(http://teamlopetyreclubbe.com/)

Basically, these are the guys that started me down the path; encouraging my to build a bike after one of mine was stolen. Their passion is far deeper than bikes...wading into their media empire will guarantee much time lost in wonderment. (http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/)

Athough recently deceased as I began my journey, Sheldon Brown helped me more tha he'll (obviously) ever know.  opaging through tabes on in 1994-era HTML site, you instandtly get the sense that the content is king, formatting and sexiness be damned. (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/).  

I read this Matthew Crawford book as I was already downstream with this idea of working with my hands again. For me, this wasnt as inspiration as reaffirming. The best line, in my opinion, is how he states that "you can't hammer a nail over the internet". He describes how people who work with their hands ultimately have the most control of their destiny, as that is a skill that can never be outsourced.

I have been following Gary Vaynerchuk for awhile.  I listened to his first book "Crush It", on my smartphone.  His follow-up, "The Thank You Economy" contains alot of common sense things that businesses seem to have forgotten. His biggest message is that those who care will be more successsful and fufilled than those who dont.

"To take advantage of this opportunity, businesses will need to look backwards and scale the caring their grandparents' businesses exhibited towards their customers or watch their competition pass them by."

The images of color, energy and action int his early 60's classic have never left me. 

Another book that I read after I pushed off from shore, it too falls into the catagoty of being reaffirming rather than entirely inspirational.  Creating our own opportunities (A Blue Ocean with no limits), as opposed to doing things they way they've always been done (Red Ocean...with the sharks) has allowed us to compete with no one but ourselves.