There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope.
Mark Twain
Unless you’re Einstein, your ideas about a good life aren’t your own.
Wait, scratch that, even Einstein credited Other People for influencing his work!
Who are these Other People that are directly or indirectly shaping our lives?
- Our Family – whether we like it or not
- Our Peers – people we can relate to
- Our Mentors – people we look up to
- Our Mentees – people who look up to us
Think about the last big thing you did, or didn’t do, and the role these Other People played in your decision.
The more you start recognizing the patterns of influence, the more you can harness it.
I’m particularly interested in discovering who some of my mentors consider to be their mentors and so on and so forth.
Just imagine this giant tree diagram / mind map sort of thing all about influence as it travels through me.
But until I can find the technical solution for making that happen, I’ll just start making a list here in addition to the longer articles under the People category of my blog.
Robbie Abed
Ghostwriter, Author, MarketerI like everything Robbie writes. Robbie thinks I’m a good writer. I like that Robbie likes my writing style. Robbie also likes James Altucher’s writing. The two became friends and James happily wrote the foreword to Robbie’s book, Fire Me I Beg You. I like the Idea Machine concept of James. Who does James like?
Seth Godin
Author, Marketer, PodcasterI like Seth’s blog. Initially I disagreed, but now I agree that a writer’s block really is a myth! Seth doesn’t know I exist. My client Deb Crowe also likes Seth’s blog and started her own blog after taking his writing course. Seth recently congratulated Gabe Anderson, a friend of Deb, for publishing his 2000th daily post. Does Seth remember Deb from the course and that she likes Gabe’s writing too?