20 People You Should Know
With all the cat videos and clickbait that fills our news feeds these days, it’s easy to forget the Internet can also be used to share things that make us smarter, more creative, and inspire us to do great work.
A little over a month ago, I started a website to do just that.
APersonYouShouldKnow.com launched with a simple premise: Each day I profile one person you’re better off for knowing.
I’ve been thrilled to see how people have responded to the concept, sent me suggestions of other people I had never heard of to feature on the site, and have come together to form a growing community of people interested in learning from those who generously share their brilliance with the world.
With that in mind, I’d like to share a quick glimpse of the first 20 people I’ve profiled on the site and some of the smart things they’ve said.
If you do anything creative or entrepreneurial I can’t recommend them highly enough.
You can click any of their names to learn a lot more about them or sign up here to get each day’s person sent to you by email.
Seth Godin
Author. Marketer. Idea Spreader.
“Change isn’t made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.”
Austin Kleon
Writer. Artist.
“You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences.”
Ben Chestnut
Co-founder & CEO, Mailchimp
“Fearlessness begets happiness, which begets creativity, which begets innovation, which begets profits.”
Bob Lefsetz
Music Industry Analyst. Newsletter Author.
“You think you want to become famous. But what you’re truly looking for is to become known.”
Tina Roth Eisenberg
Blogger. Designer. Founder, Creative Mornings and Tattly.
“We should always be willing to sprinkle a little nonsense into the work we do.”
Jason Hirschhorn
Chief Curator and CEO, ReDEF.com
“Failure is just a way of learning something new.”
Yung Jake
Artist. Rapper.
“I’m hesitant to call myself a character separate from my real self. But I’m a character [as] you are a character.”
Aaron Draplin
Designer.
“The most inspiring, interesting designers are charismatic people. They know how to talk. How to communicate. How to soothe. How to sell bullshit.”
Casey Gerald
Co-Founder & CEO, MBAs Across America.
“A story is the most dangerous weapon in the universe. That’s why we have to risk everything to tell the truth, which is damp and dark and dirty.”
Ian Rogers
CEO, Beats Music.
“Our kids are going to watch exactly what they want to — not what’s marketed to them.”
Wendy MacNaughton
Illustrator. Graphic Journalist.
“When you look at someone through an empathic lens, there’s a huge story there. It’s never just what you see on the surface.”
Nir Eyal
Author. Entrepreneur. Behavioral Design Expert.
“Products that require a high degree of behavior change are doomed to fail.”
Baratunde Thurston
Writer. Comedian. Co-founder and CEO of Cultivated Wit.
“Remember something about attention. Yes, it’s possible to buy, grab, or even steal it. But it’s far better to earn it.”
Jeremiah Owyang
Industry Analyst. Founder, Crowd Companies.
“When you open your email you pay someone else, because it’s usually people reaching out to ask you for something. Taking the time to read blogs, synthesize and add value, that builds your community. That’s paying yourself first.”
Warren Ellis
Writer. Graphic Novelist. Futurist.
“To improve reality is to clearly see where you are, and then wonder how to make that better.”
Sharon Ann Lee
Culture Analyst. Founder, CultureBrain.
“I’m not afraid of losing it all. I’m more afraid of spending my life away on meaningless shit.”
Dave Pell
Investor. Curator. Writer. Managing Director, The Internet.
“It’s always the personal stuff people remark on. We’re all dying for human connection on the web.”
Brene Brown
Researcher. Storyteller.
“Vulnerability is not weakness. And that myth is profoundly dangerous.”
Derek Sivers
Musician. Entrepreneur. Programmer. Writer.
“The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.”
Joel Gascoigne
Co-Founder and CEO, Buffer.
“It is just as easy to be stalled by ‘I don’t know’ as it is to let ‘I know’ cause you to become less open-minded.”
If you find these people interesting, please check out APersonYouShouldKnow.com or join the email list to get introduced to another new person every day.
And please RECOMMEND this post to help spread the word about these people!
