Love Match Week yielded 130 fervent applications from aspiring entrepreneurs from New York to New Zealand. Guidelines for applicants were finicky but open to interpretation. Alexandra and I selected 15 finalists, and now it’s time for the the free world to choose the winners. 7 of them. Each of whom had a great cocktail line and is revving to take their work in the world to the next level.

It’s out of my hands now. I kind of feel like Simon Cowell when it’s America’s turn to choose the Idol. (But sweeter. And without all that V-neck exposing chest hair.)

To everyone who bought The Fire Starters Sessions and donated their copy to the Love Match Mix for this very purpose, I am giving you a humble bow of Namaste and appreciation. Your giving is flint for someone’s aspirations and stamina. It’s beautiful. Thank you very, very much.

To everyone who applied to win: Thank you for putting your dreams and requests on display for tens of thousands of people to see. Entrepreneurship is an unending journey of asking, and strengthening your “ask muscle” always pays off.

To the finalists: Nicely done! You made it this far because you’re on the road to clarity in presenting yourself and your business. Now…send the world over here to vote for you. FYI, the Twitter hashtag is #FireSS

VOTING ENDS AT MIDNIGHT PST THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15

The 15 contenders vying for 7 copies of The Fire Starter Sessions program are:

(in no particular order)

: ANGELIQUE ARROYO
: APRIL BOWLES-OLIN
: NICHOLA BENDALL
: KAI SOREMEKUN
: TALLULAH FLYTE
: LEAH PAULS
: HOLLY SMITH
: KIMBERLY GILL
: MAIA DUERR
: CHLOE WALKER
: DEANNA GIBBONS
: TESSA ZENG
: HANNAH MAYO
: BRITTANY JADE TRUBRIDGE
: PATSY KAY KOLESAR

Ready? Set?

♥ CLICK HERE TO VIEW + VOTE FOR THE LOVE MATCHEES ♥

Vive la democracy!

With Love,

I still wrestle with issues of spheres of influence (like one might wrestle a greased boa constrictor while wearing in a bikini – with great difficulty), but my circle of devotion has gotten decidedly more focused, or at least more proportioned. My a-ha on this came like a bolt of lighting, at a swanky event, in which I cried an ugly cry that I’ll never forget.

I was at a weekend retreat in the Catsklills for thinkers thinking global-size thoughts. We fancied ourselves as change agents. And we were. The group of us was made up of economists, UN officials, socially responsible CEOs, media personalities, and bonafide spiritual leaders. Conversations were deeply meaningful and our love for our individual and shared causes cohered into a whole lotta serious inspiration. One of the afternoons was allotted for individual silent time and we were encouraged to reflect in solitude and then reconvene.

I spent some of my time in a dilapidated tree house in the woods. I journaled. I laid on the grass and cloud-watched. I thought about my “causes” and how much I poured into saving the world from all the things I thought it needed to be saved from. And my thoughts brought me home. Literally.

A few weeks before, my man and I got engaged. I was deep into thought about what commitment to a life together meant. The enormity of it, the sweetness of it, the terror of it….I thought of all that was required to be poured into it. And something in me cracked open that overcast day: I realized that most of my love was being poured outward, not homeward. It felt more noble to help people in far off countries and in future generations than it did to – simply – love the one I was with and love him well – the way he deserved to be loved.

We reconvened, sat in our fancy chairs in a circle, preparing to discuss our world-enhancing thoughts that had surfaced in our silent solitude. I wasn’t aware of it for a few moments, but I was crying.

(Now, before I go any further with this story, it’s essential that I tell you that I’m not a public crier. I don’t even really like groups. I’ve done too many group workshops and those moments when sister gets up and bawls her eyes out about family of origin stuff or mister breaks down about his mean mother… well, I appreciate it. I feel deep compassion. Sometimes I admire those group-shared collapses. But I don’t do it. My snot-gobbing heaving cries are sacred and best had in my bathtub or day bed. Except on this day, in front of the dignitaries and laureates. On this day, I was about to lose my shit like no other.)

The facilitator noticed me quietly whimpering. “Danielle, clearly you’re moved. Would you like to share?” People were looking concerned and then I started to feel concerned because I noticed that I was really crying, like, my body was crying for me and there was no stopping it. For some reason, I grabbed the mic and I let ‘er rip: “I, I, I just realized…” I was sobbing now, “I’ve been so fixated on the global, that, that, that… I’ve missed the love in my own home. I’ve, you know… I’ve missed the…the center of my circle.” People nodded. I don’t know if they related or thought I was pathetic. The silence was deafening.

And then I blew my nose and whimpered, “We can move on now.” It was gross. And so we did. We talked about the layers of service and devotion and where we chose to put our energies. It was awkward and then beautiful and then powerful.

Everyone was really uncomfortably nice to me after that. I felt like they’d all seen my underpants, and I wasn’t wearing any.

Am I happy that I slobbered all over my white shirt and blew my cover as a cool cucumber in front of those agents of change? Nope, not really. I’m just not that ego-less and evolved. I could have done without the high-exposure blubber fest. But it happened. And it put the world crises into perspective for me. And I went home. And for probably the first time, I was really home when I got there.

Chris Guillebeau is crazy. The man behind The Art of Nonconformity, Chris is well on his way to visit every country in the world by April 7, 2013. He’s got 117 down out of a list of 192 United Nations members, plus 5 extra entities that are not sovereign but are effectively self-governing. (In case you were wondering, that’d be Taiwan, Kosovo, Palestine, Northern Cyprus, and Somaliland.) Places with angry soldiers are temporarily on hold, like Somalia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, and possibly Angola. And Cuba’s a hassle.

He runs marathons. Before catching red-eye flights to exotic lands, he hosts world domination meet ups for his small growing army of remarkable people. His book come out next year and proceeds of it are going to one of the most effectual charities in action, Charity: Water. When we last met, he was cooking up a project that culminates in Ethiopia and he invited me get over there and leave a village better than we found it.

I told you. He’s crazy. My kind of crazy.

1. What are you positively addicted to? (Note: my shrink defines positive addiction as “a healthy high, it makes you stronger. As long as the craving for it doesn’t take you over, then it’s, like totally cool.”)
Coffee, travel, running, adventure, good emails.

2. What do you know to be true, unquestionably beyond doubt, certain with every cell of your being, completely, passionately, righteously certain?
Where much is given, much is required. I’ve been given a lot.

3. What was the dumbest thing that you used to believe in?
Someone else will be responsible for my success or failure.

4. Who do you admire?
Lots of people. In no particular order: Lance Armstrong, Dean Karnazes, Malcolm X, Danielle LaPorte, Paul Farmer, the aid workers I know in Africa who are working hard in difficult situations while I drink lattes around the world, everyone who cares about what I have to say on my blog.

5. What book(s) are you always telling people to read?
Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracy Kidder
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Good to Great, Jim Collins
Getting Things Done, David Allen
A Wild Sheep Chase, Haruki Murakami
Wishcraft, Barbara Sher

6. I’m going to give you a word. Tell me what the first thing is that comes to mind when you read it… Ready? The word is: LEGACY.
Don’t wait! Life is short!

7. What question are you currently living?
How far can I take this?

Well clearly Chris, you can take it ’round the world and back again, giving butt-kicking motivation and goodness all the way.

. . . . . . .

Chris Guillebeau.com
Chris on twitter: @chrisguillebeau

Chris and Gwen Bell just launched The Unconventional Guide to the Social Web. Way cool.

Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project blog is one of the most respected and visited personal dev sites on line. Gretchen is not only a deep thinker, but she’s a big thinker. And she just released The Happiness Project Toolbox, complete with personalizable inspiration boards, one sentence journaling, and my fav, a collection of people’s “secrets to adulthood.” Gretchen has hit this one out of the park and I’m so excited for her.

Mathematics of Glamour is a smart site “multiplying reflection, adventure, and the factors in between to personal beauty.” The very thoughtful Kira Zmuda is on to something magical, I think, with the self portraits that are starting to roll in to her blog. I just sent off my own self-perspective and the sketch was an interesting exercise, not unlike writing a short bio. I was happy to see that I see myself as … very happy.

I have two favourite charities: Women for Women International and Kiva and now, I have to make it three with Charity: Water, a non-prof organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. It was started by self-described self-absorbed Manhattan nightclub owner, Scott Harrison, who decided to do something more meaningful with his life, and man, has he ever made good on that choice. Charity: Water has been monumentally, rapidly successful. Read more in this Sunday’s New York Times. Chris Gillebeau‘s book next year will be a joint project with them.