For the rest of the year, I would like to take a moment and thank the people who have had a significant impact on me as an individual.

The way they have lived their lives and their body of work has had an outsized impact on how I think about life in general and and work, in particular.

Some of these are contemporary thinkers and some of them are just a memory. Some of them are famous in their own rights and some of them are yet to be found by others. Some of them are young and some of them are old. Some of them are business leaders, some thought leaders, some sportsmen and some coaches. Some of them are artists and some spiritual leaders.

However, if we look deeply, all of them are like you and me, ordinary people who’ve had an extra-ordinary impact on me and potentially a lot of others. And once you get to know them, may be they will have a similar impact on you as well or maybe not, only time will tell.

The reason I am putting together this list and share what I have learnt from them, to thank them publicly for being a teacher and teaching me important lessons in life and in the hope that some of you might be inspired by their company and they can impact you and your life as they have impacted mine.

So, let’s get started.

13. Stephen Covey

Early in my professional career, as with many people that I grew up with, I read the three seminal books written by Stephen Covey – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, First Things First and Principle Centered Leadership. They’ve had a sub-conscious impact on everything that I do from a work front.

The biggest impact on me and my life from his work was habit 7 – Sharpen your saw. I have never stopped learning. There is always something new to learn and every now and then, there comes a new way to learn.

I started with books, then by listening to audiobooks and podcasts (automobile university), then by watching videos on YouTube, then used twitter as my university, then learnt from all the guests that I hosted on my podcast, then I discovered online courses through Coursera, Udemy, Udacity and other platforms.

Then I joined altMBA program offered by Seth Godin and now am part of the Thought Leaders Business School run by Matt Church. Both these programs use participatory learning a lot more than just lecture mode. I still use all these modes for my personal learning and continue to learn new things.

I try to make sense of everything that I learn, reflect and share my learnings through this blog. This probably is the most important step in my ongoing learning, without which most of what I learnt would be forgotten quickly. By taking this additional step, I am able to retain lot more of what I learnt and ultimately put them to use as well.

You can watch his explain the 7 habits in the playlist here.

Conclusion

Between Eliyahu Goldratt, Stephen Covey and Zig Ziglar, I had enough guidance and coaching to find me early success in my career and what I learnt from them still continues to influence me, my work ethic and overall success in my career, for which I am really grateful to them and all the others in this list that I am putting together.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #1 Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #2 Paulo Coelho.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #3 Swami Vivekananda.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #4 Seth Godin.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #5 Porus Munshi.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #6 Srinivasa Chakravarthy.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #7 Dan Ariely.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #8 His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #9 Matt Church.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #10 Clayton Christensen.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced Me: #11 Zig Ziglar.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced Me: #12 Alistair Maclean