During Mars 2016 I workshopped intensely with my classmates in Seth Godins altMBA course. It was the 4th time it was run.

In summary for those two want the facts:

I learned to:

To ship – Deliver often and constantly.
New ways to collaborate in live web-workshops to create more than most of us thought possible in "impossible" timeframes.
I embraced and understood abstract stuff like problem framing, constraints, and sunk costs more than I'd ever been able to from a textbook or lecture.
I learned to love most of the people the course attitude attracted.

The longer story for those who want the story

Perhaps twenty years ago I attended a leadership course where there was a huge image on the wall saying “YOUR True Life begins outside the comfort zone”

That message has been with me every now and then since. I have often embraced a change with tension, weak knees and insight in how I would like it to become. Taking a leap outside my comfort zone to create the future I want and then a few step backs hiding within it again. Slowly stretching myself into becoming the leader I am today. A quiet listener and a strong driver of change that matters to me and others around me.

What strikes me with altmba was how quick a lot of things changed for me.

Embracing my fear of photos of the web took a year and resulted in this site that helps leaders “sit with their resistance without hiding, without losing focus or energy yet taking a well-earned timeout before going head-on back to the task at hand”
That took me a year to dare to do. I’m smiling fondly and a bit silly at myself now at the memory.

I embraced the fear of having “opinions” on the web by created this podcast for leaders and anyone who want to have effects beyond themselves. That took another year for me to dare do.
Then I created another podcast (smaller stretch now that I knew I could) just to dare to embrace the fear of “what would others say” about this serious manager – talking about computer games combined with self-leadership. That decision also took me about half a year to dare to do

I still carry a lot within me that I haven’t yet dared to do. I guess that’s part of being human.
It is a wonderful feeling to face that fear though, and realize I today dare to do more, accomplish more of the work that matters than I would a year ago looking back. And to know I will feel the same looking back at today’s fear.

All in all – looking back, driving change apparently took me ages.

With AltMBA I learned to learn quick. To get feedback quick. To Try again quick. That transformation of having to ship often was quite painful for me, but in a healthy way.

My next embraces will be smaller sprints yet archiving more.
I’m thankful to all students and coaches of this course for your continuous wonderful & kind, honest & direct, feedback. Thank you, all of you for generously giving my so much of your time and insights to help me grow.

One small way I today noticed that I had changed was when I was asked to be interviewed in front of a huge video camera I surprised myself by answering yes (with tension of course :)

Normally, when I see a serious big video camera, I would say no! – The lizard brain wanting to hide me away. Note this was nothing big, just a personal VIP demo of https://www.htcvive.com/eu but still – I dared face a “non-necessary” video recording – just to stretch my comfort zone.

That would not have happened four weeks ago. I would have chosen the easy no, hiding myself away in the shadows.

Thank you altMBA for challenging my comfort zone. Giving me yet more freedom. For levelling me up in all sorts of ways. For inspiring me to do more work that matters - for myself and those around me.