Profiling a Digital-Music Pioneer:
19-year-old Shawn Fanning has appeared on the cover of FORTUNE, BusinessWeek, Forbes and the Industry Standard. His name and his face have become synonymous with the promise of the Internet to empower computer users. How? By creating the now-legendary computer program called "Napster" that allows users to exchange mp3 music files from one home computer to another--forcing us, as a society, to take another look at how we treat intellectual property.	Shawn Fanning
What company did he work for? Who did he train under? No one. ThisOne did it himself. The idea for Napster just came to him as he was sitting in his dorm room at Northeastern University in Boston, hanging out with his friends, and listening to his roommate whine about dead MP3 links. He had taught himself Unix programming between his junior and senior years in high school and knew enough to think such a program was possible. "I had this idea that there was a lot of material out there sitting on people's hard drives," he says. "...and I had to figure out a way to go and get it." He had to learn Windows programming in addition to Unix server code. He didn't need friends, family, financing--he almost went without food. He was self-sufficient, gaining sustenance and strength from the work. And if the idea could nourish him, he reasoned, then how many others could feed on it as well? This is the distinct sign of a Visionary. He knew could see the vision of this new program at work and knew how much benefit and enjoyment it would bring to others who would use it. He worked feverishly for three months to get it done. He knew there might be others working on the same thing and he wouldn't let them usurp his idea. When he first came up with the idea, in true Visionary style, he began taking his work with him wherever he went. He took his notebook computer everywhere--to basketball games or the pizzeria--it didn't matter where. One January evening, as he rode back to campus with his cousin, he was, as usual, totally absorbed with his idea. "I'm like that. Once I begin focusing on something, I'll just keep going until it's done. I cut off the outside world." When they pulled up to his red-brick dorm, Fanning absentmindedly got out of the car and began walking up the path. After two steps, he stopped. He turned around, strolled back to the car, opened the door and climbed back in. "I'm not going back to school," he told his cousin. And away he went. Fanning was unfazed by his parents' and others' worries. The idea had become too big to let him be distracted. It possessed him. He never went back to his dorm room, leaving behind his clothes, books and bedding. He did, of course, take his computer with him. Fellow programmers marvel at what Fanning was able to accomplish when he moved into his uncle's office, a computer gaming company in Hull, and set to work on Napster. It was the first major program Fanning had ever written. "One thing that sets Shawn or any really great programmer apart from mediocre ones is their focus," said Ali Aydar, a friend who now works as a programmer in Napster's offices. "[Shawn] is able to handle criticism. Most alpha-geeks can't take criticism. They'll get into arguments. Shawn actually listens and takes the best part of what you say." For Visionarys, criticism is prized as there are few who are willing to give strong criticism. It appears that the idea was more important to him than any ego attachment. Napster, insists Aydar, could not have been written by a team, nor could it have been written by anyone 21 or older. "Shawn could focus on problem solving--and there was no one to tell him he couldn't do these things. There was no one who ever really understood what he was doing. He didn't even understand the legal issues involved. It was such a cool idea that he never once stopped, never really came up for air." Shawn is described as having an easy-going, wide-stepping stride and upper-body muscularity that seem out of place on a programmer--going to the gym most evenings, as if bulking up for his showdown with the record industry. And a few afternoons a week he plays basketball in the gymnasium up the road from Napster's Redwood City offices. At least one co-worker confirms that he is usually the best player on the court. As an emoting Evokateur, Shawn values his private time and keeps unwanted intruders from his personal space. He has a girlfriend now, a fellow 19-year-old who he is sure likes him for him and not for Napster. He won't give her name to anyone, and most of his co-workers don't even know about her. "When I'm around her," Fanning says, "I don't have to think about the press or about Napster." Meanwhile, there is another big idea he is dying to work out, another program that, he says, could be even bigger than Napster. This desire for solitude combined with obsessive ambition on a single idea lead us to Ansir Profile Shawn Fanning as Visionary/Visionary/Evokateur. Profile Boss: Visionary. He pursued his desires and talents (Life Purpose) unhindered and contributed to a revolutionary "changing of the guard" for not only the music industry, but also the internet as a whole. He has been able to focus and take an idea to its next tangible level and not let it go. When he focused, there was no distracting him and he did't have time for the secrets and political manouevering he is now involved with in the Napster legal battle. "I'm going to get back there, to that office, to where I'm just alone and able to work something out," Fanning has vowed. Legal issues aside, Fanning's program already ranks among the greatest Internet applications ever. It's up there with e-mail and instant messaging. In terms of users, the Napster site is the fastest growing in history--recently passing the 25 million mark in less than a year of operation. And, as Fanning predicted, his program does everything a Web application is supposed to do: it builds community, it breaks down barriers, it is viral, it is scalable, it disintermediates--and, oh, yeah, it may be illegal. (Napster is currently being scrutinized for alleged tributary copyright infringement.) We doubt that Shawn cares all that much about copyright infringement as it's not in his hands anymore. This Visionary's on to the next idea. And we fully expect to hear from him again.

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