Reilly, James Marshall
Entrepreneur, Author & Thought Leader
James Marshall Reilly is an entrepreneur, author and young thought leader who set out on a mission to find out exactly how the most accomplished of this generation - top business leaders, ideators, humanitarians and social entrepreneurs - have defined and achieved success. What he discovered is that we have landed in a new place not only in terms of generational expectations and new technology, but in terms of education, perceived limitations, and the job market. Now he’s teaching other people - whether they are running a company or looking for their dream job - how they can achieve a higher level of success in this new marketplace.
His understanding comes from grappling with questions that include:
• How is it that some people are able to convert small, seemingly ordinary life experiences
into power, money, personal happiness and even global change of unprecedented
magnitude?
• What does micro-lending in Tanzania have to do with the Industrial Revolution?
• What can Napster and Netflix teach us about getting a job?
• How does high-speed connectivity translate to accelerated business growth and social
impact?
• How can taking a series of small, mitigated risks result in a world-changing initiative that
saves the lives of millions?
In 2011, Reilly was honored at the White House as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs in the United
States age 30 or under. His book, Shake the World: It’s Not About Finding a Job, It’s About Creating a Life, published by Penguin, debuted in the Amazon Hot 1,000. The book features indepth interviews with Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Doug Ulman (CEO and President of LIVESTRONG), Bobby Chang (Founder of Incase, the largest supplier/designer of Apple cases in the world), Elizabeth Gore (Executive Director of Global Partnerships at the United Nations Foundation), and Blake Mycoskie (Founder of TOMS), along with many of the other top entrepreneurs, business leaders, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, and humanitarians in the world. What he learned was that they’re all using similar tools to seize opportunities and redefine success. But perhaps the most relevant and powerful conclusion he made is that the rest of us can model the behaviors of these highly successful individuals as a means to achieve and sustain success of our own, however we may individually define the term.
Reilly, as a business owner and author, has been featured in publications that include The
Financial Times, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, International Business
Times, Inc Magazine, New York Post, Leadership Excellence Magazine, Publishers Weekly,
Library Journal, Kirkus, Booklist, Men’s Fitness, Under 30 CEO, on Monster.com, and countless
other media outlets. He is an official blogger for the Huffington Post, and his clients include
General Mills, Microsoft, Syngenta, the Aspen Institute, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Young
Presidents Organization, Rackspace, the World Technology Forum, Feeding America, Amazon,
and the Italian Government, to name a few. “Reilly is part of a cohort of young entrepreneurial leaders who will change this country over the next few years.” - Peter Sims, best selling author of Little Bets and True North
