
Affectionately known as "America's #1 Success Coach," Jack Canfield is the originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and a leading authority in the areas of self-esteem, achievement motivation, and peak performance. [www.jackcanfield.com]

Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and Editor in Chief of the Huffington Post and the author of twelve books. [www.huffingtonpost.com]

Seth Godin is a prominent author, blogger and speaker. [www.squidoo.com/linchpin]

Krishna Kaur is the founder of YOGA for Youth, a program that takes yoga, meditation, and stimulating discussions on the philosophy of yoga to urban youth. [www.yogaforyouth.org]

Norman Lear has enjoyed a long career in television and film. He is also a political and social activist and philanthropist. [www.normanlear.com]

Leilani Münter is a professional race car driver and an environmental activist who uses her voice in the number one spectator sport in America as a catalyst for change. [www.leilanimunter.com]

By going undercover to meet slaves and slaveholders, Kevin Bales exposed modern slavery's penetration into the global economy. He co-founded Free the Slaves, which has helped to liberate thousands of slaves. [www.freetheslaves.net]

Sophie Chiche, lifebyme.com founder and curator, enjoys asking deep questions and living a life of meaning. Today she's launching Shape House, an urban sweat lodge, a place to melt away fears and fat. [www.shapehousela.com]

Entrepreneur and writer Mastin Kipp founded TheDailyLove.com, which merges pop culture with inspiration, and co-founded The Love Yourself Company, an apparel company that has started a global self-esteem movement. [www.TheDailyLove.com]

Liz Phair is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. [www.lizphair.com]

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is Chairman of The Elders, a group of world leaders who address some of the world's most pressing problems. He works energetically for human-rights and in his ministry. [www.tutu.org]

Zainab Salbi is the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a group dedicated to helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives. [www.womenforwomen.org]

Despite his physical challenges, Sean Stephenson has taken a stand for a quality of life that has inspired millions of people around the world. He's a professional speaker, psychotherapist, and author. [www.timetostand.com]

Kia Miller teaches Yoga at Yoga Works in Los Angeles, leads teacher trainings, and runs retreats and workshops on meditation, chakras, pranayam, and mantras, and other practices. [www.kiamiller.com]

Simon Mainwaring is an ex-Nike/Wieden creative, former Worldwide Creative Director at Motorola/Ogilvy, branding/advertising writer, author/speaker/blogger, Australian, idea geek. [www.simonmainwaring.com]

Shannon Bindler is a style editor, life coach, and the co-founder of Get Up Girl, an empowerment company that inspires women to shine. [www.getupgirl.com]

Grammy-nominated art director/designer/photographer Mathieu Bitton has designed over 450 CDs and movie posters. He's a renowned collector of and authority on black films and their soundtracks. [www.candytangerine.com]

Opus Reps founder and agent-producer Jorge Perez travels the world producing photo shoots with great photographers and celebrities. He's also very involved with Meals on Wheels in Los Angeles. www.opusreps.com
collaborate

I went to a private high school in San Francisco that was very rigorous and competitive. It was all about who got the best grades, who won in sports, and who did well socially. I never felt like I fit in. Though I gained an understanding of what community meant, it was only in a very limited sense.
What made a big difference was traveling and seeing a different view of the world. While still in school, I lived with a family in France, and later with a family in Greece. A couple of years after that, I lived with a family in Tanzania and taught HIV and AIDS awareness. As an International Studies major in college, I focused on a discipline and a language – Economics and Political Science and French – so part of my education was to study in France.
Those international experiences expanded my understanding of what community really means and what it’s like to feel very connected with people who don’t look like me or talk like me, but treat me like family and take me into their community as one of their own.
Through those experiences I redefined and found meaning in a sense of community that bridged languages and ethnicities. I found out what I was seeking in life: building connections with people. I also saw that I was able to make a difference in some of the overwhelmingly challenging issues I saw on the news, by building relationships with people on the other side of the world and bringing those experiences home to help shift my friends’ consciousness as well, expanding their awareness of issues in the world and why they matter.
What’s most meaningful to me now is helping the millennial generation find careers in which they do well for themselves while doing good for others and for the planet. My Aha! moment about this came through my first mentor, a man I met when I was 19 and he was 65. He’d been a U.S. diplomat and traveled all over the world. When we talked about how our international experiences had affected us, everything he said really resonated with me. He introduced me to the concept of social entrepreneurship. I started working with him as an intern. We co-authored a book and went on a book tour together. We became each other’s adopted family. That relationship has changed my life.
I want to give others the opportunity to have that kind of intergenerational, life-changing experience.
– David Hopkins


Explore More Meaning
-
spiritual alarm clock. soul purpose hunter. visionary.
Sahra Renata is a mystic, artist, writer and poet, with an M.A in spiritual Philosophy and a Ph.D in metaphysics. Sahra has taught advanced metaphysics and mastery of the healing arts throughout Europe, the U.S., Australia and Mexico. [www.bookofsahra.com]
-
question asker. superhero maker. broccoli activist.
Understanding what a busy lifestyle can do to both your emotional and physical state, Mark Leruste is passionate about creating radical shifts in people’s lives by empowering them to drop toxic habits, adopt healthy mindsets, and achieve breakthroughs. [www.lifeinshape.co.uk/about]
- More
Comments