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  • What’s your mecca?

    Posted on August 23rd, 2010 by Robbin and currently 11 commenting.


    Last week I had a delightful conversation with a potential new team mate.

    Yeah, we are thinking about hiring again. Feels really, really good to me.

    Anyway she was just super cool. You know we believe Brains on Fire is movement and so I love it when people tell me.

    “I have found my people.”

    That is the way you feel when you find others who share your same passions. That set of words is just so tribe like to me.

    Same tribe is another word for this feeling.

    Anyway, I asked the question, you know the one we are all taught to ask when interviewing someone. “Do you have any questions for me?’ BTW, the answer is never NO> Stupid people have no questions. Sorry to be so blunt but it’s true.. Anyway, without a doubt she asked the best question I’ve heard in a long, long time.

    “What is your mecca?” (she had read the book, page 76)

    I loved that surprisingly great question so much I had to stand up. And I think it’s helpful for everyone to answer it.

    Here’s my answer. I have so many. Just knowing that it was hard to answer made me happy.

    So… this sounds silly and self serving, but it is the truth. Brains on Fire is mecca for me. I love being here. Every. Single. Day. Surrounded by crazy smart people who share my passion for making positive change in the world. And then the clients who write me love letters on a Saturday morning. It’s just my personal mecca. We have good coffee too.

    But I also love, love fast cars. So the BMW Performance Center is a little bit of Mecca for me. When you go there, they share all kinds of cool things. I have been three times thanks to my friend Natalie and my heart races every time. Just writing this post makes my heart race. You can burn the brand new rubber off the tires and they don’t care. They just get more tires. It’s amazing. I have a BMW – a fast one and since I believe in staying safe, I don’t go over 105 on the highway. (Smiling). At the Performance Center they let you go as fast as you want. Yup. Mecca. And the female race car driver makes me believe that one day, I just might do it. She is inspirational.

    So I really want to hear your stories of mecca, will you share with me today?

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  • http://www.brainsonfire.com Justin

    I told her my Mecca was sitting in an extra-large, cluttered studio/toyroom. I’d be designing cool crap and surrounded my weirdo inspiration.

  • http://brainsonfire.com Robbin

    Uh. Justin. Look around. You are sitting smack dab in the middle of mecca.

  • http://www.brainsonfire.com Justin

    Ha! I know. I realized that after I’d typed it.

    Just need more shelf space ;-)

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  • http://www.twitter.com/jamieplesser Jamie

    Hi Robbin,

    I have a few versions of mecca. When it comes to being with friends and family, that’s a no brainer. Give me a small club with great live music, my family & friends close by and a cold beer in hand.

    If I’m looking to get away from things, I love being able to play a round of golf by myself. I like to just get out there, decompress and walk the course.

    And lastly, being a Kansas City native, I have to give a plug to Arthur Bryant’s barbecue. Every time I go back home and go there for a meal, I get chills. It’s just such an authentic and real place. And the food is damn good.

  • http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com Sean

    What a great question. I left financial services almost 3 years ago to go work for my Mecca: Colonial Williamsburg. I could tell you so many stories like mine, of people who just up and left because they desperately wanted to work here and participate in our story. They’re everywhere. There are countless others who dream of doing the same thing. It’s amazing.

    Can you have a mecca within a mecca? If so, mine is the cooking fireplace in one of our historic kitchens. Create, eat, share. Awesome.

  • http://www.twitter.com/nomeatballs Amy Taylor

    “But then they danced down the street like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”

    Anywhere I discover a dingledodie is my mecca. And my home.

    xo
    AT

  • http://www.mikebilleter.com Mike Billeter

    I’d say that, over the past 5 years, my mecca has been Dave Matthews Band’s traditional summer tour stop at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin. For five consecutive years, my best friends and I make the 8-10 hour drive from Sioux Falls, SD to East Troy, WI to spend 2 nights listening to great live music and, more importantly, to spend an entire day in the parking lot with 35,000+ DMB fans hanging out and celebrating the weekend.

    Unfortunately, DMB announced they won’t be touring next year, so it may be time to start deciding on a new mecca. Touring the Marvel Comics headquarters last year puts it strongly in the running as the new “place I need to get to” (as I’m a HUGE comic book fan), but for now I’m just going to treat my current location (Sioux Falls) as my mecca, make the best of it, and enjoy it as much as I can until it’s time to move on.

    But that doesn’t mean I don’t plan to be a comic book editor at Marvel someday. Good question for sure, Robbin. Looking forward to reading the book soon. My friend Hugh Weber has said nothing but good things and I value his opinion more than most, so I’m very excited to get my hands on it.

  • http://WeDiscoverStories.com Hugh Weber

    From the time I was a wee tot (age six or so), my Mecca was Washington, DC. Fascinated by political history, I would fall asleep most nights dreaming about the monuments, the people and the conversations. Fortunately, I was able to live several years in Washington as an adult and realize all of my childhood dreams (i.e. watching fireworks on the White House lawn, playing a leadership role in a Presidential campaign and inauguration.) Those real life experiences were every bit as good as the dreams. I believe that I was able to accomplish those dreams because of the inspiration of that place and what it symbolized for me.

    In 2006, I decided that I wanted my personal legacy for myself (and now, my daughter) to be all of the positives of politics (community building, telling average people’s stories) without all of the negatives. I want to build the kind of passion movements I have for candidate, but with a focus on the long-term goals and the people themselves. At risk of extreme flattery, I believe that the Mecca for these life goals is Brains on Fire. I now find that my true daydreaming time gravitates towards Greenville, a place I’ve never been, and the people working there. It serves as my aspirational symbol of what’s possible with commitment to cause and passion for people.

  • http://brainsonfire.com Robbin

    Thanks to all of you for sharing your meccas. It’s tells you so much about a person. I just find all these stories amazing. Just amazing.

    IF you find your mecca and work there, yes @sean, that is just beyond awesome. I know.

    @mike, Marvel needs you….

    @hugh, wee tot is my new favorite set of words. @nomeatballs We are blood kin.

    @jamie I will check out Arthur’s Barbeque when I’m in KC.

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