Who are you?
Bill Starr is a founding partner and CEO of My Life List LLC (www.mylifelist.org), a Boston-based new-media company. He is a graduate of Bishop’s University in Quebec and is originally from Rothesay New Brunswick, Canada. Starr is an avid life lister, having lived in four countries, qualified as a Canadian Chartered Accountant, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, scuba dived the Great Barrier Reef, leaped the world’s highest Bungee and white water rafted two of the world’s most challenging rivers in Costa Rica and Zimbabwe. Most recently, he completed his 2nd Rolex Sydney Hobart Ocean Race aboard a former round-the-world Volvo 60.
What do you do for fun?
Running a start-up is pretty time consuming and I hate giving the standard, ‘I love what I do’ line, but having spent 15+ years in corporate finance and accounting I needed a new challenge, something that mattered to me something that can be fun. Running a startup is not for everyone so it has to be fun and the people I have built around me are keeping it fun for me.
Other than having fun at work, I am an avid offshore sailor. I love being on the water with good mates making a racing yacht go fast. Top speed so far is about 35MPH on a Volvo 60 surfing waves off coast of Tasmania.
What is your Favourite Community? Why?
I know I am totally biased, but I spend most of my time engaging with the MyLifeList.org community. Our site is the premiere social network for goal achievers and leads the next generation of social networks by focusing on what matters. People need somewhere to go with more depth of engagement than discussing what someone had for lunch, sending shallow b-day wishes or to monitor the activities of ex-lovers. We have more than 100,000 member goals and stories on the site so plenty of inspiring discussions, including my going to Bishop’s University story.
What is your Superpower?
I would have to say vision and persistence. Creating a new community like MyLifeList.org has been challenging for multiple reasons. So many would have us follow what already exists. Why not create a facebook app or why not sell to Google. So uninspiring and misses the depth we are trying to establish within our community. I love this quote as it sums up how we view what we are doing. “When all think alike, then no one is thinking.” — Walter Lippman
How do you use it to Build Community?
The fact that our site exists is a testimony to using my vision and persistence to get this far and keep going. A key benefit of the MyLifeList.org community is that the site allows you to meet people by goal. The challenge for most people is finding those who have accomplished their specific goal. Our site connects people to those who have accomplished every major life goal. If you want to Climb Mount Kilimanjaro or run the Boston Marathon you can engage with people who have done it. It is the quality of connections on our site that keeps people coming back and sharing what matters.
My Three Favourite Things About Bill Are…
1. Talking in the Third Person. John Horn knows that this phenomenon was made popular by Michael Jordan in the early ’90s. Bill Starr – in his answer to the “Who Are You?” question – makes it cool and popular today. And, that’s right, I just compared Bill to Michael Jordan. In all seriousness, what I like most about Bill’s next generation of social networking is that it lives up to one of my favourite community-building quotes: “we are the application of our intention.” A lot of people say they’ll do things. Leaders are the ones who actually do them. Speaking of which, way to clean out your garage, Uncle John!
2. The Bishop’s Connection. Of course a busy, successful, visionary entrepreneur in Boston had time to be interviewed by the The Potentiality – I mean, they all do, right? Not really. Even though we’re kind of a big deal, The Potentiality doesn’t typically get interviews with folks of Mr. Starr’s ilk. But Bill and I both went to Bishop’s University. This means that he is a class act alumnus who is willing to help fellow alumni and answer ridiculous questions. Bill’s project – MyLifeList.org – reflects a true sense of community that we both share. From Boston to Vancouver, the purple pride of Bishop’s University connects folks who would otherwise be strangers who would never talk to each other and who also probably went to McGill or Queen’s.
3. Love of Lists. My Life List is about goal-setting, adventure and community. The List by John Horn is about life, the universe and everything…as I see it. So, Bill and I both love lists and are really good at making them. Bill’s list-making is just plain better, though. Because the ones he makes – and encourages others to make – inspire life and world changing actions to be taken my people who connect through a vibrant online community.
…as told by John Horn