What Amazing People Do

By Dr Charles Margerison

We live in amazing times. Every day we see how technology has advanced.  State of the art medicine can help us when we are ill. Fantastic computers bring news and entertainment to our table wherever we are at the press of a button. And, we can travel round the world in 24 hours.

But, who were the amazing people that enabled us to have all these facilities? I have been literally out and about to visit the places were amazing people worked and lived. I have then written up virtual interviews with the world’s most amazing people as if they had returned through time to tell their story.

Although my journey is no over, in my search for amazing people, I have learned a lot about their contributions to our every day life. Here some examples of what they achieved.

• Excellent engineering for travel on trains and planes. Our world has been transformed by amazing people who have discovered the secret of converting energy to power trains and planes. Two of the great names are George Stephenson for developing the first steam train and Frank Whittle for creating the jet engine. Both of them had remarkable lives.

• Music that raises ones spirits. The lives of both Wolfgang Mozart and George Gershwin were short, as they died at the ages of 35 and 37. However, they both composed music that has influenced all of our lives and left great legacies.

• Pills and potions to cure our illnesses. Modern medicine depends on new advances in science to produce solutions to health problems. We are all familiar with aspirin, but do we know who synthesized the drug? It was a German chemist by the name of Felix Hoffman, who also developed heroin as part of his research. Louis Pasteur searched for the cause of disease in dark and dank places. Many people opposed his findings, but it was the start of a new age in medicine.

• Elegant design for sailing on ships and boats. For years, people waited for the wind to move boats and ships. Once steam power came along so did great designers. One of the most outstanding was Isambard Brunel.

• Magic machines for communicating by phone. Today, we may take the phone for granted but it was an amazing discovery and two people led the way. Antonio Meucci was a brilliant Italian engineer and inventor and Alexander Graham Bell was an outstanding inventor and entrepreneur. They both played a major part in the development of the phone. 

• Top technology for computer systems. In the old days of the 17^th century the name computer meant someone who did calculations. It was not till the 1840s that computers gained a different meaning. Charles Babbage, assisted by Ada Lovelace, developed a calculating machine. Their idea has become an amazing reality that has transformed our world.

• Architecture and buildings of quality. From earliest times people have built houses and monuments. It was the Greeks and then the Romans who developed cities with classical buildings. Now we have amazing buildings being constructed across the globe. But, we still admire and marvel at the old structures and the amazing work of people like Christopher Wren and John Nash.

• Political stability for employment and standard of life. Politicians are often maligned, but it never deters people who with strong beliefs who wish to build a better society. In the USA the names of Washington and Lincoln are revered as amazing people and the same is true of people in other countries.

• Life saving surgery. Dr Christiaan Barnard saw his brother die when he was only four years of age. It had a major effect and he resolved to train as a surgeon and became renowned as the first doctor to conduct heart replacement surgery. He is an example of one of the many amazing people in medicine who have improved the quality of our lives.

•  Entrepreneurial effort to provide new businesses. Our standard of life depends on development of businesses. Some people like Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, William Boeing and others created many jobs and a fortune in the process. We need more amazing people to provide leadership in order to help people improve their living standards.

A psychologist, business consultant, musician, composer, and author, Dr. Charles Margerison is an innovator with a firm respect for achievers and leaders.  His BioViewâ stories celebrate the ‘can do and will do’ spirit of creativity, confidence, entrepreneurialism, and more.  Dr. Charles Margerison created The Amazing People Club to reflect the achievements of inspirational people and celebrate famous cities. He is a Chartered Psychologist, with experience as an international business development consultant to major organizations. The author of more than 10 books on business management, he is the co‐founder of Team Management Systems and Emerald Journals. He was a Professor of Management at the University of Cranfield, UK, and at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is currently the Chairman of Bell Hughes Music Group and the President of Amazing People Club LLC.

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