For readers from the States, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving! A few months ago, I was thinking about all the individuals who have helped shape the course of my life and the person I am today. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have the guidance of some brilliant minds and to surround myself with motivated, creative, innovative people.

They say your character and your achievements are influenced most by the people you surround yourself with. There have even been studies that show your income bracket is likely to be equal to the average of that of your five closest friends. So who are you surrounding yourself with?

Today I wanted to share my gratitude to my many teachers, mentors, role models, and friends who have influenced my life and given me their support. It’s important to acknowledge those who help foster your abilities and empower you to pursue the life you want.

Alec Hodgins

A French Canadian who taught English in France for years and then migrated to the US to teach French! I was lucky to be in his class for three years in high school. Alec was the most influential teacher I ever had in school, always advocating the unconventional path. He was the one who inspired my fascination with world cultures, languages, and travel. My first travel abroad was on a class trip with him to Cannes & Paris, France, and he first got me drooling over photos of Thailand when he took his wife and son there in 2000.

Lesson learned: You don’t have to color inside the lines all the time.

Alan Haynes

My photography teacher in high school, again for three years. In another life, I was a professional photographer (now it’s mostly a hobby, but I have a travel photo site coming soon). Alan connected me with my very first job, working in a darkroom, and showed me that it was possible to earn a great living if you split your time as an artist and as a teacher, to pass on your craft to the next generation.

Lesson learned: It’s okay to pursue your creative passion professionally.

Nicole Pefley

I met Nicole in middle school and our paths have intertwined ever since. She’s been a two-time Coachellian with me, we have a shared love for travel, French, music, and other assorted weird experiences. After high school, she lived in Paris for many months, and then spent a year studying in Brazil, so she was a great example for me to follow when I chose to live abroad for a while. Recently, she’s followed in Alec Hodgins footsteps and began teaching French at our old high school.

Lesson learned: We’ve both found you really can be a drifter for a few years after school, explore your interests, and eventually land on your feet.

Ramit Sethi

I’ve mentioned Ramit a few times recently. He was the first big blogger I reached out to when I started building my online presence in 2006, and I found out we’re from the same town! He’s a perfect role model for gen-y bloggers and entrepreneurs—he’s a year older than me, a graduate of Stanford University, and a successful tech startup co-founder. He’s worked with bigshots like Seth Godin and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and now he’s a New York Times bestselling author!

Lesson learned: Nobody’s going to give you handout. But there’s no harm in asking for what you want.

Jeffrey Skoll

Jeff Skoll was the first president of eBay and founder of movie production company Participant Media (responsible for bringing An Inconvenient Truth to the world). He’s been an active voice at Stanford’s Center for Social Innovation, and took his wealth from his success at eBay to become a philanthropist and support innovative entrepreneurship and social change with the Skoll Foundation. I’ve never spoken to Jeff, but he has always served as a great social entrepreneur role model for me.

Lesson learned: You can make a damn good living and make a difference at the same time.

Warren Buffett

The “Oracle of Omaha” is known around the world as one of the world’s most talented investors and money managers, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and the richest person in the world (up until 2008, worth about $62 billion). Buffett started out with the money he earned as a newspaper boy to buy his first assets, and despite his now immense fortune, he still lives in a home he purchased for $50K in the 1950s and embraces a frugal lifestyle. In 2006, I had the opportunity to meet him briefly, just weeks after his announcement that he’d be giving away 85 percent of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Lesson learned: If the wealthiest investor & philanthropist in the world grew his business from just a few dollars from his paper route, you can too.

Rajesh Setty

I connected with Raj through his blog Life Beyond Code in my early days of blogging. As a serial entrepreneur, he tends to be involved as a co-founder, investor, or board member in about eight companies at any given time. He shares his wealth of business experience and motivational wisdom through his blog, Twitter, speaking engagements, and his books, and he was a huge influence on me when I first started my freelance side business which later grew into Thrilling Heroics Consulting.

Lesson learned: Business isn’t about a product, it’s about the people you work with, the relationships you build, and the dedication you show to your customer.

Timothy Ferriss

My interest in coming to Southeast Asia was fueled by reading Tim Ferriss’ inspiring NYT Bestseller The 4 Hour Workweek. Ferriss noted that Thailand and Argentina were two of the world’s best remaining destinations where Americans can easily stretch their dollar, and that if you spend the time to build a business that you can run from anywhere, you can easily leverage the idea of geo-arbitrage—earning in a strong currency while you live somewhere with a low cost-of-living. Though I’ve never met Tim, his ideas and experiments have certainly influenced a lot of my business decisions since reading his book!

Lesson learned: You don’t have to wait until retirement to create the lifestyle of your dreams. Also, nobody ever said you have to follow the rules.

Jacqueline Novogratz

Founder & CEO of Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture fund that invests philanthropic capital and trains the next generation of business leaders in South Asia and East Africa to build thriving businesses focused on delivering affordable healthcare, water, housing and energy to the poor. She delivers a few incredibly pursuasive TED Talks and is a shining example of some of the social entrepreneurs that are trying to lead social progress for the developing world. (Side note: Jacqueline is married to TED‘s founder Chris Anderson, another inspirational figure who has proven that that ideas can change the world. I’m excited to bring Chris’ vision to Thailand in Febraury with TEDx BKK!)

Lesson learned: Entrepreneurial approaches can be applied to solve the problems of global poverty.

Matt Mullenweg

At just 25-years-old, Matt Mullenweg has developed a company that is changing the way businesses interact with their clients online. His company created the WordPress blog platform, which makes it easy for anyone to get started publishing online, and which is what I have built my two businesses around—Thrilling Heroics Consulting and FreelanceWP—to help make online publishing more accessible to everyone and help innovators and changemakers spread their message to the world. Matt is a huge advocate of open-source development, which is making great software more quickly and easily possible, and transforming how we think about ownership.

Lesson learned: Share your best ideas with the world freely to empower the largest possible community, and it will come back to you many-fold.

Paul Dickey

Paul joined E*Trade after high school and became senior internal auditor, working around the world and overseeing a team of employees with advanced degrees. We met in college when he returned to get his own Bachelor’s degree, lived together for nearly a year, and traveled to Spain together with friends. Paul led a campaign to implement leadership studies at Sac State, was president of several student organizations, and together we attended many entrepreneurship conferences, organized monthly Saturday art walks in Sacramento, launched the U.S.’ fourth university Toastmasters chapter, and networked with tons of other entrepreneurs. He’s got a few business plans laid out, a submission with the patent office, and real estate property.

Lesson learned: Set your life goals and manage your time appropriately, and you can maximize your involvement in different entrepreneurial opportunities to guarantee your success.

Chris Guillebeau

After Tim Ferriss, Chris Guillebeau has perhaps been the most influential writer encouraging the masses to think differently and pursue unconventional, remarkable lifestyles. Chris is on a mission to travel to every country in the world (he’s already visited 122), and since starting his blog The Art of Nonconformity a little under 2 years ago, he has managed to create a full-time income for himself just from his writing projects. He even has great tips on how to travel to rogue states and “off-limits” places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma, Libya, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and North Korea. I got the chance to meet him on his way through Bangkok in February, and have often been inspired by his thoughts on entrepreneurship, success, and changing the world.

Lesson learned: You really can go anywhere you want, and create your own wealth along the way.

Dwight Turner

Dwight and I met briefly in college. When I learned he had taught for a year in Thailand, we became fast friends and eventually both ended up back in Bangkok together. Dwight’s In Search Of Sanuk is a grassroots charity organization that makes it easy for anyone to contribute their time or donations to make a difference for orphans and refugees here in Thailand. He housed me when I first moved out here, has supported me through a lot of the challenges of getting used to expat/entrepreneur life, and together we’ve done a lot of traveling, volunteering, and bringing cool people from different walks of life together for the monthly Bangkok Tweetup, charity mixers, and other social events.

Lesson learned: It’s easier than you might think to mobilize a community to create social change.

Vanessa Rubin

An incredible young woman I was lucky to meet this year here in Bangkok—Vanessa is an aid worker who has spent nearly a decade working on humanitarian projects (frequently as a food & hunger advisor) in places like Nepal, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, & Bangladesh—she’s full of life, an avid rock climber, and earlier this year she was filmed for the BBC’s TV series Extreme Dreams on an expedition to scale Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. She came to Thailand to review progress made by Care International since the 2004 tsunami.

Lesson learned: Always reach for new heights and seek ways to improve the lives of others, but never neglect yourself either.

Larry McKibben

My dad has been the biggest supporter of my unconventional entrepreneur & digital nomad lifestyle. Though I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way, he has often been the one to encourage me and give me the pep-talk I need. Although he didn’t finish his college degree the first time around, he has had an extremely successful twenty-year career in retail sales and training and quickly worked his way to earning an envy-inducing salary. He’s always been dedicated to his family and a great example of a hard worker.

Lesson learned: With enough dedication, you don’t have to let perceived barriers-to-entry prevent you from being successful.

So who are the teachers that had the most impact on you? Who are your mentors? What supportive friends and role models are you thankful for?

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Show Thanks For Your Teachers, Mentors & Role Models

Thrilling Heroics in 2007

2007 was a fantastic year for the blog. The site became an early participant in the Washington Post Blogroll program. And many things are still in development for the road ahead, but TH has recently been accepted as one of the first handful of Gen-Y career blogs to join the upcoming Brazen Careerist blog network, which should be a great opportunity. Over the course of the year, I also had the chance to interview several interesting individuals to get their perspective on leadership and success, so that Gen-Y readers can learn from their experience!

Thrilling Heroics has seen a lot of change this year as my personal interests and pursuits have evolved. The discussion is geared more toward personal and career development now than it was at the birth of this blog in 2006, but the central mission is the same: TH is a career-oriented resource aimed at college students and young professionals, with a strong focus on leadership, personal development, productivity, personal finance, entrepreneurship, and “lifestyle design,” with the purpose of inspiring and empowering readers to pursue their wildest dreams! In 2008, you can plan to see some further changes around here in content and design, and you will probably see a few guest writers. Click here to learn more about plans for ’08.

I also have to thank the readers, of course! Thank you for returning week after week. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement, for your patience with me as my direction and obligations change, and for sharing your thoughts on the discussions that take place here. Your comments and your supportive emails keep me going, and they keep the dialogue here interesting! In the next year, I hope to build more community here for you young readers, so please help us to grow the community by sharing the URL with your family, friends, and colleagues. Also, if you are a regular visitor, consider subscribing to the RSS feed to make life easier on yourself. Get posts delivered to your email inbox only when there is fresh new content, so that you don’t waste time visiting the site when there’s nothing new!

Best Posts of 2007

There were 102 posts this year, with over 6,800 unique visitors to the site. We made it onto Tom Peters’ homepage, Yahoo! Finance, and Consumerist.com, among others! This could not have been possible without you, the reader. Thank you! Here are the blog posts that caused the most buzz around the blogosphere this year and inspired the best conversions. Please take a moment to look back at the best of 2007:

Top 10 Most Popular Posts in 2007

1. Learn To Build A Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion
2. Interview with David Anderson, Founder and CEO of Green Options
3. How To Use Your Peers For Fun And Profit!
4. Karen Seeh, Corporate Sustainability Strategist, Talks About Social Enterprise and How to Break In
5. Global Marketing, Six Sigma, and The Donald: An Interview with 23-Year-Old Personal Branding Expert Daniel Schawbel
6. Six Simple Money Tips to Get You Back on the Financial Track
7. Warren Buffett on Doing What You Love
8. Interview with David Anderson of Palo Alto Investors
9. 17 Ways to Think Your Way to Wealth!
10. Bright Young Minds: An Interview with Duff McDuffee of Falling Fruit TV

2007 Women & Business Interview Series with IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com

• Interview with Michelle Goodman, Author of The Anti 9-to-5 Guide
• Interview with Julie Jansen, Career Coach and Motivational Speaker
• Interview with Alexandra Levit, Author of They Don’t Teach Corporate In College
• Interview with Anya Kamenetz, Author of Generation Debt
• Interview with Pam Slim of Escape From Cubicle Nation

A Few More Notable Posts

• It’s Time for Some Thrilling Heroics: Commit to Pursuing Your Wildest Dreams with Me in 2008!
• The #1 Skill You Need to Succeed at Anything: Learn to Build Relationships
• 10 Great Ways to Distinguish Yourself from One of Silicon Valley’s Top Entrepreneurs
• The Need for Corporate Partnerships
• Keep Your Brand Current
• I Have A Dream…

Happy Holidays!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: ThrillingHeroics.com: The Best Posts of 2007

I just LOVE how down-to-earth Warren Buffett is!! I’ve had the chance to meet him briefly, but even in that time, his attitude made an impression on me. He doesn’t have a posse; no bodyguards; no driver. He doesn’t spend much money on toys. He lives in the same house he purchased in Omaha as a young man for $50K. His idea of happiness is being able to watch his basketball games on a big screen TV in his sweats…

And his biggest secret is doing what you love:

“Really getting to do what you love to do everyday–that’s really the ultimate luxury. And particularly when you get to do it with terrific people around you.”

Check out the video — it gives an excellent insight into the mind of a tremendously successful individual. Buffett has TONS of invaluable advice for students and anyone who wants to have the right attitude to become wealthy.

-The Billionaire Next Door: The Wisdom of Warren Buffet [Get Rich Slowly]

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Warren Buffett’s Wisdom: Do What You Love

Top 5 Events in 2006

This year was big for socially-conscious consumerism, corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability, and philanthropy. 2006 also bears witness to a change in the way we communicate and spread information—a shift from mainstream media to grassroots viral communication. These are my top five picks for 2006:

Discussion about global warmingThe success of Al Gore’s film may very well have been responsible for single-handedly bringing the discussion about the global climate crisis into the mainstream light.

Warren Buffett gives $37 billion to charity

The world’s second richest man, the “Oracle of Omaha,” set aside the bulk of his fortune as the largest gift of philanthropy ever, set to be handed over to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, just as Gates stepped down from his position at Microsoft to oversee the Foundation’s granting of aid to reduce poverty, improve health and access to education around the world.

Muhammad Yunus is awarded the Nobel Prize

After decades of extending loans to working-poor entrepreneurs in the developing world, the “banker to the poor”–the creator of microlending–and his Bangladesh-based Grameen Bank finally received recognition for their efforts to foster economic and social development in the Third World.

Bono & Bobby Shriver’s (Product) Red campaign

The latest example of celebrity-led social change, mega-brands like American Express, Gap, and Apple have all joined in this initiative to donate a percentage of sales to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Africa.

“You” are TIME Magazine’s person of the year

While many other news outlets criticized the selection as a cop-out, TIME indirectly recognized Web 2.0 for its groundbreaking community and collaborative powers—through blogs, video- and photo-sharing services, social networks, and more.

Top 5 Films of 2006

Films are one of the most effective ways to express, entertain, and inform in our society. They deliver messages which can be received and shared by millions of people across the globe. Here are my five favorite films of the year, which I think convey a positive idea in one way or another and are far more worthwhile than the average flick:

An Inconvenient Truth

Explores former Vice President Al Gore’s passion for spreading the word about global warming. As stated above, the interest in climate change generated by this film was unprecedented.

The Pursuit of Happyness

A fantastic new release featuring Will Smith as a single father who will do anything to provide a better life for his son. Moral: you can achieve anything if you don’t give up and don’t take no for an answer.

Blood Diamond

Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou star in a drama, loosely based on historical events, that documents the bloodshed and trials associated with the diamond trade during the 1990′s Sierra Leone civil war. Might make you think harder about buying that rock…

Babel

Mexican director Gonzalez Inarritu delivers a great social commentary on the many ways culture divides us. Starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

V for Vendetta

The Wachowski brothers (The Matrix) adapt Allan Moore’s graphic novel into a very timely political metaphor that asks questions about freedom, terrorism, and corruption in a futuristic, totalitarian Britain.

What were YOUR favorite
moments (or movies) from 2006?
Share your thoughts in the comments…

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Top 10 Events and Films that Created Change in 2006

Ben’s call for participation in his group writing project offers me a unique opportunity to look back at what lessons I have learned, and what I can take and apply to the rest of my life. 2006 has been a big year for me. I’ve been in an amazing and rewarding relationship with Maria—my sharp, motivated girlfriend—for almost eight months now. A second close friend of mine from high school passed away before his time. I started working a full time job. I met Warren Buffett. Communication lines between my mother and me have been strained—something that I’m not exactly happy about, but that has freed me from unnecessary anguish in my life. I’ve completed my very last course to earn my Bachelor’s degree and graduate from college! And I think I’ve figured out what I want to do with the rest of my life.

Here are some of the most important lessons I think I have absorbed this year:

1. I need a muse. My goals and dreams have expanded far beyond what I would have first imagined since I’ve had a motivated girlfriend pushing me to great heights. Before, I had only modest goals for myself, but she has helped to encourage me to think big and realize that it is my duty to at least strive to reach my full potential. I am so fortunate to have all of my basic needs taken care of, and to be amongst the richest fraction of the human population (even though I only make 5 figures!), I owe it to the world to do as best as I can and give back to the community. It may come across as a weakness to some people to rely on a partner, friend, or community for encouragement, but I don’t believe anyone becomes a success without the help and community of others. Remember: no man is an island! Having someone else who believes in me and offers their positive reinforcement every time I have big dreams has helped me to add two new things to my list of life goals this year: to attend either Stanford or Columbia, and to start my own business within the next 5 years. Here’s an article about how important relationships are, and here’s my interview with the king of lasting relationships, Rajesh Setty.
2. Just DO it! At the same time, if you want things to get done, you cannot rely on others to do them for you. And you can’t just put them in the “to do” pile and ignore them and hope they resolve themselves. Successful people know that they create the quality of their lives, they are not victims of life. You can’t let life be something that just happens to you. Life is full of small, irritating tasks that most of us would rather not do, or things that we are afraid to do because we don’t want to fail, but you just have to buckle down and DO them! For instance: I’ve learned to just call my bank or credit card every time they try to charge me fees, and sometimes they reverse them. To just tell the boss my ideas about how to improve our workplace, and sometimes he thinks they are brilliant! To just contact that popular blogger or company exec, and sometimes they are willing to meet with me and give an interview or talk about business opportunities! Remember: you can’t lose what you don’t already have. Sometimes all there is is something to gain, and the worst that could happen is they say no. But, successful people are the ones that just DO what others don’t want to do or are afraid to do. You must work to create your own success. No one else is going to do it for you! Here’s an article about changing the way you think in order to be more successful.
3. Plan ahead for the unexpected. This is one thing I have learned attending and working for a university. A lot of students do not take an active role in their education–they attend classes, they do the homework, take the tests. But, they assume that all the administrative work–the course advising, transfer courses, the pre-requisites, the degree evaluations, the petitions to graduate, etc.–are on auto-pilot and will take care of themselves. The truth is that you must take an active role. You must know the due dates and get your paperwork in well in advance, know the requirements and whether you meet them, know who to speak to in order to solve your problems and actively seek them out, know what resources your college offers you and utilize them… If you are going to become an efficient adult, you need to learn to ensure these things get done, because again, no one is going to do it for you! And if you leave them on auto-pilot and wait until you recieve notice that something is overdue to take action, there will be consequences. You need to take responsibility. And that can be applied to a whole world of other things besides school. Here’s an example of how you should plan ahead and prepare for the unexpected when it comes to student loans.
4. Budget, budget, budget! Waiting on the lottery is not a retirement plan. I’ve learned that if I want to be wealthy, it takes planning and tracking. It takes being frugal, and allocating. You must make smart purchases. Every time you buy something, there is a real cost and an opportunity cost–the loss of the ability to buy something else. So, you must wiegh your options. Every time I choose not to go to the movies, I tell myself I am $10 closer to that Tesla Roadster I want! As Ramit Sethi of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com says, you don’t have to be smart, you just have to start (early if possible) and be disciplined over the long-term, and you will become wealthy. Here’s a post I wrote all about the most important financial tips I’ve learned, and here’s my interview with Ramit Sethi.
5. Organize everything in your life. Organizing is something that helps tremendously with all of the above. I find that when I am organized, I know exactly where to find things (which saves me valuable time), I can complete projects much more quickly and efficiently (meaning I am more productive), I pay my bills on time (which saves me money), I get to things on my “to do” list sooner (and thus create better rapport with people who are waiting on me), and much more. Basically, I categorize things and either do them immediately, place them in my “next actions” pile, hand them off to somebody else who can do them better than me, file them for reference, or throw them out. This is a system that is based in part on Getting Things Done by David Allen, but here is a great post about using three all-important folders to keep your email inbox clean–and the same principle can be applied to your physical mail, your projects, and more. Lifehacker and 43 Folders are great sites for tips on staying organized and productive that have immensely helped me get control of my life.

Well, those are my insights from this year. I look forward to another year of learning and growing, and I thank Ben Yoskovitz for instigating this project and giving us a moment to reflect on 2006. Next week, I will try to post my resolutions for 2007!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Five Things 2006 Has Taught Me

It’s just unfortunate that the talk he wanted to give at Sac State didn’t happen. I would have loved to get more chance to speak with him and ask him more about his recent decision to give much of his wealth in charitable donations, about his feelings on the strength or weakness of the US dollar, and about what investment, asset protection, and retirement planning advice he has for college students and new graduates (he originally wanted to host a Q&A session with Sac State students).

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: I Met Warren!

The Buffett Way of Giving It Away
Buffett Children Emerge as a Force in Charity (NYT)

To the casual observer, it may look like the world’s second-wealthiest man giving all his money to the world’s richest man, but that’s not the case. The Gates Foundation is set up to do one thing: it gives out grants. Rather than wasting up to 35% of the money he could give away on setting up a foundational administration of executives, managers, and accountants, the Berkshire Hathaway legend is simply giving his money to an already-established foundation so they can distribute 100% of his charitable contributions. Warren Buffett is BRILLIANT!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Warren Buffett Gives It All Away

Yes, planning is the key word in that sentence. Who is Warren Buffett, you say? Only the second most wealthy person on this planet (!), after Bill Gates. He’s a brilliant investor and huge philanthropist, and has been in the news this week for his company Berkshire Hathaway‘s recent press release that he will be giving away 85% of his wealth.

Anyways, he’s coming to town for the opening of one of his new RC Willey stores, and wanted to have a hosted talk with 500+ students at Sac State. This would have been the biggest thing to happen to our school for the next two decades. But, everyone’s favorite CSU president, Alex Gonzalez, fumbled big time with this one (Gonzalez is such a miscreant that he even has his own hate website, run by a peer of mine–James Banyai–check it out, it’s got a lot of good research on there). Basically, the guy thinks he is a bigger dog than the President of the United States, and has like 15 levels of security to get through before you can talk to him. So, when the world’s second most wealthy man calls, wanting to speak to HIM and come to our school, complete incompetence ensues at the first level of gatekeepers. Because the assistant’s assistant’s assistant didn’t know who Buffett was, his calls were all ignored. The President’s Office neglected to call Warren Buffett back!! It’s too bad his visit didn’t work out too, because this really would have garnered some attention for our quaint little campus and brought recognition to President Gonzalez’s overly-optimistic “Destination 2010″ plan (ooh, shiny website!).

The Sacramento Bee got wind of the story and called us in the College of Business, exclaiming, “How stupid is your school?! You better call them back!” Now, Dean Sanjay Varshney of the College of Business is quite a businessman and a diplomat, so he called Buffett’s people on behalf of the University and aroused some serious interest again from them. But, they were already in talks with UC Davis at that point, and things turned into a turf war that Buffett didn’t want to get in the middle of. But, with the lengths the College of Business had gone to make things happen for him, I can tell Buffett’s people would have preferred to come here. It just shows yet another example of the complete ineptitude of the University-level administration.

Two important rules:

1. When the second wealthiest person on Earth calls your office repeatedly, you drop everything and return the call. For God’s sake, that’s just common sense!

2. Your staff should at least recognize a name like Warren Buffett and be intelligent enough to look him up! If I were in charge, someone would be losing a job right now.

At least my supervisor tells me we might still get 15 complimentary tickets to Buffett’s self-hosted event out in Rocklin, and I might get a chance to meet him. I’ll do my darndest to turn a good article out of this one yet! (It would make great fodder for the cover of our Business Futures publication.) Here’s to the brilliant (and I hear very down-to-earth) Mr. Warren E. Buffett.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: The Second Richest Man in the World