What do Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, and Jonathan Ive have in common? The answer is they are all influential people. However, for every great person there is a beginning, and same can be said for these people. Oprah spent her childhood in poverty whereas Gaga was struggling to get attention for her music. Unlike Gaga, Jonathan was not discovered until he joined Apple Inc.
Gaga wields the power of motivation, influence, and creativity. Lady Gaga’s influence over fashion motivates designers to push their creative limits to create extraordinary fashion lines. Besides, her talent in music not only brings her income, instead she allows other pop stars to shine as well, a power of inspiration. What really sets Gaga apart from her contemporaries is that she is responsible for every part of her act. She directs her own shows, designs the sets, chooses the clothes and writes the songs. She never, ever lip-synchs. Despite her coterie of creatives back home, whom she calls the "Haus of Gaga", she retains complete control over everything. If Gaga has spent the past two years fending off suggestions that she is nothing more than the product of a record-company brainstorm, she is not offended: "It's exactly the kind of discussion that I want to start."
Next, the power of insight, wisdom, and influence are held by Oprah. Her influence is such that recommendations from her book club automatically create bestsellers. Even books with similar titles find themselves hurtling up the sales lists. Critics (mostly male) sneer at her populist choices, though she has also recommended Tolstoy and Faulkner. But they ignore the fact that Oprah is singlehandedly persuading millions of Americans to switch off their televisions and read a book (and talk about it afterwards). Government cannot do that; Oprah can.
Finally, Jonathan yields the power of humility and creativity. He is softly-spoken, enjoys nights at home watching The Office on video and rarely gives interviews. One of his close friends, the DJ John Digweed, recalls that when the pair first met it was months before he actually realised what Ive did. Digweed describes a night when he and Ive were having dinner in San Francisco, where Ive lives with his wife, Heather, a historian and writer. 'Jonathan was saying how they'd designed different things and I'm sitting there thinking, "Oh, my God. His work is used by creative people across the world every day but he has no ego about it."'
Link to Lady Gaga’s article: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/lady-gaga-how-the-world-went-crazy-for-the-new-queen-of-pop-1684375.html
Link to Oprah Winfrey’s article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/nov/20/television.usa
Link to Jonathan Ive’s article: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1111276,00.html
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