El Sistema

Check out the Venezuelan music program, which started over 30 years ago. These talented musicians of the National System of Venezuelan Youth and Children’s Orchestras are a source of national pride, like football stars in other Latin American countries. The musicians have inspired 23 countries across the hemisphere to launch similar music education programs, making classical musicians out of half a million young Venezuelans and, more importantly, inspiring young people to set goals and dream BIG.

Architecture for Humanity (AFH)

By tapping a network of professionals willing to lend their time and their talents to helping those who would not otherwise be able to afford their services, AFH supports community development, helps communities rebuild after disasters, and provides pro bono architecture and design services to community partners around the world. (Note: I had the privilege of being directly involved in one such project—Siyathemba.)

Dr. Earnest Madu

Dr. Ernest Madu is a visionary and a dreamer making a difference in the minds and hearts (literally) of others in Jamaica and the Caribbean. Take a look at his passionate discussion from the TED conference in 2007.

Bang! by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval

The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley

Sparks of Genius by Robert and Michelle Root-Bernstein

Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath

Discover Your Genius by Michael J. Gelb

Unstuck by Keith Yamashita

Why Not? by Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayers

The Five Faces of Genius by Annette Moser-Wellman

Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihaly

IDEO Method Cards: 51 Ways to Inspire Design by IDEO

Creative Mind System

by Dr. Jeff Thompson

Researchers now agree that a common pattern of brainwave activity called the "creative mind pattern" holds the key to creative genius. Listen to this two CD set that utilizes Dr. Thompson’s expertise as a musician and a scientist. He delivers powerful recording techniques and applications of his ongoing research to easily tap into our potential creativity and expression and to "train" the brain to actively use the creative mind pattern.