5 People In 2008

* Seth Godin - His concepts about 'Tribes' and a series of mind-expanding blog posts and commentary on the private social network, Triiibes.com, were the biggest influences on my thinking this year.

* Willie Crawford - His actions, guidance and inspiration on the private TIMIC forum (The Internet Marketing Inner Circle) has guided and directed a lot of what I did over the year - and led to some exciting group projects too.

* Carrie Wilkerson - Her blindingly fast, relentlessly driven, passionately powered actions are at once bewildering and motivating to observe. She showed, by example, how it's possible to scale rapidly by just doing things.

* Mari Smith - Her introduction to Facebook kept me busy for the early part of the year. Though I no longer use the network actively, it was a very useful education - as was following the 'Pied Piper' on Twitter.

* Michael Gerber - His book, 'E-Myth Mastery', has occupied all my thoughts for the past 3 months. I'm building my "New Company" on its foundational concepts, and hopefully the impact will be felt all next year, and beyond.

Now it's your turn. Who most influenced YOU in 2008?

* Kevin Riley - at the beach on Bali, where we talked shop - and about helping children live and learn.

* Ian del Carmen - in a Bali cafe, where he outlined his plan to raise funds to help the CHD foundation.

* Amitabh Bachchan - superstar of Indian film, whose donation to our partner foundation funded 10 surgeries.

* Dayanidhi Maran - my classmate at school, former Union minister for telecommunications, and donor who sponsored another 12 heart operations.

* Lucky Balaraman - at 'Beverly Hotel' for coffee and lively discussions on Internet marketing, TIMIC news and life.