When it comes to power, the image of some great ruler from the past always pops up in my head – a king or an emperor. And if we are talking about modernity, then, first of all, the minister or the president is represented. These people can influence millions of others through laws and orders.
But nowadays, it is not only politicians who significantly impact society. This is exactly what is shown in the notorious Time magazine. According to his version, there are several categories by which one can determine a person’s influence and compare it with others in the field where a person became famous.
Thus, the magazine identifies the following categories: leaders and revolutionaries, builders and tycoons, celebrities in art and entertainment, scientists and thinkers, heroes and idols. According to this list, you can identify the most outstanding people on the planet.
6 most influential people on earth
1. Bill Gates
Almost all people on earth use Microsoft products. Bill Gates created a popular system, and Windows is already associated with computers. The company’s success brought its creator billions of dollars, repeatedly leading him to the title of the richest man in the world—he held this status from 2009 to 2016.
But that’s not the only thing Bill Gates is famous for. In addition to his business activities, he was also involved in charity work. Moreover, the funds he has spent on helping people amount to billions. And some states simply owe their lives to him because, thanks to his investments, medicine has been raised to unprecedented heights in some third-world countries.
Bill Gates’s influence is so great that rumors attribute to him almost the power of God, suggesting that if desired, he can zombie entire countries with his technology, but this, of course, is not true.
2. Elon Musk
Elon Musk has become a modern symbol of human genius. As an inventor, engineer, and entrepreneur, he was able to bring to life what was recently considered impossible.
Ten years ago, the idea of conquering space seemed like childhood dreams, and colonization of planets was just an idea from fiction. But now, thanks to Elon Musk, all this has become possible. The engineer’s influence on the world is so great that there are already thousands of successful people who say that they were inspired to achieve by Elon Musk.
Having created his company, SpaceX, he became a competitor in space exploration. And now its missiles have become one of the first to surpass their Soviet counterparts. Interestingly, he made many of his company’s patents publicly available, showing that his goal was always progress, not profit.
3. George Clooney’s
It is not only entrepreneurs and politicians who can be public opinion leaders—George Clooney has shown this to the whole world.
For his achievements in cinema, society listened to his every word; his interviews were parsed into quotes, and he was admired and idolized. His help resolving the armed conflict in Darfur is worth a lot, and not every director could boast of this. But that’s not all.
Clooney put a lot of effort into recognizing the Armenian Genocide, which suffered at the hands of the Ottoman oppressors back in 1915. He also did a lot for charity: thanks to George, hundreds of actions were held to support seriously ill children.
4. Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 as an online bookstore. He then turned it into a financial giant and, with its help, became the richest man on earth in 2018. His achievements in developing the economy allowed him to fight with the leaders of world powers like the United States and Russia.
Jeff Bezos’ successful investments led to the creation of an Amazon-owned network of companies. In this way, he has invested more in developing world trade than many countries. His system is still being used, as Amazon offers better conditions than all other companies.
5. Malala Yousafzai
Malala was still a young girl when fame came to her—not because of her beauty blog or streams on Twitch but because of her fight for women’s rights. You will say that many people are doing the same thing now, and nothing is surprising or bold about it.
Perhaps this is the case in the progressive world, but Malala comes from a completely different environment, namely from Pakistan. In the Islamic world, women’s rights are not something that is taken for granted. For example, high-quality education is mainly available only to boys, and girls are destined to spend their whole lives in the kitchen.
And it was Malala who fought against this injustice. As a fifteen-year-old teenager, she expressed a far-from-popular opinion for which she was even attacked. They tried to kill the little girl because her words expressed the opinion of millions of women in Pakistan, and radical conservatives were not satisfied with this.
6. Stephen Pruitt
An ordinary American Internet user has attracted attention to himself by his seemingly ordinary profession. Stephen Pruitt is an author who has written 35,000 articles and made 3.5 million edits for Wikipedia free of charge.
Thanks to this, Time considered him worthy of being included in the list of the most influential people in the world. This is not surprising because millions of people around the world use Wikipedia for information. This means that Stephen indirectly influenced everyone reading his articles, forming their opinion about the world around them.
