Writing about people

When your subject matter is a person, don't start with the day they were born and end with the day they died. If you do that, you've just covered the two things that are common to all of us.
Look for the uncommon characteristic. Start with an anecdote about the person that will show the reader immediately what the person is like.
A friend of mine wrote a story about a rancher. His first sentence was,"In the morning,the horses ate first." We immediately know the man's priorities before we even know the man.
I have a politician friend who was reading the obituaries on election day. He looked up from the newspaper and said, "I see where Mrs. Smith died. Then he paused and said, "I knew I should have given her an absentee ballot."
Try to find an incident that typifies who it is you're writing about. That's leading by example, literally.