with each member of the Tribe's motivations, desires, skills, knowledge, experiences, goals, etc.), and be assertive enough to call each other out on their bullshit (as a check on emotional attachment to bad ideas or beliefs.) So that's how we prevent becoming a pseudo-tribe.

The Tribe Members

The value of a Tribe is a function of the members of a Tribe. It's important to carefully vet possible Tribe members to root out those who have a high probability of impeding the Tribe's effectiveness, or worse, sabotaging the entire Tribe. This is important because the idea of a Tribe will appeal to a lot of people who would be terrible Tribe members. Here's my hypothetical process developed from a lot of personal experiences, discussions with our Man Camp men's group, and with Brandon, one of our Tribe Founding Members.

The entire process involves asking a series of questions, explicitly or answered through observation of the potential member, to cull those who would be a poor fit. The next step would be to determine the ideal role they would play within the Tribe itself that. These remaining candidates would then go through a "prospect" period, followed by a "probationary" period. Finally, the Tribe would vote to add the potential member to the Tribe permanently. We would also need a mechanism to expel a member from the Tribe.

So what does this process look like?

The Questions

The goal with these is to figure out IF a prospective member is a good fit for the Tribe. Before we begin the process, we screen for obvious mental illnesses that are incompatible with the social dynamics of Tribal organization. Schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, severe panic disorder or severe depression, pretty much any of the personality disorders, etc. We would also screen for serious drug addictions for the same reasons.

The first question is absolutely necessary: Is this person trustworthy? If this person is admitted to the Tribe, can we trust them to act selflessly to support the individual members of the Tribe and the Tribe as a whole? Are they helpful, or are they selfish? Do they have a history of exploiting others? Do they have a history of committing property crimes? Do they understand and display the concept of honor? If a potential member passes this test, they move on. 

The second question: Is this person humble? Do they have a problem with ego? Do they think they are better than others? Do they have a superiority complex? How do they treat wait staff, retail employees, or others who serve them? Can they win with humility and lose with grace?

The third question: Is this person people-smart? Do they exhibit high emotional intelligence? Do they exhibit empathy and compassion? Can they manage interpersonal relationships well, or do they rub people the wrong way? 

The fourth question: Is this person hungry? Have they exhibited a desire to work tirelessly towards a goal by intrinsically motivating themselves? Basically, this weeds out the lazy folks. 

The fifth question: Is this person open-minded and curious? Are they accepting of ideologies, beliefs, and world views that differ from their own? We WILL be a diverse group; can they get along with people who may be different than them? Do they take diversity as an opportunity to learn and grow? Are they open to new experiences?

The sixth and final question: Does this persona really understand and are they willing to be a contributing member of OUR Tribe? This Tribe idea isn't for everyone, and our specific Tribe really isn't for everyone. Do they get the big picture, and do they genuinely believe this will be an environment where they will love contributing towards something bigger than themselves?

Determining Roles

Once a potential member makes it through this questioning process, we'll determine their ideal role within the Tribe. This would be accomplished by assessing their skills, knowledge, and experiences, values, and what they hope to contribute and receive from the Tribe. 

We're all different. But we can categorize ourselves in different ways. I have an anecdotally-supported hypothesis that our different personalities evolved so we could fulfill various roles within a Tribe. For convenience, I really love the 16personalities variation of the Myers-Briggs personality test as a "guide" for determining intra-tribe roles. Each one of the 16 different personality types would, theoretically, play a specialized role within the Tribe. The more roles the Tribe can fill, the better the Tribe can solve problems related to surviving and thriving. It was true for our ancestors and it's true for us today.

To this end, part of this role determination process would include giving the potential member the test. This will help determine HOW they fit into the Tribe. The goal is to give them a role that will allow them to reach their full potential, AND to maximize their contribution to the Tribe. The better job we do of making the right fit, the better it is for them and for the Tribe. Next, we actually test them in action as a "prospect."

The Prospect Period

 

The goal of this period is to actually see if they fit in with the Tribe. If not, they can be dismissed easily. In essence, they have to prove their worth to the Tribe. This period would be rather lengthy, perhaps six months to a year, possibly longer. The Prospect would be given some or the rights and responsibilities of Membership, which would increase over time. This would allow the Prospect to slowly learn how the Tribe functions both internally and with the outside world.

This period would also allow the potential member to find their niche within the Tribe. They could test out different roles and be given different responsibilities. This would give everyone a chance to maximize potential. 

If, during this time, a potential member turns out to have lied or was acting in a disingenuous fashion during the questioning period, or if the individual or the Tribe determined the fit just isn't right, the Tribe could sever ties with the individual with minimal pomp and circumstance. This decision could be made by a simple majority of the current Tribe members.

The Probationary Period

Once a potential member completed their Prospect Period, they would be admitted to the Tribe as a Probationary Member. The Probationary Member would enjoy the full rights and responsibilities of membership in the Tribe. This stage would be one last test to assure the new member would be a great fit and contribute to the Tribe in a meaningful, impactful way. This stage could also last six months to a year or possibly more. If the Probationary Member is not working out, they could be dismissed from the Tribe with 2/3 of the vote of the Current members. 

Types of Members

One of the more vexing problems I've been trying to solve is how to deal with the issue of commitment. Threading the needle of how much commitment we need from members is a tricky proposition. Too much commitment and we run the risk of losing ourselves in the group, and trending too close to "cult' status. Too little commitment and we lose most if not all of the benefits of a collective group. 

Further, different people in different situations might want different things, even if they're a perfect fit for the concept I've been describing. Maybe some people want to live in a communal housing situation where they share every aspect of their daily lives. Maybe someone wants their won space, but wants to live in close proximity to the rest of the Tribe. Maybe someone wants to live off-site and interact with the tribe on more of a part-time basis. Or maybe someone is totally down with the project, but their significant other isn't so keep on the idea. How do we construct a system that gives all these folks what they're looking for, while still maintaining that Tribe social connection? The solution to this problem seems pretty straight-forward - we just give people options. If the Tribe itself is organized as a for-profit entity, the Tribe can purchase the necessary properties and lease them to the members. Or something like that.

We also might encounter another situation where we encounter people we like, have something to offer the Tribe, but for whatever reason, aren't a good fit as Tribe Members. Or they have no interest in actually joining the Tribe. In this situation, it would be useful to have a formal category to clearly define relationships. For this purpose, we could define this group as "Friends of the Tribe."

Friends of the Tribe could be people in and around our community who own a business we deal with regularly, friends and family of our Members, people who train at our gym but aren't part of the Tribe, or even people located outside our immediate geographic area. 

Conclusion

This is the proposed process we'd use to vet and define the people involved with the Tribe. Like every part of this plan, these are just my preliminary ideas of the logistics of this entire project, and will likely change once we start actual planning.

~Jason

***

Why We Need a Tribe, Part Two: How You Can Make Your Sucky Life Better

 

 In the last post, I explained how modern society, despite the fact that we're safe and prosperous, is deeply unfulfilling. I went on to hypothesize this lack of fulfillment that manifests as stress, anxiety, depression, and a host of other problems, can be remedied by doing the kind of stuff our grandparents did. Or, going back farther in our history, our hunter-gatherer ancestors. 

Primal shit makes us happy in a way the newest iPhone or a trip to the mall can't.

So what is the solution to this problem?

Tribes.

Big surprise, huh? Now, before I get to the meat and potatoes of the hypothesis, I need to give an operational definition. What exactly do I mean by "tribes"? I'll define a Tribe as a diverse group of people between five and 150 who are closely bonded socially and, potentially economically, who are are working towards a shared future goal or goals. If you really want to dig deeper on the hypothesis that led to this definition, read this post. 

In our modern society, this kind of Tribe is exceedingly rare. Maybe these exist in small fraternal organizations, or maybe in some religious groups or congregations. Maybe even in the military in "company" units. 

I also need to define what ISN'T a tribe. This includes all kinds of organizations that feels like a tribe, and certainly bring out tribal behaviors. But they're not actually tribes. In fact, they're often organizations that are specifically using our brain's tribal bias against us so the organization can make money, gain power, or exploit us in some other way. Examples of these pseudo-tribes include:

• Political parties - Democrats and Republicans. And even Libertarians.
  
• Sports team fans - Broncos and Cardinals fans. Lions fans are an exception.
  
• Cults - Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, #MAGA supporters
• Multilevel marketing scams - Amway and Herbalife
• Consumer products - Apple, Gucci, and Tickle Me Elmo
  

Generally, all of these groups use your emotions to exploit you in some way, usually by creating a sense of loyalty by playing on our need to belong. Because emotion drives cognition, we don't recognize how these kinds of organizations manipulate us. The formula is deceptively simple and stupidly effective:

Elicit emotion -> Attach way to resolve emotion to group membership = making of a pseudo-tribe

If you need a real-world example of this, just look at how many people genuinely believe in that objectively-ridiculous "Q-anon" conspiracy theory. And how that belief kinda ruined their lives.

Anyway, that's what a Tribe is and is not. 

How Did I Stumble Upon This Idea?

I discovered the power of tribes kind of by accident. When Shelly and I started running long races, we developed a small group of training partners who regularly trained together, hung out together, and "crewed and paced" each other when one of us ran a long race. And it was awesome! Just being with the group and being a contributing member was itself deeply fulfilling. Eventually we all kinda went in different directions, but that group planted the seed.

A few years later, Shelly and I picked up our next hobby - jiu jitsu. The same sort of thing happened. We developed a small group of regular training partners who trained and occasionally hung out together. We were kinda like a family. It was a completely different dynamic, but elicited the same feelings. 

Finally, I started a male-only Facebook group based on some of the ideas I've written about over on my Man Camp blog. Because it was Internet-based, it had a very different feel than our previous "tribes", but it still had many of the same dynamics.

That group led to the earliest version of my tribal hypothesis, which ultimately led to the idea of starting a real-life group that wasn't just centered around some random recreational activity, but actually trying to develop a tribe that emulated the kinds of tribes that defined our ancestors' societies. In the four or so years since I wrote the original version of that post, I've been on a path to make this come to fruition. Which is the explicit purpose of THIS project. 

One of the two goals of this project is to bring a group of like-minded, ideologically-diverse people together to help each other grow as individuals, help the Tribe grow as a collective unit, and help make our community a better place to live for everyone. If the idea works and others replicate it elsewhere, it really could have the power to make our entire world a better place to live. And maybe circumvent some of those psychological and emotional pitfalls I discussed in the first post. 

Let's back up a bit, though. What are the positives of belonging to this kind of Tribe? How about the negatives? And why exactly is this Tribe idea potentially revolutionary? Let's get the negatives out of the way first.

The Negatives of the Tribe Idea

This entire project comes with a few caveats, especially for people with particular personality types. While these are not deal-breaker issues, they should be considered in the event anyone reading this wants to try the idea.

First, the members of the Tribe absolutely have to believe in the power of the collective over the power of the individual. Lone wolves who cannot operate as part of a team will note face well in this system of social organization because this requires cooperative interdependence. Everyone has to play a role, and that role has to help the Tribe. So selfish people need not apply.

Second, the Tribe leadership needs to be open-minded, accepting, and have a superior ability to view the world as objectively as possible. And leadership has to be willing to take decisive action for the good of the Tribe, even if it may not be the best decision for every single member. Because these individuals are rare, Tribal leadership probably needs to be made up of a small governing committee or have a single leader who is supported and advised by a trusted group of wise "elders."

Third, the Tribe cannot have toxic members. Members cannot have serious mental illnesses, excessive egos, or no sense of honor. Members cannot be lazy, stir up drama, or have destructive tendencies. 

Fourth, the wrong tribal organization model can force you to be too involved. Or not involved enough. Being sucked too deeply into a Tribe can cause you to lose your sense of self. Conversely, if the bond with the tribe is merely a superficial social bond, you won't get any tangible benefits from membership. Threading the needle has been one of my biggest challenges, which is part of the reason I've written about this topic extensively. I need every potential member of our own Tribe to understand what membership in the Tribe means to prevent either of those extremes. 

Fifth, the Tribe cannot fall into the trap of becoming a cult. This is a biggie, and perhaps the biggest danger to this entire idea. In psychology, we've long-ago identified how cults form, who forms them, and what methods they use. Here's an excellent discussion. Because cults and the charlatans who start and run them have always been an interest of mine, I've intentionally baked A LOT of safeguards into the design of this project. And if you have aspirations of starting a cult and you're using my info - go fuck yourself. 

Okay, so now the good.

The Positives of the Tribe Idea

The Tribal organization model, if done deliberately and correctly, taps into our primal heritage like nothing else. A healthy, productive Tribe has the power to transform every aspect of your life from curing loneliness and giving you a regular social group that could, perhaps, saving you and your family's life in a catastrophe. So what exactly are the benefits?

Dependable mutual aid, support, and protection. Think about how many people you have in your life that you could really rely on in an emergency? Odds are good that number is frighteningly small, especially if you don't have a lot of family members where you live. Now imagine having a whole Tribe of people you could call on for anything. Need a last-minute babysitter? Car break down and you need a ride? Need help moving that grand piano? Society collapsed and you need help protecting your stockpile of pinto beans from roving marauders? The Tribe has your back.

Intimate kinship. We're social animals, and we preform best when we're surrounded by a group of people who we're connected to emotionally. Close friends can be difficult to find, and even more difficult to cultivate and maintain. Especially in our busy, hectic world where work and family have to be high priorities. A Tribe provides many such close friendships. By virtue of the structure of Tribes, maintaining these friendships occurs naturally as part of the Tribe working together, which actually creates more free time for family, etc.

Opportunity to contribute to a meaningful cause beyond yourself, and the ability to see the positive results immediately. As much as Tribal membership GIVES, the real value is what it allows you to CONTRIBUTE. There are precious few things that feel better than making a real difference in people's lives, and a Tribe gives you the power to do just that, not only within the Tribe, but beyond. Better yet, the Tribe itself acts as a megaphone of sorts and amplifies whatever unique contribution you can give the world. As much as this sounds like a pie-in-the-sky hippie rant, I've personally experienced this and it is truly amazing. 

Social network of people for fun and recreation. I'm not ashamed to admit I love to play, even as a 40-something year old dude. Science of play aside, taking a playful approach to life just makes everything... better. And this is even greater if you surround yourself with people who love to play. Hell, this is the culture we consciously build at our jiu jitsu gym. A Tribe gives us the opportunity to spend a lot more time having fun with people we care about.

The opportunity to be your authentic self all the time. I've been writing about this idea for a loooong time. Basically, life is too short to put up facades. If we can't be who we genuinely want to be, what the Hell's the point of living? Far too many people bury their real self under a pile of other people's expectations, fear of rejection, or other such nonsense. A Tribe allows to to be your real self. Your authentic self. 

Employment network. This isn't typically touted as a feature of Tribes, but damn is it useful. Our fellow Tribe members know us well, which can be great should you need a job. Through friends of friends networks, having a diverse Tribe gives you way more personal connections than you may experience as by yourself. 

The opportunity for open, honest discussions. The trust and intimacy enjoyed by the Tribe gives members the perfect platform to have real, sustained discussions on topics that are otherwise hard to discuss with relative strangers. Most therapy is really just a glorified version of paid listening. With a Tribe, you get real people you have a connection with as your conversation partner. 

The opportunity to teach and learn. Given our plan involves running an actual school, we're kinda taking this one to a whole new level. Tribe members have skills. Knowledge. Wisdom. The Tribe structure allows the Tribe members to share freely within the group to improve everyone's collective abilities. 

Motivation and accountability. Health and fitness "Tribes" are a thing for a very good reason - they help us overcome the inherent limitations we all have. This was one of the best benefits of the Tribes Shelly and I belonged to in the past - they pushed us and held us accountable if we didn't rise to the challenge. This was also a major perk of our Man Camp group. Simply put, humans do better when in groups because of the group.

Collective income generation. Our Tribal model will be explicitly designed as a for-profit entity that benefits the Tribe financially. A beehive of smart people each working in their area of expertise towards a common goal is a powerful force, especially when applied in a way that makes our local communities better places. If that synergy (damn, I hate that word) can be used to financially benefit the individual members of a Tribe and the Tribe as a whole, that's just icing on the cake!

Recognition from people you respect. In an era of participation trophies, real recognition for genuine hard work and actual accomplishment is rare. But getting authentic recognition from people who know and respect you is something that is so rare, many people today have never experienced it. And that's sad. Real recognition is among the most powerful intrinsic motivators. Tribes provide this in heaps. 

Improved health. This is a somewhat surprising benefit, but we have good data that strongly suggests being part of a real Tribe has significant health benefits. This makes sense. In yesterday's post, I mentioned how our modern world leads to chronic, low-level stress, which we know is terrible for our health. 

The power of the collective, especially for collaborative, creative problem-solving. We all face a litany of problems as we navigate life. We do our best to solve these problems with the limited resources we have available. A Tribe and our collective pool of resources dramatically expands this problem-solving limitation. This specific function of tribes, after all, is THE reason you and I are here right now... every one of our ancestors solve the riddle of survival. 

The opportunity for women to bond with other women and men to bond with other men. This is another weird benefit we don't really consider until we look at the nature of male and female friendships. Men are simple. We have men in our Tribe and men from other Tribes. The biggest issue men usually face is simply not having enough time to dedicate to male friendships. For women, it's complicated. In both cases, though, the Tribe provides many opportunities for deep friendships often without the dumbass drama most us us experience without the Tribes. 

Opportunity to reach your full potential while helping other reach theirs. This collective self-improvement journey is one of the best life-enhancing aspects of a Tribe. As I mentioned earlier in this post, I did my best work when I was part of a tribe, and we weren't even explicitly trying to help each other beyond finishing races or getting better at choking each other out. 

Conclusion

There you go. Those are the pros and cons of Tribes. This was the social organization that allowed our ancestors to survive and thrive, and this is the social organization that will do the same for us. 

 

Primal shit makes us happy in a way the newest iPhone or a trip to the mall can't.

 

In a future post, I'll talk about the actual dynamics of the Tribe, because we don't need to destroy civilization to capitalize on all the perks listed above.

~Jason

***

Why We Need a Tribe, Part One - Why Your Life Sucks

The "Tribe" aspect of this project came about because our modern society has become so individualist, we basically live on a social island in the middle of the ocean. We just kind of bumble through life, alone. Some of us may have a partner, and maybe a friend or two we hang out with once every few months. For most of us, though, our social world is a barren desert.

There are quite a few reasons for this, but the main culprit is simple - we live in a ridiculously safe, prosperous society. We don't NEED other people. Take a look at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs from the bottom up:

 

Here in our small town of Montrose, we have three grocery stores, a Walmart, a Target, A Dollar General, a Family Dollar, and a host of other small convenience stores and gas stations. The biggest struggle we have to get food is deciding which store we're going to buy it from. 

We get an unlimited supply of clean water from the faucet. If we're concerned about what's in the water, we can buy 872 different varieties of filtered, flavored water from the aforementioned stores. Have been in the water aisle lately? WATER has become a lifestyle brand. Le Croix if you're a hipster, Smart water if you're an intellectual, Aloe water if you have an internal sunburn, BLK water if you don't own an RV... it's insane. 

Warmth and rest? The biggest challenge there for most of us is figuring out which setting on our electric blanket is "just right" while we stay up too late trying to figure out if "That bitch Carol Baskin" really did kill her husband. 

What about security and safety? Well, we can look at the date and see we're currently living in the safest society in the history of humanity. But we're emotional creatures, not logical. The fact is, we carry a device in our pockets that can, if needed, summon law enforcement in a matter of seconds. Or that we have doorbells that record everything that happens around our houses and beams a feed to that same device. Yeah, violence and other crime still happens, but we sometimes take for granted that we don't have to worry about our personal safety 99% of the time. When we do, it's usually because we've made a stupid decision. 

It's safe to say all but the most down-trodden have all their basic physiological needs met all the time by our technologically-advanced society. So much so, most of us have no idea how any of the things we rely on come to be. Where does that quinoa come from? Where was your weighted blanket manufactured? What's the name of the police officer who routinely patrols your neighborhood at 3am on the weekends? 

What about those psychological needs? Intimate relationships, friends, a sense of belonging, prestige, a feeling of accomplishment... where do we get those? Some of us have partners, and maybe a few friends. Maybe we belong to the Gold's gym down the road, and maybe we got "employee of the month" a few years back. But when we take stock of our social world, it's usually pretty... sad. For our grandparents and their grandparents, they had tight-knit towns or neighborhoods where everyone knew everyone else. Kids played in the streets until dark. Neighborhood parties were a thing.

Today, we're lucky if we could recognize the family who lives two doors down if we saw them in the store, and we've lived here for a decade. 

Why?

Again, it's probably modern society. Technology. Whatever device you're using to read this blog? That's what we can blame. We meet and interact with friends on social media. We win prestige and feelings of accomplishment by winning arguments about politics with memes and Tik Tok vids. We find true love with Match.com. And more temporary love with Tinder. In essence, The Internets provide for all our psychological needs.

Or do we?

It's not to we get to self-actualization, the top of Maslow's pyramid, that we really start to see modern society is really a bit of an illusion. It's way too hard to be creative for most of us. It's way too hard to actually make a positive difference in those around us. It's way too hard to make our world a better place. When we try, it feels forced and is usually fleeting. There's an internal resistance. There's hesitation. There's self-doubt. 

Yeah, we DO actually have all those physiological and psychological needs being met, but is it really quenching the thirst of those needs? The more you examine your own life, the more you realize just how unfulfilling and unsatisfying all those things modern society provides really are. WHY isn't much of a mystery. It's all manufactured. Artificial. Fake. But it's convenient. And easy. We like easy. Laziness helped our distant ancestors survive by saving precious calories, and that inherent laziness is still hard-wired in our brains today. 

Don't believe me?

Try this experiment. Pay attention to how you feel right now. Notice how you feel kinda tense, sort of like you have low level anxiety. Maybe you feel kinda "blah." Now go for a walk in nature. if it's possible, take off your shoes so you can feel the ground under your feet. Get away from buildings, traffic, and noise. Breathe in the air. Notice the trees and how they sway in the wind. Listen to the sounds. 

When you return, notice how you feel now. That tense feeling disappears. That nagging stress kinda retreats. You feel... better. Happier More fulfilled. 

Why does nature have that effect on us? It's pretty simple, actually. Our brains, whether we consciously recognize it or not, are exceptional at judging authenticity. Modern society is a drug that makes us feel good in the moment, but our brain knows it's not real. It's a cognitive process our brains likely developed to determine if strangers were potentially dangerous. Our distant cave man ancestors had to figure out if Kevin, the cave dude from the neighboring tribe, was actually a nice person or if he was just pretending to be nice so he could club us over the head the moment we turn our backs. Basically, our brains don't *trust* our fake, manufactured society we come to rely on to meet all our needs. And it stresses us out. 

And really, our brains aren't wrong. Look how quickly those social connections broke down on social media over the last few years as we argued about our president. Look what happens when the electricity goes out in the middle of winter. Look what happens when it turns out our municipal water supply gets contaminated with lead from 200 year old pipes. Look what happens when a global pandemic hits and everyone hoards toilet paper. Our brains are right to be skeptical of our modern, artificial lifestyles.

Since my late 20's, I've collected a weird set of pursuits. Hunting. Barefoot running. Ultrarunning. Male-only groups. Fighting. Each and every one of these pursuits had an undeniably positive effect on my soul. When I was immersed in any of them, I felt a feeling of fulfillment and completeness that can't be described with words. It was like each of these pursuits satisfied a primal hunger I didn't even know I had. 

THAT deep sense of fulfillment allowed me to actually reach the top of Maslow's pyramid - they allowed me to reach my potential. And holy shit, is that awesome! The absolute best work I've done in my life, great work, work that helped people become better versions of themselves, ALWAYS occurred when I was fully immersed in these "primal" activities. In psychology, we call this a "flow" state. But even these moments have been temporary. As soon as I stop the activity, that low-level anxiety of modernity returns. Getting and staying in that zone has been a puzzle I've been trying to solve for years. How can I get there and stay there, and how can I get others there? And can I surround myself with those people? I've been able to do things in my life the younger version of me would never have imagined. What could I do if I surrounded myself with smart, motivated, open people who were also in that flow state of primal fulfillment? What could WE do?!?

Then, by complete accident, I stumbled upon the answer. 

Which I'll describe in Part Two. If you're skeptical that your misery is the result of modernity, give this Cracked article a read. Yeah, yeah, it's that same Cracked we read as kids. Well, some of us, anyway (fist bump to Gen X.) I'll give this teaser - it doesn't involve abandoning Starbucks and Netflix to move to the desert and live in an adobe hut.

Check out the next part in the series here.

~Jason

***

The Flawed Martial Arts School Model: Part One - The Historical Root of the Problem

 

The business model we use for martial arts instruction in the United States, today, royally sucks. Since taking over ownership of a Brazilian jiu jitsu gym in September of '19, I’ve been fully immersed in the joys and pains of the industry. And the typical model we use has a lot more pains than joys.

After a good deal of research, experimentation, and synthesizing of past experiences and new ideas, I’ve come to the conclusion that a great deal of the pain caused by gym ownership is a direct result of the business model almost all of us use in some capacity. In short, martial arts businesses, including jiu jitsu gyms, use a model that attempts to marry the traditions and structures of ancient Eastern martial arts with modern American business practices.

And it’s not a happy marriage.

Every gym owner I know struggles with the same issues, which I’ll detail later. But these problems inevitably cause gym owners to experience significant burn-out, lose friendships, lose interest in the art they love, and in many cases, lose money.

So what’s the cause of these problems? To fully understand WHY the system we use causes so many problems, we have to do a bit of digging into history.

How Martial Arts Used to Be Taught

Martial arts used to be taught for war (ergo the “martial” part.) It was training that would help you beat your opponent on the battlefield. As such, martial arts instructors and their training was subsidized by the military or government. If you were a soldier in the military, you’d receive martial arts training as part of the overall military training.

Martial arts would also sometimes be taught to civilians for self-defense purposes. In this case, the “business model” was somewhat similar to that which we use today in the US. You’d have an expert (a “master”) who had a long-standing, strong reputation within their communities. This may have been because their families had passed the art from generation to generation, or it may have been based on their particular culture. Because each culture only had one or a very small number of different “arts”, masters were rare.

The generic situation under this model worked something like this. If you wanted to learn a martial art, you would get instruction from a local master for a period of time. If you were really good OR had interest in learning the art to the point where you yourself would become a master some day, you’d petition your master to accept you as a “disciple.” If your master accepted you as a disciple, you’d enter into a special long-term relationship defined by trust, loyalty, and mutual obligation.

The nature of this relationship was much more involved than that of a teacher/ student relationship. It became much more like a parent/ child relationship. The master would guide and teach their disciple (or disciples) in every aspect of the art, and the disciple would in turn help take care of the master and support them by providing things like food, housing, etc. This was generally a lifelong commitment. THIS is the model that American martial arts businesses attempt to replicate.

A critically-important key to this model - the MASTER holds the power in the relationship, not the DISCIPLE. The disciple must seek and earn the approval of the master to reach disciple status and must continue to earn the approval of the master to continue their journey. The goal of this process is to essentially assure the art is only taught to individuals who have the character to use the art for noble, virtuous purposes. You don’t want to teach serial killers how to get better at killing.

So Where Did This Model Go Wrong?

When martial arts started exploding in the United States in the late 60’s and early 70’s (due to World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the explosion of martial arts TV and movies), there was a sudden, powerful demand by the American consumer to learn these martial arts. So the earliest instructors (“masters”) to open schools in the United States had to adopt a particular business model that would solve a critical problem - since there is no familial or cultural knowledge of martial arts in general or instructors in particular that gave the instructors a positive reputation, these early instructors had to create their own reputations.

To accomplish that, they had to sell themselves to their prospective students. Martial arts transitioned from a cultural staple rooted in a culture’s historical warrior class passed down through deeply-connected master/ disciple relationships to a commercialized service industry. This shift, which seems rather trivial, was critically important in explaining our current problems because it shifted the power dynamic.

Instead of the well-known, well-respected master granting qualified, motivated individuals to become loyal disciples, now unknown “masters” had to sell themselves to prospective students who were free to pick and choose any instructor they wanted in any art available at any time.

Capitalism 101.

Normally this is a good thing. Competition leads to improvement as service providers battle to provide the best service value for their students. Unfortunately for the martial arts industry, the very nature of martial arts included all kinds of customs and concepts that were mostly incompatible with a system where the student controlled the power dynamic of the relationship. So this new hybrid model produced all kinds of problems.

How This Hybrid Model Brought About the McDojo Problem

The early martial arts masters in the US were selling a recreational service that competed with every other recreational service business in their area. They had to sell themselves to prospective students, then provide quality service in a way that retained the students as long as possible. For every student lost, a new one would need to be recruited. All to pay the bills.

It didn’t take long for the martial arts masters to realize the commercialization of martial arts causes all kinds of problems. The master/ disciple relationship had changed because the master was no longer the power broker. In the old system, disciples were essentially bonded to their master through good and bad through cultural tradition. Under the American commercialized system, the disciples were free to leave at any time for another master, another art, or even a completely different recreational activity. They were, after all, paying customers.

In the old system, the martial arts masters were irreplaceable cultural icons to be revered and respected. In the United States, teachers of any kind are viewed as replaceable cogs in a big machine. Even martial arts masters.

Under the threat of constantly losing paying customers, martial art school owners had to start generating revenue through other streams, like requiring specific uniforms purchased from the school owner, testing fees for belts and the creation of more belts, a lowering of standards of the art, and, because it became important to recruit as many new students as possible, deceptive advertising. This also led to the proliferation of echo chambers where really stupid ideas flourish (like “death touch” techniques.) Essentially, this commercialization of the martial arts model forced owners to make compromises that are not in the students’ best interests in order to pay the bills. 

Despite the obvious problems this hybrid business model creates, the commercialized recreational martial art model has been used for pretty much every martial art that has been brought to the United States. Including Brazilian jiu jitsu.

How BJJ Adopted the Model

Back in the late 70’s, Rorion Gracie was primarily responsible for bringing a commercialized version of Brazilian jiu jitsu to the United States. It’s an interesting story, including the back story to the development of the modern day UFC mixed martial arts promotion. His primary goal was simple - bring the art here to America to make cash. Which he did.

In the process, Rorion set the tone that would shape the development of BJJ here in the US, which was the same tone other martial arts had previously followed - Jiu jitsu businesses became commercial recreational martial arts businesses.

Today, we see the effects of this on almost every jiu jitsu school in the country. There will be one “master” (usually a black belt) who is responsible for disseminating information to the rest of the school, which is often made up of students ranging from first-day noobs to gristled veterans. Dissent is discouraged; the master is assumed to have all the answers. Authority is not questioned. Collaboration with others outside the school (or lineage) is strongly discouraged and oftentimes punished. Loyalty to the master and the school is a must; people who show disloyalty are branded a “creonte” and socially-shunned. Innovation is limited to the degree of open-mindedness of the master. When students reach a certain degree of proficiency, they’re often expected to assume an instructor role. And so on.

This system creates all kinds of issues like intra- and inter-school drama, ego issues, high turnover, and the problem of students leaving to start their own schools and taking students in the process. It forces owners to spend a disproportionate amount of time generating and following up on leads for new students, teaching a re-teaching the same boring basics to the constant flow of new students coming through the door, teaching too many classes at inconvenient times, constantly having to chase students down to collect payments, and a host of other problems that make school ownership pretty shitty.

The real problem, though, is this commercialized recreational service model is poorly-designed to maximize the potential of the information age. The old master/ disciple model worked in part because the knowledge the master held was incredibly rare. Given we have the Internet, this is no longer the case. There are approximately 275,000 videos available on the Internet about arm bars alone, and many of these videos feature knowledge from the very best competitors and instructors in the sport.

Like pretty much any knowledge today, knowledge about jiu jitsu is abundant and free. KNOWING the information is now virtually worthless. The real value is being able to FILTER the information to determine what is useful and worthless. The real value is being able to synthesize the information. The real value is being able to teach this synthesized information. Anybody can now access WHAT to teach. What we need today are people who know HOW to teach. And our business model is terrible at that. Severely impedes it, even.

The Solution

Our School/ Tribe model was partially designed to remedy this entire issue. Our jiu jitsu classes (and to a lesser extent, our mma classes) are sacred in that we really need them to survive. The physical and mental benefits our team derives from those classes is one of the more important parts of our lives. As such, this was among the highest priorities in designing the framework of this plan- WE NEED A PLACE TO TRAIN.

The gist - the Tribe will essentially run the program, replacing the "Master" and "Disciples." This diffuses the weird power gradient that simply doesn't play well as a business model. Because the Tribe is already, by design, a closely-connected unit, there's no weird "loyalty" crap. The Tribe is free to use expertise from any and all sources because the entire operation clearly, explicitly benefits both the Tribe and the Students.

Psychologically, this simple distinction of "Tribe" and "Student" creates much clearer roles, and should eliminate a lot of the common problems we see in the current models. In future posts, I'll go into great detail on HOW this could be implemented.

~Jason

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