Entrepreneurs Remember Their Favorite School Teachers. Tell Us: Who Inspired You? The founders of Pencils of Promise, Warby Parker and Harry's remember their favorite teachers and what made them so great.

By Catherine Clifford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Dedicated. Engaging. Creative. Collaborative. Inspiring. Exciting. These are all words that could be used to describe great, successful entrepreneurs.

They can also be used to describe what makes a teacher memorable. We look to entrepreneurs to teach us new ways to look at the world. So then who taught those world-changing entrepreneurs?

"Great teachers make you come alive in the classroom, they inspire you, they excite you and ideally they make you into a better version of yourself," says Adam Braun, founder of Pencils of Promise, in a video released today on National Teacher Appreciation Day. Pencils of Promise is a non-profit organization that builds schools in rural parts of the developing world.

Related: Pencils of Promise Is Giving Nonprofits a Hard-Nosed Entrepreneurial Facelift

The video, which also checks in with Harry's co-founder Jeff Raider, actress Katie Chang and the YouTube celebrity AJ Rafael, was released to kick off Pencils of Promise's campaign, in collaboration with 1-800-Flowers.com, to fund training for 500 teachers in the communities where Pencils of Promise works. So far, Pencils of Promise has broken ground on more than 200 schools, providing education for 20,000 children.

Related: Zipcar Founder: Entrepreneurs Have to Build a Collaborative Economy, or Else

Check out the video and tell us about your favorite teacher. How did he or she inspire you to become an entrepreneur?

Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

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