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Caterina Fake (Internet RockStar) |
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 Caterina Fake was one of the early entrepreneurs to glom on to the power of Web 2.0. While working on an online gaming product for a Vancouver-based company, Fake and her then-husband started Flickr as a side project.
It launched in February 2004 without a single penny of venture capital—and a little more than a year later it was acquired by Yahoo! for nearly $30 million. Building upon this success, Fake launched Hunch.com in June 2009 to capitalize on the Web’s recently discovered power for crowdsourcing.
Hunch is akin to Amazon.com's recommendations feature, except that it makes recommendations for everything. “You can use it, for example, to find a hotel in Dallas that you'd like, even if no one in your social circle has been to Dallas recently," says Fake.
The company just secured an additional $12 million in funding, and claims 1.5 million unique monthly visitors. Though she’s nothing short of a power player, sitting on the boards of both Etsy and Creative Commons, Fake proves that an engineering degree and an MBA (she has a bachelor's in English literature) aren't the hallmarks of a successful Internet entrepreneur.
Her advice to aspiring businesspeople? Drop out of college.
Click here for the full story:
By Joyce C. Tang
The Daily Beast
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Annie Lennox (Performer/Mom/Activist) |
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 Annie Lennox (born 25 December 1954, Aberdeen, Scotland) s a Scottish musician and recording artist.
She began her recording
career as a member of the British pop band The
Tourists, and subsequently formed the duo Eurythmics
with former bandmate David A. Stewart. The duo gained international prominence
over the course of the 1980s with singles such as "Sweet Dreams (Are Made
of This)" and "Here Comes the Rain Again".
In the 1990s, Lennox embarked on a solo career beginning with her
debut Diva (1992), which produced
the hit singles "Why" and "Walking on Broken Glass". In 2004,
she won both the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best
Original Song for "Into the West", written for the original
soundtrack to the feature film The Lord of the
Rings: The Return of the King.
Following the release of her fourth studio album Songs of Mass Destruction
(2007), Lennox released her first compilation album The Annie Lennox Collection
in 2009.
In addition to her career as a musician, Lennox is also a political
and social activist, leading such events as an anti-war rally in London
on 3 January 2009 in response to the Gaza War. She also objected to the unauthorised use of the 1999 Eurythmics song "I Saved the World Today" in an election
broadcast for Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi
Livni.
Known as a pop culture icon for her distinctive contralto
vocals and visual performances, Lennox has been named "The Greatest
White Soul Singer Alive" by VH1 and one of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling
Stone.
She has earned the distinction of 'most successful female British
artist in UK music history' due to her global commercial success since
the early 1980s. Including her work within Eurythmics, Lennox is one of
the world's best-selling music artists,
having sold over 80 million records worldwide.
Related links:
More Lennox on Wikipedia
UNAIDS Ambassador Annie Lennox Speaks Her Mind To Business Leaders
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Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (Historian/Professor/Author) |
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 Pullitzer Prize winner Laurel Ulrich is a historian of early America and the history of women, a
university professor at Harvard University, and author of the quote: "Well-behaved women rarely make history."
Ulrich's innovative and widely influential approach to history has been
described as a tribute to "the silent work of ordinary people" — an
approach that, in her words, aims to "show the interconnection between
public events and private experience."
In 1991, Ulrich received the Pulitzer Prize in history for "A Midwife’s Tale: The Life
of Martha Ballard based on her diary, 1785–1812".
The book examines
the life of Northern New England midwife Martha Ballard, and provides a vivid examination of
ordinary life in the early American republic, including the role of
women in the household and local market economy, the nature of marriage
and sexual relations, aspects of medical practice, and the prevalence of
violence and crime.
Ulrich's revelatory history was honored with the Pulitzer Prize.
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Suzanna Marcus (Healer/Author) |
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 Suzanna Marcus worked for years as a spirtual healer and holistic therapist, guiding others towards transformation and healing emotionally, physically and spritually, in realtionships with themselves and their loved ones, at work and at play.
Then she herself faced a health crisis when she discovered she had cancer and was given only 6 months to live.
She went on to heal herself without the conventional chemical treatment or radiation by creating a holistic path developed out of her years of helping others heal themselves.
This utube was taken when she gave an impromtu reading from her book to an audience in California.
Thanks to:
AWR friend & fan Miriam Pari
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Sadaf Shah (Charity Director/HR Professional/Mom) |
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 Susan notes: AWR member and fan Sadaf Shah wrote to me saying she wanted to share a story about Hafeeza, her blind masseuse. I was moved by the beautiful and simple piece when it arrived in my inbox, and I in return asked Sadaf to tell me a bit more about herself. This is what she emailed back:
About me: well as you can see in my signature I am a director of the International Commission on Workforce Development (ICWFD), which a California based 501(c)3 Non-Profit public charity organization that enables the workforce of G77 Developing Countries and disadvantaged sectors of countries with developed economies to compete in the current and future global economy.
I also handle human resources in my husband's group of companies, and run my own non-government organisation called R.E.S.C.U.E (Resources for Educational Systems for the Children, the Underprivileged and the Elderly).
I do a lot of volunteer social work in Schools for the needy and with people like Hafeeza and her family. I'm also writing a book on Herbal remedies called God's Pharmacy .
That basically sums it up! And oh I have also worked with Time Warner's publishing division Time Life in Pakistan from 1995 to year 2000. Was their top seller in 20 years history, after which I did my masters in finance and marketing.
I'm happily married and have a 15-year-old son.
Related links:
Smiling Hafeeza: A Simple Yet Inspiring Story
Beautifully Told
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Chen Schu-Chu (Angel) |
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Susan notes: an extraordinary woman whose generosity was recognised when she was named to the 2010 Times most influential people.
 Chen Shu-chu is a seller of vegetables in a stall in Taitung County's central market, in southern Taiwan.
Out of her modest living, Chen, 59, has managed to donate nearly NT$10 million (that's $320,000) to various causes, including $32,000 for a children's fund, $144,000 to help build a library at a school she attended and another $32,000 for the local orphanage, where she also gives financial support to three children.
What's so wonderful about Chen's achievement is not its extraordinariness but that it is so simple and matter of fact in its generosity.
"Money serves its purpose only when it is used for those who need it," she told a newspaper.
And rather than bask in her celebrity, Chen seems to dismiss the whole thing with a wave of her hand, perhaps even with a hint of irritation. "There isn't much to talk about, because I did not enter any competition," she says. "I haven't really made any huge donations."
She's planning to establish a fund to help the poor with education, food and health care. Amazing, but of all she has given away, her greatest gift is her example.
Click here for the full story:
By Ang Lee
Time.com
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Helen Reddy (Singer/Songwriter/Actress) |
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Helen Reddy was born into a well-known Australian show business family in October, 1941. She has won a Grammy
Award, appeared on Broadway and feature films, and was credited with writing
and singing one of the most iconic and culturally significant songs of
the 1970s, "I Am Woman."
Here's an interesting mix of the tune, which includes a 1970 demo version:
Interestingly, Reddy was rejected by 27 record labels at the start of her career before she was finally signed to a
contract with Capitol Records in 1970.
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