People who are open to new opportunities seem to be intensely curious about everything — themselves, the world, new trends, etc.  I often encourage my clients to spend part of their time to "following their noses" into industries and subjects outside of their areas of expertise.  Amazing innovations and opportunities can result from layering concepts from different realms.

Visit the bookstore or newsstand once a week to browse publications you wouldn’t normally look at.  Keep a journal of the intriguing ideas you come across.  What catches your interest?

In the spirit of feeding your curiosity, here is a list you may find interesting.  It is Business 2.0’s list of the 50 People Who Matter Now published in June 2006.   Not surprisingly there are a lot of media/technology/social networking types in the group, but the inclusion of green-architect William McDonough thrilled me.  His vision for eco-friendly, sustainable urban design in China will have enormous impact globally.  I was also interested to see personal productivity guru David Allen on the top 50 list.  What do these 2 trends make you think of in the context of your own life and work?

Here’s what Business 2.0 has to say about William McDonough, Architect, #44 on their list:

William McDonough
Architect, William McDonough & Partners

Why He Matters: Eco-architect McDonough has drawn up the biggest remodeling job in history: modern China. Famed for planting grass on the roof of Chicago’s city hall and slicing energy costs at Herman Miller’s factory in Michigan, the former dean of architecture at the University of Virginia is applying his "cradle to cradle" mantra — the notion that everything an industry consumes and creates can be profitably composted, reused, or recycled — to design six all-new cities in the world’s most dynamic and populous country. Houses will feature rooftop farms to provide insulation and produce oxygen, solar cells will generate electricity, and sanitary systems will convert human waste into methane cooking fuel. If McDonough can bring sustainability to China, its rise as a 21st-century economic superpower will come all the more quickly — and less painfully for the rest of us.