Brian Johnson is the Philosopher & CEO of Zaadz—the social networking site with a purpose. (Think: MySpace for people who want to improve their lives and change the world.) His mission in life is pretty simple: to change the world by inspiring and empowering people to live at their highest potential while using their strengths in the greatest service to the world.
As a young entrepreneur and recent law school drop-out, Brian founded eteamz.com, where he led the creation of the world’s largest amateur sports site—which currently provides team and league web sites and a comprehensive suite of services to over 2.5 million teams from over 120 countries around the world.
After selling eteamz and leading the integration of the two companies, Brian took a couple years to discover what he’s here to do. He read voraciously, studying philosophy, psychology, mysticism and optimal living while traveling to the Middle East and parts of Central and Western Europe where he studied Socrates in Athens, Rumi in Turkey, Jesus in Jerusalem and Marcus Aurelius in the Danube of Hungary. He spent a few years as a philosopher, studying and teaching universal truths of optimal living and sharing this wisdom via his site, thinkarete.com and via his newsletter (that’s sent to over 10,000 subscribers) as well as his podcast and other audio material at LearnOutLoud.com.
Zaadz is the integration of his passion for building businesses (and specifically social networking communities) that can change the world with his even stronger passion for striving to live at his highest potential while inspiring and empowering others to do the same.
Before all that fun, Brian began his career as a consultant at Arthur Andersen after graduating Magna Cum Laude with Phi Beta Kappa honors from UCLA where he studied Psychology and Business. Brian has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and various other publications on topics ranging from raising capital and building a successful enterprise to recruiting key management and downsizing. He has presented on various panels, served as a judge for the Anderson School at UCLA’s Business Plan writing competition, and given lectures on entrepreneurial finance and the Internet economy at USC’s Marshall School of Business and Cal Tech. He recently taught a class on entrepreneurialism with John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, and is working with John on a chapter in his upcoming book.
When he’s not sowing the Zaadz, you might find Brian reading, playing some chess, hiking or enjoying a great conversation with a friend.
