
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
education

“I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.” – Walt Disney
I stay engaged in a meaningful life through actively engaging in the process of education. I’ve learned that the word education means to draw out from within. This seems very accurate. Being around children, adults, animals, nature, a church, flowers, or even cars, will draw out something from within me. Each presenting a piece of my Self and offering an opportunity to choose how I respond.
I recently spent a great deal of time engaging in the practice of self-forgiveness. The process of education delivers many of the long-standing judgments I’ve held against myself and others. Like a cat bringing gifts of dead mice or birds, my consciousness reveals aspects of myself I’ve long since forgotten. Nevertheless, they are gifts. I’m presented with opportunities to release the energy that’s been holding me back and to learn something new, a new way of being with myself, with others, and with the world.
Education is a process of revelation and transformation. The form of one who’s engaged in the process is no longer the same after a new tidbit of truth or perspective on the truth has been presented and reflected upon.
I become something new when I learn something new.
I believe there’s a changeless, nameless, formless, absolute nature to life. Mysteriously, by exploring that which is ever-changing, I connect with the changeless, and my life takes on meaning. This is the show I tune in to each morning. This is the story I follow with the rapt intent of a ten-year-old boy who’s tuning in to find out if the mystery will be solved this week, this day, this hour. Like the ten-year-old, I can’t seem to wrap my noodle around the fact that the show is, in reality, fixed. The mystery never ends. There’s always something new to be learned, explored, expressed, experienced.
Education is engaging that which is ever-changing and learning more and more about that which is changeless. Somewhere in the middle of all that, like the line that cuts through the middle of the road, there is meaning.
– Edward Biagiotti
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