Masters, Gurus and Great Thinkers

"There are no original thoughts. I am but a creation of the souls before me" - from I AM / Hensel

Over the last forty plus years I have consumed thousands of books. Some of these text where written thousands of years ago. Some are more recent. Many of the authors are long gone from the earth. Some are alive. Some are famous or popular in our current culture. Some are more obscure. These authors and great thinkers are my teachers. My masters and gurus. I have looked to them for wisdom and guidance. They are, in my opinion, individuals that were or are extraordinary. They were great thinkers and masters of wisdom.

It would be impossible to name them all. This is an incomplete list and is in no particular order:

Edison, Einstein, Franklin, Teddy Rosevelt, Tesla, Maslow, Frankl, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Mandela, Jefferson, Jesus, Buddha, Dyer, Hicks, Gates, Buffet, Ford, Carnegie, Moses, Pullman, Churchill, Washington, Adam Smith, Hemingway, Austen, Hay, Darwin, MLK, Rumi, Neruda, Nin, Lennon, Harrison, Seger, Coelho, Lincoln, Lao Tzu, Dalai Lama, Myss, Bradshaw, Chopra, Tolle, Hafiz, Thoreau, Marley, C.S.Lewis, Marcus Aurelius, Angelou, Nightingale, Powell, Robin Williams, FDR, Kennedy, Aristotle, Voltaire, Wooden, Ingersoll, Tutu, Ram Dass, Williamson, Emerson, Frost, Socrates, Robbins, Muhammad Ali, John Maxwell, Jung, Cohen, Watts, Wilde, Confucius, Haanelb, Wattles, Emote, James Allen, Dooley, Machiavelli, Confucius, Twain, Camus, Gibran, Proust, Asimov, Orwell, Nobel, da Vinci, Newton, Plato, Archimedes, Hawking, Goethe, Nietzsche, Descartes, Tolstoy, Bell, Bohr, Poe, Euclid, Goodall, Disney, Frost, Spielberg, Skinner, Whitman, Keller, Sartre, Musk, Faulkner, Nostradamus, Hugo, Rand...

Who are my influences? People ask me this all the time. It is not an easy answer. There are many. These authors and thinkers are and were just human. They are not perfect. In moments of their lives they were flawed. In moments they were inspired. In moments they exhibited genius. They are the many Masters I look to for guidance and inspiration.