Noah Kagan, president of software development company Kickflip, will tell you what he does for a living, but don’t make that your lead if approaching him at a cocktail party. “I hate that question,” says the 25 year old Berkeley grad, who has worked for at least four separate companies that should have made him rich, if he had stayed around long enough. Although money is a final result, this self-proclaimed “results oriented guy” is more concerned with making decisions in the moment, not building his 401k. He quickly brushes over stories about Intel, Microsoft and Facebook to name a few, working his way toward current and future projects with far smaller companies.

Noah has a voracious appetite for action, something that is underappreciated in the world of large corporations. No bother. Noah finds places that fit his tastes, not the other way around. Money, to the Cupertino, CA native, has never been a driving force. Rather, Noah looks at jobs like relationships, investing emotionally, working hard, yet keeping in mind that it may just not be the perfect fit. It is an outlook that has made Noah a desired mind in just about any company, and has led him to start his own.

Bernhard’s house is made of mud, and he is very proud of that fact. As a natural builder, in Portland, Oregon, Bernhard is working to inspire more people to realize the possibilities of the natural world around them, or in this case, under their feet. Bernhard says the empowerment he felt, from building his own home, is what has led him to educate others in the ways of natural building. He has learned entirely from experience, and books read on the subject. Bernhard does not tout natural building as a way to make a fortune, but as he says, “That’s not the way I want to be.”

Speaking from a public bench, the construction of which he oversaw, Bernhard speaks of the wonderful relationships that can be formed while working with a natural medium. Mud, he says, is a very natural thing. There is very little training that makes one person more of a mud expert than another person. This particular Oregon bench was built as a school project, and Bernhard says it was rewarding to see the kids come together, across social strata, and build a space for the community. And that is truly Bernhard’s passion: community building. The construction creates places that inspire public congregation, bringing people together around places they can proud of.

When we walked into the Chicago Housing Authority headquarters we wondered if we were in the right place. The unassuming security guard, who questioned the validity of my Arizona driver’s license, didn’t seem to fit what I had imagined of the organization that is single handedly changing the face of public housing in Chicago. But after meeting Rayne Martin a few minutes later, I began to realize that public service is only made possible by people with a passion for making a difference.

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Rule #1: do not call someone the wrong name; especially if they are helping you out while in town. Yep, this happened to me at the end of a great interview with “Monica” who I accidentally called “Melissa.” This small slip-up could have hurt our project a lot seeing as how Monica had been helping us out a lot in Chicago. Not only did she refer us to Jen Hankee and Rayne Martin for interviews, but she was also working to get our story published using her public relations expertise. The moral of the story: don’t mess up someone’s name. On to Monica’s story, which starts out at Purdue University, where she graduated and soon accepted an advertising job creating automotive ads. She put up with the job for a year and a half before she accepted a contractor position at Motorola doing event planning. The temporary gig led to a full-time marketing position where she worked on sponsorships and events with the NFL and ISF. More importantly though, she was able to gain great experience in the marketing field.

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Gary grew up in show business. His father was a press agent for big names like Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, and many others. His father was one of the best in the business. He must had some clout to have his young son Gary be babysat by Marilyn Monroe herself!

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We met up with Lisa down on Fifth Avenue in New York City. We were running a little late after catching a bus. Unfortunately, once we got off the bus we had to walk three blocks in the pouring rain. And I mean it was pouring! Tamir and I tried to take cover as we made our way to her office on a Thursday evening and when we arrived we were sopping wet. After a futile attempt at drying off in the bathroom, and some odd looks from Lisa’s co-workers, we managed to start our interview with a sympathetic Lisa.

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Growing up in Wisconsin, Greg watched the Green Bay Packers play as a kid. He, like many other kids, dreamed of playing professional football one day. He played at the college level but there came a point in his career where he had to decide between his NFL aspirations or focusing on finding a career. During college he worked at a couple of hotel restaurants. He enjoyed the experience and realized that there were many opportunities out there. With no other great prospects at his disposal, he decided to go into the hotel business. Greg dropped out of school and moved from Wisconsin to Santa Barbara, CA to work as the night manager and assistant food and beverage director at the Holiday Inn.

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