
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
community

I live in a housing cooperative in London, so we’ve got a community here, in the sense that we live together democratically and share space with each other, hopefully in a friendly and cooperative way.
I’ve always had a strong community around me, even though I’ve always lived a sort of nomadic lifestyle. I spent 14 years traveling with music festivals every summer, in a clan where everyone worked and lived together day after day and then traveled on the road together. Even though we were in a new place every week, we still had our community around us. As a kid, I lived in various kinds of communities as well. I used to go to dance camps, which were like community festivals. Everyone got up for a morning meeting and people volunteered to cook and do all the various tasks needed.
Recently, I’ve been bringing the idea of community into my feasts, into the dining events I create. I design the logistics of the meal so that everyone eats at the same time – whether there are a hundred people or a thousand – and everyone shares food with each other. Everything is presented on the table, but with no individual plates. People pass things to each other and there’s conversation. Doing it that way breaks the ice.
When I started cooking, it was because I was extremely passionate about food. I’ve come to realize that a lot of what’s meaningful to me about cooking is the end result of giving the food to people and creating a dining situation that’s a communal celebration. The cooking I do is about making people happy and bringing people together. Those have become important aspects of my catering.
If you feel disconnected from a community, just join in somehow. Find someplace where people are working together, even like in a dance class, and join in. Or volunteer with a helping group, like at a soup kitchen. There’s always a sense of community in places like that.
When I get invited to dinner, I don’t really give a damn what the food is like. Even when I’m amazed to try out someone else’s creation and eat something I haven’t made before, mostly I’m just happy we’re all sharing the meal together.
– Tom Hunt
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