
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
explore

What’s most meaningful for me at this point is exploring and connecting with projects I love that feel primal. They’re the ones that bypass the brain’s filter. When we tap into this kind of desire, we don’t notice time going by. We don’t notice we haven’t eaten in a while. We don’t care if we made money or not. It’s that feeling of really yearning to get going, and then we do, we get a feeling of being filled up. That’s where power comes from.
A turning point for me was leaving my job as an insurance adjuster after a thought I had standing on a roof in Louisiana. I worked on Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita and other disasters. Two of my friends had fallen off of roofs the week before and injured themselves. I stood on the roof that day and thought, If I fell off of this roof and broke my leg or my neck, ended up crippled or dead, would I be proud of what I’ve done with my life? The answer was, No, there’s actually so much more I want to accomplish.
I got off that roof and – with a little help from a speech I heard Barack Obama give about people tapping into their desires and innate abilities and wanting to help others – I called my boss and walked away from that job. That was a big moment. I felt my whole body light up with energy and knew I was doing the right thing.
Then, about two years ago, I had a breakdown when I realized I couldn’t do it all myself. At first, it felt like failing, because I was working from a mentality of “I’ll build my own house and my own fence and ….” It was all “me, me, me.” But I made the switch from being upset that I couldn’t do it alone to getting really excited about saying, “Oh. I can’t do this alone. So how many people can I involve?” I had to give up a lot of control and add a lot of trust.
We’ve moved from a tribal mentality to hyper individualism – where everyone’s on their own and separate, and now it feels like we’re all moving back into tribes. I think that’s beautiful. There’s so much more power in collective energy than in every individual running around trying to make their own little things by themselves.
– Jesse Gros
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