(STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)
In 2010, an ambitious young man squeezed everything he owned into 2 suitcases and moved to New York with a camera and a dream.
New York is a people watcher’s dream. The city is busting at the seams with people from every culture; it’s a canvas smeared with every color imaginable. The fashion, the language, and energy- are electrifying. Everyone seems to be in a rush to get somewhere.
Mesmerized by the New York inhabitants, an immense wealth of interesting photographic subjects, Brandon Stanton decided that he would take 10,000 photos of 10,000 of different New Yorkers.
Stanton was a mere amateur at photography. People laughed and asked him what on earth he was doing. But for 6 months he kept his head up. Every day he walked the streets, snapped photos, and published them online. And nothing happened. There was no response from the public; No-one had interest in his photos.
Frustrated but driven, Stanton persisted. One day he decided to publish his photos to Facebook along with quotes or stories attached to his photographic subjects. He created a page and titled it Humans of New York.
Doubtless, you’ve heard some of these stories. Soon after the page was created, Stanton had 1 or 2 new followers every day. People weren’t excited about pictures. Anyone can take pictures. But pictures paired with real stories are almost irresistible. He began conducting short interviews with the people he photographed and their stories and their photo compose Humans of New York. Soon, Stanton had a massive following.
Today, Humans of New York has over 17 million followers on Facebook alone. Humans of New York started with a goal to catalogue the inhabitants of New York, and is now adored by people all over the world.
Brandon Stanton, I think, is the proverbial entrepreneur. He’s someone who didn’t give up. He pivoted his idea and didn’t allow the apathetic spirit of those around him to blind him from seeing, capturing, and celebrating peoples’ stories. Today, he continues doing what he loves most – sharing the stories of New Yorkers along with incredible photos.
College Hunks Hauling Junk is the genius brainchild of Nick Friedman, an American Entrepreneur, dedicated to helping both people that need a hunk and hunks that need people. With his childhood friend Omar Soliman, Friedman built the company from the ground up. They first started with one van and a few strong buddies to make some extra cash in the summers between semesters. A few years after their college years they decided it was time to go all out and make College Hunks Moving Co. a legit thing. Freidman and Soliman put countless hours, nights, and weekends into organizing licensing regulations, figuring costs, and finding the necessities such as vans, uniforms, logo brandings, and most importantly; hunks. They first started hiring several college buddies and then hired buddies of buddies and finally branched out to all kinds of hunks. Football players, basketball players, trackletes, swimmers, and even mechies all started finding this awesome summer job geared towards college kids to help not only them out with their financial situation, but to also help their community with heavy lifting that would be more difficult for both the older and younger generations. The company itself has grossed billions in the past decade and has made Friedman famous in the Entrepreneurial world. Friedman has been featured in the Top 30 Entrepreneurs under 30 by INC Magazine along with iconic figures like Mark Zuckerberg. Today the company continues to grow across the nation; spreading to smaller towns and larger cities to get junk out and get good into the community by uniting its youth to needs. 
