sam calaGione
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Sam Calagione, founder
of what’s now one of
America’s fastest-growing
craft breweries, is living
proof that drinking doesn’t
kill brain cells. Buoyed by
Calagione’s passion for
off-kilter concoctions—
such as a stout made with
chicory and St. John’s wort,
“the world’s only anti-
depressant depressant,”
he jokes—Dogfish revenue
hit $44.8 million last year.
Next up: selling Noble Rot,
a beer Calagione’s team
made from bacteria-
infected grapes.
bruno mars
Musician
chetan bhaGat
Author
The voice of India’s rising
entrepreneurial class is an
investment banker turned
novelist. Chetan Bhagat’s
four best sellers have sold
almost 4 million books
since 2004. Bhagat, also an
op-ed columnist in both
Hindi and English news-
papers, is beloved by
young middle-class Indians
who snatch up his paper-
backs at supermarkets.
He knows his demographic
of 21st-century global
workers, as reflected by
the plots and themes in
books such as One Night
the Call Center.
“my writing
style is simple,
straight to
the point, and
genuine—like
that song ‘i
only have eyes
for you.’ ”
“Good sonGs are like good movies,”
says Bruno Mars. “You’re telling stories in a way they haven’t been told
before.” He would know: In the past
year, the 25-year-old Hawaii native
(né Peter Hernandez) has charted
smash hits in styles from doo-wop to
funk. And he’s done it as a vocalist
(“Grenade”), songwriter (Cee Lo
Green’s “Fuck You”), and producer
(K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag”). For what
became his Grammy-winning solo
debut, “Just the Way You Are,” Mars
awoke with a two-note melody stuck
in his head. “I grabbed a mic and
started humming and mumbling, trying to find the sweet spot,” he recalls.
Mars eventually played the rough tune
for his production trio, the Smeezing-tons, so they could help him finesse it.
“Everyone has their role—Ari [Levine]
banging away on drums, me playing
piano, Phil [Lawrence] humming different melodies,” he says. “We’re kind
of like a basketball team.” To date, the
track has sold more than 4 million
copies in the U.S.
