Jeff Dachis

Outside of the near constant wonder and amazement I get from watching DJ Lance on the children’s TV show Yo Gabba Gabba! with my daughter Ruby, I’m truly thankful for the inspiration I get from my parents, family, and my talented team. While there are so many smart entrepreneurs, a few that come to mind like John Malone, Marc Andreessen, and Elon Musk inspire for vision, tenacity, and operating focus while others like Philip Kaplan, Ev Williams, Tony Hsieh, Jason Calacanis inspire for building companies on ideas people can be truly passionate about.

David Armano

I stumbled into the world of social media almost by accident—but there were what I consider to be the pioneers of thinking that helped me shape my own thoughts. How did they influence my mind and heart? They were visual creatures of course. People like Kathy Sierra got my neurons firing. Hugh MacLeod hit me with raw emotion and provocative perspectives. Jessica Hagey communicated more with index cards than most ever will be able to do with words. I’ve since met all of these people in real life and consider myself fortunate for it. These are an extremely small sample of leaders I’m thankful for—but their ability to think visually puts them in a special place in my sketchbook.

Bryan Menell

It was sometime in 2005 that I started reading the economic musings of a student at the London Business School. While everyone else seemed to be writing about the coolness factor of emerging Web 2.0 technologies, he was writing about the economics of a connected ecosystem, the microchunking of everything, peer production, and how the new breed of enterprises were going to be creating value at the edges of the organization. Umair Haque worked on a small but fun project with me in 2006, and since then has continued to stretch our minds around value creation and destruction. Today he contributes to the Harvard Business blog, along with David.

Ellen Reynolds

Little known fact – I’m thankful for mommy bloggers. Many of the women I (secretly) follow show the true value of living in an increasingly connected society. Their “blog friends” are more like a virtual family, and many of them have been successful turning their passion, be it cooking or writing or otherwise, into a business venture. And in the process, they inspire women like me. One of my faves, The Pioneer Woman, just released a cookbook which made it to the NYT Bestseller list.

Jevon McDonald

I am grateful to those who helped me form my ideas about work and organizations, and who were generous enough to share what they had learned with me at a time when I was ready to learn. Their writings are all “near history” but as time goes on, they become more and more important in how I think about the future of work. David Weinberger, Ross Mayfield, Seb Paquet, George Dafermos, Danah Boyd, Dave Winer, Chris Locke, Robert Paterson, Clay Shirky, John Robb and many others who showed me it was better to create than to consume, and better to share than to hide.

Kate Niederhoffer

I’m thankful for adventurous, empirical scientists like Jamie Pennebaker who constantly question convention and indulge in their curiosity to “make science,” and then those who apply it to business– hopefully a growing population. My father, Victor Niederhoffer, being an exemplar. My most recent fascination, source of inspiration, and gratitude are women entrepreneurs who are taking feminism to a new height, achieving balance in working and mothering. Amanda Steinberg, CEO of Daily Worth stands out here, among my many friends and family members who ambitiously pursue their careers, are devoted mothers, partners, and often athletes.

Peter Kim

I’m thankful for two kinds of thought leaders in particular.  1) The ones who build bridges between academy and industry. Grant McCracken (who just published Chief Culture Officer). Steven Berlin Johnson. And yes, Malcolm Gladwell. Good strategy requires thinking about issues with the proper lenses and these authors help frame theory in practice and vice versa – a valuable approach for any manager. 2) Former colleagues like Josh Bernoff, Jeremiah Owyang, and Charlene Li, who continue to inspire as we all continue to move “this space” forward.

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