THE DREAM IN ACTION

In January of this year, I decided not to do resolutions but instead to pick 12 people I wanted to meet this year. Now it’s time to grade myself, reflect on the cool people I’ve met, and look for future opportunities to meet those folks I missed.

Here’s the challenge I gave myself this year… (written on Jan 1-7, 2009)

Instead of making big New Years Resolutions for 2009 I decided last November that I would attempt to call out and meet 12 specific people in 2009. I figured those relationships would be much more valuable than any half ass’d resolution. So, over the last few months, up to the night that I posted this I worked to identify 12 people that I respect and could learn the most from, so here they are. If you’re on the list, please contact me…we’ll be in touch.

So, let’s go through the list and see how I did…

Gary Vaynerchuk, WLTV, NYC

I did it! Gary had an event in Chicago after the launch of his book ‘Crush It’ and we met, check out this vide0 (and pic above)

Nate Westhiemer, Rose Tech Ventures, NYC

missed, but I’m headed to NYC next week and hoping to connect then.

A.J. Jacobs, Author ‘The Year of Living Biblically‘, NYC

I did it! And meeting AJ was one of the highlights of this list, check out these posts about meeting AJ.

“Back in March of this year I made it out to New York City and I had the pleasure of meeting AJ Jacobs for a drink, well a coffee and we met at a vegetarian joint called Blossom. At the time I was planning to write a book (delayed, not canceled) and his advice was remarkable. During our conversation in NYC’s upper west side, AJ was the most humble and encouraging person I’ve met. He was willing to help out with my book and anything else he could. AJ was a true pleasure to be with.”

Loic Lemeur, Seesmic, SF

missed, I was only able to get to SF once this year and unfortunately Loic was in FR.

Jason Fried, 37signals, Chicago

missed, however I’m hosting the first Chicago Tech Meetup on January 20th and Jason is speaking. I’m really looking forward to meeting him there. After reading the 37Signals book, ‘Getting Real‘, I have an incredible respect for Jason and won’t miss their next book ‘Rework‘.

Daniel Debow, Rypple, Canada

I did it! Daniel and I met in Chicago when he was here for a conference, he’s an awesome dude building a really cool startup. Also, Daniel was super helpful in introducing me to Jay Goldman and Dennis Crowley. Daniel has always been a great encouragement and given me really solid advice about startups and career stuff, meet him if you can.

Walt Ribeiro, The Internet’s Music Teacher, Philly

missed, I never got to Philly and Walt has been busy with the amazing ForOrchestra, check it out.

Dharmesh Shah, Hubspot, Boston

missed, I never had an opportunities to meet Darmesh this year, but I have followed the wild growth of HubSpot and continue to read his very helpful startup blog, OnStartups.

Mike Volpe, Hubspot, Boston

missed, however a good friend of mine in contemplating a role with HubSpot and reported that Mike was as awesome as I had thought.

Fraser Kelton, AdaptiveBlue, NYC

missed, although we’ve spoken on the phone many times, we never met in 2009. However I think I’ll be spending a bit of time in NYC this coming year and fully expect to make this happen. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed helping Fraser with feedback on GetGlue. They’ve turned a cool technology into a very useful tool for content sharing and discovery.

Dan Patterson, ABC News & Creepy Sleepy, NYC

missed, never really had an opportunity to meetup with Dan, although his work is still very fascinating to me.

YOU…

I got to meet SO MANY people this year and it’s all because of Twitter and making web connection real offline, a practice I fully intend to continue through 2010. So including “you” I’ve met 5 of 12. Not as good as I thought, but a solid start. If you were going to do this in 2010 who would be on your list?