Here's to the Crazy Ones

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

"Think different" was an advertising slogan for Apple in 1997 which is more inspiring and took Apple Inc to the next level!

It features 17 iconic 20th century personalities. In order of appearance they were: Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon (with Yoko Ono), Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright and Pablo Picasso.

Albert Einstein:

Albert Einstein's name has become synonymous with genius but his contributions to science might have been cut short had he stayed in Germany, where he was born on March 14, 1879.

It was 1933 and a charismatic politician called Adolf Hitler had just become Chancellor.

Einstein, a Jew, learned that his name was on a Nazi list of people earmarked for assassination and a bounty had been put on his head.

One German magazine even included him on a list of enemies of the state under the phrase: “Not yet hanged.”

He had already been used to being something of a migrant as, by the age of 17, his parents had already taken him to live in Italy and Switzerland, where he began training to be a physics and maths teacher in 1896.

Einstein qualified and became a Swiss citizen but couldn’t find a teaching job so began work as an assistant in the Swiss Patent Office in 1901, where he was passed over for promotion because he had not got to grips with “machine technology”.

However, much of his work was linked to the synchronising of time by mechanical and electrical means, which sowed the seeds that would later transform the understanding of the universe.
His first theoretical paper – on the capillary forces of a straw – was published in a respected journal that same year and by 1905 he was awarded his doctorate by the University of Zurich.
The scientist’s work began to pour out of him – by the end of that year, he published no less than four revolutionary papers on matter and energy; the photoelectric effect; Brownian motion; and the idea that perhaps defined him most of all – special relativity.
Despite the acclaim that he began to accrue, he continued working at the patent office until 1909.
Two years later his work on relativity made him world famous when he concluded that the trajectory of light arriving on Earth from a star would be bent by the gravity of the Sun.
His conclusions ripped up the ideas of Newtonian mechanics which had stood since the 17th century.
He returned to Germany where he held several prestigious positions, including president of the German Physical Society.
By 1921, his groundbreaking theories had transformed the basics of modern physics and he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
However, it was not given for his most famous work, that of relativity, because it remained too controversial.
Instead, the judges used his explanation of the photoelectric effect to explain the award.
The famous scientist began to lecture worldwide and travelled to Singapore, Sri Lanka, Palestine and Japan, where he spoke before the emperor and declared: “Of all the people I have met, I like the Japanese most, as they are modest, intelligent, considerate and have a feel for art.”
Wherever he went by this stage he was greeted like a head of state or a rock star, with crowds thronging to hear him and cannons fired to salute his arrival.
The rise of Hitler and Nazism persuaded him to move to the US, where he later shed his avowal of pacifism and wrote to President Roosevelt urging him to press ahead with construction of a nuclear bomb to ensure the Germans did not get there first.
He later said this letter was his life’s biggest regret because nuclear weapons had such a fierce capacity for destruction.
He began work at Princeton University and became a US citizen in 1940 (his third passport) where he was a strident critic of racism, calling it America’s “worst disease”.
Albert Einstein died of internal bleeding on April 17, 1955, aged 76, which was marked with headlines around the world.
But his story did not end there - his brain was removed by the pathologist to try to understand what made him so intelligent.
At his memorial, Robert Oppenheimer, the developer of the atomic bomb which Einstein had backed, said: “He was almost wholly without sophistication and wholly without worldliness.
“There was always with him a wonderful purity at once childlike and profoundly stubborn.”

Bob Dylan:
Staring his career as a folk musician, becoming a rock and roll legend, and continuously staying on the cutting edge of music meant that Bob Dylan would have nearly 30 years as a top music icon.
He started out singing in the 1960s, reaching and astonishing crowds through his songs that were more like speeches to a generation searching for themselves. His popularity matched other great performers of the era.
Born in the small city of Duluth Minnesota, Dylan was always fascinated with the songs of Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters. During his time in high school, Bob Dylan played in numerous bands, hoping and dreaming that he would be able to play his music in front of bigger crowds. He went to university for three of the required four years, but found his calling to music when he made contacts with several prominent folk artists. It was his playing at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village in New York City that Columbia records discovered him. Within two years, Dylan was already mesmerizing audiences. His first album contained only two original songs, but his second gained national recognition. His tunes, such as Masters of War and Don’t Think Twice were giving youth an opportunity to think about their role in society and their government.
With changes occurring all around him, it wasn’t too before Dylan stepped into the softer scene. He began releasing love songs, such as “It Ain’t Me Babe,” which sold nearly a million copies. When Dylan finally stretched further into contemporary rock, he began to sell as hot as any other artist in the nation. In his second appearance as the Newport Folk Festival, he broke out into a rock and roll set that got him booed off stage.
However, Dylan’s next album allowed him to attain a new type of following. His songs, such as Desolation Row and Like a Rolling Stone became a part of the American music psyche. And, his chart-topping music proved that he had what it took to make it in any musical domain he wished. His next release, Blonde on Blonde in the mid-1960s, is widely appreciated by rock musicians even to this day. His style went unmatched and his song writing skills were unparalleled. After a motorcycle injury that almost cost him his career, Dylan stepped away from the public limelight for years. His return saw him recording some country music, along with a duet with Johnny Cash. Dylan wrote the best-selling song Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door for a film about Billy the Kid and acted in the film.
By the 1980s, Dylan had become a born-again Christian and his work also made another startling transition. The public and his fans were thrown aback and weren’t sure where he was heading. After becoming a Christian, he decided to return to the religion of his early years, joining Judaism. He then toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Grateful Dead. In 1995, Dylan released an MTV Unplugged album and won a Golden Globe in 2001 for his song writing.

Martin Luther King Jr.
In what was to become the most renowned speech of the 20th century, “I have a dream” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a window to view not only one of the best orators in world history, but the passion of one man’s battle for equality.
Dr. King’s involvement in the Montgomery County Bus Strikes and battle for equality was sparked with the case of Mrs. Rosa Parks, who would not give up her seat on a public bus to a white person. King, who by that time had received his PhD from Boston College in 1955, started the bus boycott that would see his arrest and the bombing of his house. It was the first time King had actually used the philosophy he had studied intensely – non-violent civil disobedience. He saw that it, more than violence, caught attention, created frustration, and made a strong point when employed collectively.
Following, King worked hard over the next years to fight the Jim Crow Laws that segregated his people. His work in the poor neighborhoods and ghettos in the south, which in turn brought media attention to the hardships and dearth environment that his fellow blacks were suffering each day. With his work, King made the Civil Rights Movement the most focused-upon issue of the day. Similar to President Abraham Lincoln’s battle, King, although 100 years later, was fighting for the same cause: to keep America focused, together, and aware of the undeniable inequality of the various races living in the United States.
One of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s strongest beliefs was that black people living in the United States should be compensated for America’s past wrongs. He claims that the blacks who built America to be the superpower it would become, would not have done so without the backbreaking labor enforced upon slaves.
In the “March on Washington”, King deliberately gave his “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 to the crowd of thousands who had come for the right to jobs and freedom. The March made some clear-cut demands, including equal rights in schools and public places, police brutality clauses, and minimum wage standards.
In April of 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed by an assassin’s bullet. A small-time thief by the name James Earl Ray was sentenced for the assassination, although a conspiracy theory holds that Ray did not commit the crime. Many claim it was the FBI, who had been keeping tabs on King since early 1961. Others involved in the plot have come forth, leaving room for many unanswered questions.

Richard Branson
This flamboyant British entrepreneur with a seemingly insatiable appetite for starting new businesses is the son of a lawyer and an airline stewardess.

 He was educated at the exclusive Stowe School but did not excel, possibly due to his nearsightedness and dyslexia. In his teens he developed a national magazine, Student at the Age of Sixteen. At seventeen he began a student advisory service.
After leaving school, Branson entered the music industry. Considering that he could sell records cheaper than the existing average, he started a mail-order catalogue with friends. It was a success, and they opened a record discount shop. They named the business Virgin, because it was their first venture.
Virgin Records was formed in 1972. The first recording studio was built in Oxfordshire, England. Mike Oldfield recorded the very first album, and it sold over five million copies. When punk came along, Virgin signed the outrageous Sex Pistols when other record companies refused to touch them. The move turned out to be a marketing coup.
Virgin Airlines is one of Richard Branson's main businesses. Formed in 1984, it is part owned by Singapore Airlines, and it is the second largest British long haul international airline, and has won many awards.
To keep his airline afloat, Branson sold the Virgin music label to EMI in 1992, a more conservative company which previously had rescinded a contract with the Sex Pistols.
Branson apparently wept when the sale was completed since the record business had been the genesis of his Virgin Empire.
In 1994, Sir Richard made a bid to run the National Lottery, promising to give all the profits to charity, and lost. He failed with a second bid five years later.
In 1997, Branson took over some of Britain's aging railway network, under the title Virgin Rail. Despite the introduction of new trains, the network is still dogged by delays and service interruptions. More recently Branson has founded a mobile phone network, an internet company, and a Cola, unsurprisingly titled Virgin Cola.
In 2006, Branson sold his Virgin Mobile company to telecoms company NTL:Telewest for £1 billion. As part of the sale, the company pays a minimum of £8.5 million per year to use the Virgin name and Branson became the company's largest shareholder. The new company was launched with much fanfare in February 2007, under the name Virgin Media.
On 9 February 2007, Branson announced the Virgin Earth Challenge, which awards $25 million to an individual or team that designs a viable product that will reduce greenhouse gases each year for at least ten years without any harmful effects. Over 2,600 applications were made and 11 finalists were revealed on 2 November 2011.
In 2007, Branson also bought a ten per cent stake in Malaysian airline AirAsia X and bid to buy a 30 per cent stake in Northern Rock, which failed.
However, Branson was able to takeover Northern Rock for £747 million at the end of 2011, with the deal being finalised on 1 January 2012. He has now launched Virgin Money, with a range of new products yet to be announced.
Branson expanded his healthcare empire in 2008 by opening health care clinics offering traditional medical treatment as well as homeopathy under the name Virgin Healthcare.
At the start of the Formula One racing season in 2009, Branson announced that Virgin was sponsoring the new Brawn GP team. At the end of the season, the team became Virgin Racing.
According to the Forbes 2011 list of billionaires, Branson is the fourth richest British citizen and 254th richest person in the world.
Branson is also well known for his personal adventures. In 1987 Branson crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the "Virgin Atlantic Flyer", which was the first and largest hot air balloon to cross the ocean. Branson now plans to circle the world in his hot air balloon, and has made several unsuccessful attempts.
Richard Branson received a knighthood in 1999. He is married to Joan and has two children, Holly and Sam.

John Lennon

After losing his mother in a car accident, the young John Lennon never seemed to find his way in the academic settings that his aunt Mimi had secured for him. When he was admitted into art school, Lennon had already gotten tired of the “system” that controlled his ambitions. With his long-time friend Paul McCartney, who had also lost his mother at a young age, they started playing and writing songs together. After being passionately dedicated to a guitar his aunt bought him, John and Paul started their first band called The Quarry Men.
John Lennon was a natural leader of all the ensuing bands that followed. As the group became older and more experienced, they changed their name from The Silver Beetles to The Beatles in response to the popularity of beat music during the time.
With Ringo Starr and George Harrison, the group began playing local venues and started recording their own music.
In England, the Beatles became a national success. With their fame spreading across the oceans, they decided to tour the United States and became an instant hit. However, a controversial statement by John Lennon that his group was more “popular than Jesus” sparked public outcry across the southern and mid-western United States. With increased pressure, Lennon publicly apologized for his statement, although he said that it had been taken out of context – that his band, or television, or pop culture was more popular in England than Jesus.
In his personal life, Lennon did not find much fulfillment with his first wife Cynthia, even though the two bore a son together named Julian. Lennon didn’t have much of a relationship with his son, saying that he was born out of a whisky bottle. The two became closer as they aged, but it was with Lennon’s second son Sean that he devoted his time and energy towards. Both Sean and Julian have musical careers and have had success on their own merit.
For his political lyrics and open comments about America and Britain’s role in Vietnam and elsewhere, the FBI attempted to have Lennon deported. But, hearing after hearing and deadline after deadline were extended or put on hold and Lennon was never officially deported from the United States. In 1971, Lennon released Imagine, a hugely popular solo album. With lyrics that became increasingly controversial, Lennon felt pressure and had various death threats. In December 1980, Mark Chapman shot and killed Lennon in front of his home at the Dakota building in New York City.

Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller was an American engineer and architect. He developed the geodesic dome, which is the only large structure that can be set directly on the ground as a complete structure. Geodesic domes are the only types of buildings that have no limiting dimensions.
Fuller was descended from a long line of New England nonconformists. His great-aunt was a cofounder of a Transcendentalist movement. Fuller was twice expelled from Harvard University and never completed his formal education. He began a career in construction when he and his father-in-law created a construction company. Fuller supervised the building of several hundred houses. The company began to fail just before the depression and Fuller left. He dedicated himself to search for design patterns that could help conserve world's energy resources. He was very concerned about the long-term availability of energy sources.
In 1927 he invented a factory-assembled, air-deliverable house, later called the Dymaxion house, which had its own utilities. In the mid-1930's he invented a three-wheeled omnidirectional vehicle, which could accelerate to 120 miles per hour, carry 12 passengers, and average 28 miles per gallon. This was an amazing technological achievement for that time. From here he went on to invent the geodesic dome, a combination of tetrahedrons and octahedrons, which was the most economic space-filling structure ever discovered. A large geodesic dome served as the U. S. exhibit at Expo 67 in Montreal. He invented many of potential products but most did not come to market.
Fuller became a research professor at Southern Illinois University in 1965 and by 1975 had been named professor emeritus. Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. In 1985, two years after his death, a new class of atomic molecules were discovered. They comprise hollow, aromatic carbon compounds that are made up of 12 pentagonal and differing numbers of hexagonal faces. Because of their structural similarity to the geodesic dome, they are called Fullerenes, honoring Buckminster Fuller. Different versions include Bucky Balls, Bucky Tubes and Bucky Doughnuts.    

Thomas Edison
Although he was hard of hearing by the age of twelve, Thomas Edison would invent a better light bulb, telegraph, and phonograph. These accomplishments sealed his position as one of the world’s greatest inventors.
Born in a small town in the Midwest, in Ohio, young Thomas was a restless student whose mind often wondered as the teacher gave lessons. But, it was his mother that would educate him at home. She taught him the pleasures of reading, by letting him read material that interested him. She also taught him how to be constructive and work with materials around him to invent something purposeful.
When he moved to Michigan, he was not as fulfilled selling goods on train routes to the bigger city of Detroit. But, he was able to make some money that would help him realize the benefits of hard work. Upon saving a fellow boy from being hit by a runaway train, the father of the boy decided to teach young Thomas Edison about the wonders of the telegraph – something that would set the inventor’s path for the rest of his life. He learned how to be a telegraph operator, which came easily to him because of his deafness of background noises. In those years, he was also taken under the wing of another inventor who allowed the teenage him to work in his basement. It was then that he began working on his invention of electrical telegraphy.
It would not be until Thomas Edison and his new wife moved to New Jersey that his career would really unfold. There, he unveiled his automatic repeater that would revolutionize the telegraph world. He also displayed his phonograph, the first device of its kind to record and play back sound. The invention so frightened the crowd that they believed him to be a sorcerer. With better design and longer-lasting records, the phonograph became a huge hit at home and abroad – especially in England.
He went on to form the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City. The small company provided the first lights to lower Manhattan, New York. Thomas Edison’s dream was to provide every American household with affordable electric power. He continued working on his inventions, even designing phone speakers that were used through the latter 20 th century.

 Muhammad Ali
In his most famous words, “fight like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” Muhammad Ali became one of the greatest boxers in world history. With no other fighter before him as heavily promoted, he had the attitude, spunk, and rhymes to create hot anticipation even before he stepped into the ring.
Born Cassius Clay Jr., Ali started with his first coach who led him all the way to the Rome Olympics. While there, Muhammad won a Gold Medal in the light, heavyweight division – an event that solidified his path to the professional boxing ring in the United States. He would later throw his Gold Medal into a river because he could not stand representing a country full of racism. It was this act and his public presence that intrigued Malcolm X to invite Ali into the Nation of Islam.
Before changing his name to match the will of the founder of the Nation of Islam, Ali was ranked in the top ten fighters in the country. As Ali climbed the rank in the boxing circuit, he also received more coverage than any of the other boxers. Some claim it was Muhammad Ali alone who revitalized a sport many sports enthusiasts stopped watching. With such attention and a public profile, he was offered a 50 – 50 split of his fights – the highest ever offered in boxing history.
In his first battle for the heavyweight championship of the world, Ali fought Sonny Liston in Miami. Claiming he was destined to win the fight, Muhammad came into the ring as sharp, strong, and pumped as ever. Although Liston was the more powerful contender, he couldn’t keep up with Ali who maintained his endurance and eventually outsmarted Liston to become the World Champion at only 22 years of age.
As the Vietnam war led to the draft in the United States, Muhammad Ali, being of a member of the Islamic faith, was a conscientious objector. With his quick and witty tongue, Ali revealed, “I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong … no Vietcong ever called me nigger.” Due to his anti-war status and refusal to enter the draft, Ali was stripped of his boxing title and was sentenced to five years in prison – a decision that was later reverted in the appeals process. During this time, Ali fought abroad and gave talks at different public institutions against racism and fought hard to teach others about equal rights. Only in 1970 was Ali allowed to fight in the United States, an act granted by a senator of Georgia, as the state had no boxing commission.
The Fight of the Century, as it was later dubbed, saw Ali versus Frazier at their best. The fight went until the last round when Ali was knocked to the ground. This was Ali’s first loss as a professional fighter.  In his next, highly advertised fight, Ali fought George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle, which was created by none other than Don King. Ali knew Foreman didn’t have the same endurance he did so he let Foreman pulverize him against the ropes in the early rounds, which wore Foreman out. By the eighth round, Ali came back to knock-out Foreman with one striking blow.
Currently, Muhammad Ali is retired and has two battles which he faces daily; his own long-lasting fight against Parkinson’s disease, and helping those less fortunate in the world – especially in Africa. Ali published an oral autobiography of his life in the early 1990s. And, in the acclaimed movie Ali in 2001, Will Smith portrayed the fighter’s life, his fights, and his personal and religious battles on the big screen. Along with many other awards given to him for his humanitarian deeds, Ali received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in 2005.

Ted Turner
The largest private landholder in the United States(outside the federal government), Robert Edward or better known as Ted Turner is a major figure in American business of the late 20th century. He founded the first 24 hour cable news channel which is known as CNN.
One of the richest men in the world, he took Atlanta's independent UHF television station from financial troubles to profit in three years. There seems to a magic in his logics as what so ever business he has taken over from the scratch has grown to a profitable one. He also took over his father’s ailing business in 1963 following his father’s death and restored it to profitability. Turner has also committed his assets to ecological causes and has created the environmental-themed animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers. In his personal life he seems to have a fascination with the letter ‘J’ as he got married to three women and co-incidentally all of them have the initial ‘J’. Unfortunately none of his marriage was succeeded and he got separated. Ted became popular amongst children after he created Cartoon Network (1992) which was the first served as a 24-hour outlet for classic animation properties. Ted has always been fascinated with ranches and probably because of this fascination he owns four ranches in US itself. Apart from being a rich and famous personality he is a very humble human being as he is known for his $1 billion gift to support UN causes, which created the United Nations Foundation, a public charity to broaden support for the UN. Turner was the one who found the idea of TV "super-station" broadcasting to cable systems countrywide by way of satellite.

Maria Callas

Maria Callas (born Kalogeropoulos) was born to Greek immigrant parents. As a small child she enjoyed listening to gramophone records and radio programmes, and took piano and singing lessons.

Because of marital and financial problems, Mrs Kalogeropoulos returned to Greece with her two daughters, and Maria studied singing under a famous singing master in Athens. After several school performances, she was offered a part at the Royal Opera, in Suppé's 'Boccaccio'.
In 1940, Greece became engaged in the Second World War and, from time to time, Maria performed for the enemy troops. In 1942, she replaced an unwell soprano at the opera to play 'Tosca'.
When Athens was liberated by the British Forces, she worked as an interpreter for some time, but decided to return to her father in New York, in September 1945.
She should have debuted in Chicago, but the company went bankrupt so, when Maria was offered a contract for 'La Gioconda' in Verona, she gladly went to Italy.
In Italy she met her future husband Meneghini, as well as her mentor, Tullio Serafin. Her sensational performance in Wagner's 'Walküre' and, two days later, in Bellini's 'I Puritani', received worldwide publicity. From then on she was a star and she received many recording offers from gramophone record companies. These records made her famous and popular the world over.
The press haunted her constantly and her divorce from Menighini and her affair with Aristotle Onassis were covered all over the world. She contracted a throat disease which caused her voice to lose quality, but she refused to take it seriously.
After Onassis' marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy, Maria broke down, then made several attempts to resurrect her career, but her voice was a mere shadow of its former self; fans were saddened by its deterioration.
She died of heart failure in September 1977.

Mahatma Gandhi

The man who led India's struggle for independence against Great Britain was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born on 2nd October 1869 at Porbandar, in Gujarat. Gandhi studied law in London and became a barrister. He went to South Africa to work as a lawyer. The white people in South Africa treated the natives and the Indians settled there badly. He was distressed to see it. He fought for their cause for more than 20 years. He was a man of great courage and determination.

Back in India, Gandhiji joined the struggle for the cause of the weak and the oppressed. He developed the concept of Safxagrafta—fight for establishing truth. People joined him in large numbers. He practiced non-violence and wanted his followers to practise it too.

India was under the British rule at that time. They were exploiting the people and resources of our country. He joined the peaceful battle for freedom against the British Raj in India. He held many satya-grahas and went to jail. The people of India followed him blindly and fought against the British rule. Gandhiji became a great leader of the Indian National Congress.

Gandhiji started the Quit India Movement in 1942 against the British. He was arrested and later released in 1944. The British finally decided to withdraw from India in 1947. Gandhiji was deeply grieved that India was divided by the British into India and Pakistan. He led a simple life and wore only khadi clothes. He urged the people to use the charkha to make cloth every day. The people in India loved him and called him Bapu. He is indeed the Father of the Nation. He was shot dead on 30^th January, 1948. Although, he is no longer with us, his ideas and his writings are an important part of our lives. Mahatma Gandhi lived and died for the welfare of his countrymen. He wanted us to be Indian first and Indian last.

Amelia Earhart

Soon after learning to fly, Amelia Earhart broke the women’s world record for high-altitude flying at 14,000 feet. Her fearless and focused demeanor helped her quickly rise to one of the world’s top female pilots. Unknown to many, she was also a writer and contributed essays to several publications of the day. She also wrote her first book, entitled 20 Hrs. 40 Min., which depicted her adventures as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
In the autobiography and memoir of Amelia Earhart, also published by Putnam, called The Fun of It, she details her life as a pilot and what she believes the role of women are in modern flight. Another book of Earhart’s published posthumously called Last Flight detailed her journal entries in her attempt to circumnavigate the globe. It was in this last flight that she disappeared without a trace somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
She was a member of the National Aeronautic Association and was heralded as the best female pilot in the United States. But, none of this mattered on the day of her disappearance on July 2, 1937 when she was scheduled to make radio contact and land on Howland Island, a small island used as a military landing strip.
Even with one of the world’s top navigators named Fred Noonan beside her, their Pacific flight route course was not exact. Earhart and Noonan believed they were right above Howard Island, but were actually off by a few nautical miles. In the ensuing hours, Amelia circled about and looked for the landing strip, but to no avail. Believing her plane went down, the American government spent millions of dollars in an attempt to rescue their beloved Amelia and her navigator Noonan.
However, many theories, legends, and other accounts detail her disappearance differently. Evidence seems to suggest that she actually continued for an additional two hours in an attempt to reach Gardner Island. While many a biography of Amelia Earhart have been written, none can quite ascertain what really happened on the day of her disappearance. Some groups theorize she landed safely and wanted to give up flying, so she changed her name and lived out the rest of her life in peace. Others suggest she was abducted by the Japanese or even by Aliens who wanted to alter history for some reason. No matter what happened, her name lives on as an example to pilots and women everywhere about how far inspiration and believing in oneself can take you.

Alfred Hitchcock
Known as one of the greatest movie directors of all time for his suspense-filled thriller movies, Alfred Hitchcock won several awards for his films in both Britain and in Hollywood in the United States. His films, such as North by Northwest, the Man who Knew Too Much, and Dial M for Murder and others were all critically acclaimed for their innovative film styles.
Young Alfred was born to a butcher and poultry marketer right at the end of the 19 th century. With an interest in math, he became an engineer after studying at St. Ignatius College in London and the University of London. He began designing title cards for movies and then became a writer and quickly an assistant director. One of his first films released, entitled Blackmail was a massive success in Britain and set Hitchcock apart from other directors before him.
Hitchcock then moved to Hollywood where bigger budgets meant that movie producers would be able to pay for whatever he created, and bigger names meant more of a secure future in film. His films tended to have a distinct theme behind them – an everyday person getting in over their head and having to fend for their and perhaps others’ survival. Centered on murder, espionage, and ironic humor, his films set the precedence for even modern suspense, action, and thriller films. His films Saboteur, Strangers on a Train, To Catch a Thief, and, one of his most famous, North by Northwest all hold true to his themes. Additionally, his films tend to take place is famous places, near historical monuments, and one film might require his crew to travel halfway around the world in order to get the perfect shot.
Hitchcock was also famous for his use of camera angles, montage effects, stunning editing and soundtracks that added to the intensity of the moment. He was able to peek into the human psyche, penetrate their vulnerabilities, and make film goers worldwide gasp in suspense. Psycho, one of his scariest and of course controversial films, introduced new methods of surprising the viewing public. For his work in film and television, Alfred Hitchcock was knighted in Britain and won the Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Martha Graham
 Martha Graham, born May 11, 1894, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, distinguished herself as the Keystone State’s most influential individual in dance and choreography. She spent the first 14 years of her life living in the Pittsburgh suburbs before moving with her family to Santa Barbara, California, in 1908. Influenced tremendously by her father, a doctor who specialized in human psychology and nervous disorders, the young, athletic Graham discovered her passion in life.

Dr. Graham’s ability to diagnose through physical movement and his interest in the particular way people moved their bodies intrigued his daughter. Dr. Graham’s slogan, “Movement never lies,” unknowingly propelled his impressionable daughter into becoming one of the world’s most prominent dance innovators.

After completing her secondary schooling in California, Graham enrolled in a school for the dramatic arts following an inspiring ballet performance by Ruth St. Denis at a Los Angeles opera house. Martha left that experience in complete awe, and in 1916 began studying at the recently formed Denishawn School, founded by her idol, St. Denis, to teach American and world dance techniques. Throughout the next ten years, Graham honed her incredible skills and passion.
In 1926, Martha relocated back to the east coast and founded the now world-renowned Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance in midtown Manhattan. Applying her love of movement and her father’s dictum, Graham forever altered the world of dance and choreography. She pioneered the use of emotion and psychology as foundations of dance and movement.

Martha Graham spent 70 years of her life perfecting and teaching her passion. She has been mentioned in the same breath as Picasso and Frank Lloyd Wright as a pivotal influence in 20th century art. Time Magazine, in 1998, named Martha Graham the “Dancer of the Century.” Graham’s presidential honors include dancing at the White House for Franklin Roosevelt at the request of the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1976, President Ford presented Martha with the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, making her the first dancer and choreographer to receive this award. In doing so, President Ford labeled Graham a “national treasure.” In 1985, President Reagan made her one of the first recipients of the United States’ National Medal of Arts.

At age 76, Graham retired from dancing, but continued teaching and choreographing dances until the age of 90. Today, the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance continues its success by teaching aspiring talents Graham’s techniques, and is the longest continuously operating school of dance in America.

Martha Graham died April 1, 1991, in New York City. Graham wrote her autobiography, Blood Memory: An Autobiography, as an invitation to readers to explore her past, as well as to provide vivid photographs of her work.

Jim Henson

Early television intrigued young Jim Henson and sparked his imagination and creativity. Seeing enormous potential for puppets in this medium, he began his career in Washington, D.C. local television. Sam and Friends, his nightly five-minute show on NBC’s WRC, won Jim an Emmy in 1958 and introduced Kermit to the world.

During the sixties, Jim and the Muppets made many appearances on variety shows and were regulars on The Today Show, The Ed Sullivan Show and The Jimmy Dean Show. While the Muppets grew in popularity, Jim developed another career as a filmmaker. His experimental short film, Time Piece, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1965.

Jim’s remarkable association with Public Television’s award-winning children’s show, Sesame Street, began in 1969. The humor and whimsy of his characters continue to entertain each new generation.

The introduction of The Muppet Show in 1976 was a phenomenal success, reaching 235 million viewers in more than 100 countries and winning three Emmys in its five-year run. The popularity of the show led to the feature films The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppets take Manhattan, as well as the animated television series, Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies.

Throughout the 1980’s, Jim explored new directions in both television and film. The series Fraggle Rock was developed specifically with an international audience in mind. He developed new characters and technologies for the award-winning The Storyteller, The Jim Henson Hour, Dinosaurs and for his groundbreaking fantasy films, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Jim’s final completed project, Jim Henson’s Muppet*Vision 3D, continues to delight thousands daily at the Disney theme parks in Florida and California.

His untimely passing in May 1990 was met with a worldwide outpouring of love and renewed appreciation of his imagination and artistry.

Frank Lloyd Wright
Known in the United States, Europe, and even Japan as one of America’s most creative architectural geniuses, Frank Lloyd Wright would redefine American comfort in his affordable renditions of houses, churches, and buildings. His early dream was to explore Chicago and become one of the city’s most admired architects on a grand scale. However, his talent lay in what would become known as the “Prairie Style,” a design that would change the face of residential design across the U.S. and the world.
Young Frank Lincoln (who later changed his name to match that of his mother’s maiden name of Lloyd) was brought up in Iowa, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin and studied engineering. Upon finally realizing his dream of moving to Chicago, Frank Lloyd Wright found work with J.L. Silsbee, followed by Dankmar and Sullivan. By 1889, he had met and married Catherine Tobin. The two would have six children together, but would later suffer a difficult divorce due to Frank’s private life with chosen mistresses.
The movement of Prairie School Architecture was gaining national recognition for building affordable, unique, and nice-looking homes. Using materials usually reserved for commercial buildings, they were able to build spacious homes that were also comfortable and easily heated and vented.
By the early 1900s, Wright was traveling to Japan to provide input on the design of a hotel in Tokyo meant to comfort Western visitors. It would later be called the Imperial Hotel and be unmatched in splendor. His relationship with his first mistress, Mamah Cheney, did cost him some commissioned work. Lloyd Wright took the time to focus upon his own house near Spring Green, Wisconsin, named Taliesin. In Germany, he worked on two famous books that came to be a portfolio of his drawings and photographs of his buildings.
By the 1930s, Frank Lloyd Wright had visited California to build Olive Hill for Aline Barnsdall. The estate now serves as the Municipal Art Gallery in Hollywood. In 1928, Wright married Olgivanna Hinzenberg from Germany and the two fell into a financial rumble until his name was incorporated and he later designed and built the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Through the Great Depression, Wright lectured at various universities and sold his prints to stay afloat. In 1932, the Autobiography of Frank Lloyd Wright was released, as was Disappearing City, a book discussing the problems of urban life and overdevelopment.
By this time, his fame had grown worldwide and he received commissions to design colleges, universities, homes, museums, and government buildings. One of his most revered works is the Guggenheim Museum and the Marin County complex. His books, an Organic Architectures, American Architectures, and A Testament are all brilliant works from this prolific author, architect, and artist.
  
Pablo Picasso
Today a household name, Pablo Picasso is considered the greatest artist of the 20th century. He exhibited unique forms, was an innovator of styles and techniques, and became a master of various media.
Picasso was born in Málaga Spain, the son of an art teacher. His genius demonstrated itself early in life. At the age of 10 he made his first paintings and at 15 he performed brilliantly on the entrance examinations to Barcelona's School of Fine Arts. His large academic canvas Science and Charity, painted in 1897, won him a gold medal. Picasso moved to Paris in 1904. Paris was then the art capital of the world and here he could find no better inspiration. Like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec before, the street life, dance halls and cafés made excellent subjects for his work.
Picasso went through many periods of style in his career. The Blue Room in 1901 shows his evolution toward the Blue Period. The color blue dominated his work for the next few years. Several happy relationships changed his palette to pinks and reds in the next two years. This became known as his Rose Period.
In 1906 he was influenced by Greek, Iberian, and African art. His celebrated portrait of Gertrude Stein reveals a mask-like treatment of her face, a preview of a more radical style to come. In other works, the female nude was restructured into harsh, angular planes. Picasso painted landscapes in 1908 in a style later described as being made of "little cubes". He became most famous for his cubist work. Picasso's favorite subjects were musical instruments, still life objects, friends and family. His subjects were often drawn with several sides showing at once. Picasso created his first collage, Still Life with Chair Caning, using a combination of cloths and canvas. He also created remarkable cubist sculptures. The bronze bust Fernande Olivier shows his skill in handling three-dimensional form. He also made constructions of musical instruments from odds and ends of wood, metal and paper.
During World War I and the early 1920's, Picasso made many realist portraits of his new wife and children. He also created strange pictures of small-headed bathers and later violent convulsive portraits of women. Some have interpreted these as an indication of the tension in his marriage. Several cubist paintings of the early 1930s, expressed an underlying eroticism, reflecting the joys of a new lover.
Picasso was outraged by the bombing of the Basque town Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The huge mural, Guernica, employs powerful images of dismemberment and death. His paintings continued with this darker theme through the devastations of World War II. After the war, Picasso experimented with new medium. He created hundreds of lithographs, thousands of ceramics and important bronze sculptures. In 1964 he completed a welded steel model for a 60 foot sculpture called Head of a Woman.
Throughout Picasso's lifetime, his work was exhibited on countless occasions. Most unusual, was the 1971 exhibition at the Louvre, in Paris, honoring him on his 90th birthday. Before then the museum had never shown living artists. He created more than 20,000 works of art in his lifetime, and was one of the most prolific artists in history. After a long and prolific life, Picasso died in his villa Notre-Dame-de-Vie near Mougins in 1973.          

Things I believe that matters

Life is not all about following your passion, if you want to become a singer, life will not always be about getting an opportunity..for example, you have to find the structure of the real artistry life which can afford you.

Why "wing it" when you can prepare for it. 
Wake up! This is 21st century, don't just wing it, prepare for it. In this century people have to work smart. When I was in college My friend use to note some key words spoken by the lecturer in HR class like "Passion, people management, people etc.." and when there is a viva, he actually use these words to impress him and eventually became a topper!
People have to Prepare when they want something big in their life's.

Its not about working hard, but working smart.

Work on your strengths, not on your weaknesses.

GRIT, an unexplainable secret to success
The best way to succeed in life is not only to get best grades in school but their are many ways to succeed..it may be IQ, good looking, Rich enough to visit expensive school or physically healthy but the most imperially proved that the people with GRIT will succeed most.

What is GRIT?
Perseverance and Passion for long-term goals.

The Grit will be understandable from the life you live in. Grit is not that someone gives you, it is that you have to develop yourself.  As the Wall street journal says that wealthy people with kids are now twice as likely to segregate themselves from the poor. The only wealthy people can afford expensive books, expensive bags that bring them to expensive schools at the same time and the GRIT will prove that we don't need to be BIG to DREAM BIG and you need not to be too small to DREAM BIG in this life.

GATTACA is one of the great movies, It is a 1997 story starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, Its a story of a world with invalid and god children. The god children are perfect in terms of physic and they are allowed to sent to the space because everything about them is perfect. But, there will be an invalid guy named Windsor with his GRIT who will destroy the whole system to achieve his dream to reach to the space.

AAP

An Idea cannot change your life. A passion, A desire, and A successful execution of that idea may change your life!

It is not easy to copy. It requires a great skill and effort. There may be people whose cup of tea is not creativity. Everyone cannot invent something to change the world. There are people whose ability to spot some good creation and idea to use to their advantage.When you think of social networking you think of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. However, Zuckerberg stole the concept from the Winklevoss twins who came up with the idea of connecting all Harvard students online.

Thomas Edison doesn't "invented" the Light Bulb. It was Joseph Swan, a British inventor, who obtained the first patent for it. Edison was however the first to see the potential of the idea and worked hard to improve it and make it practical. The light bulbs of the past were very expensive and they did not last long, only 150 hours. Edison worked very hard to solve these problems. His bulb lasted for 1,200 hours and was cheaper. He had the ability to spot an invention and quickly understand its marketing potential.

‘touch screen’?? means 'iPhone'. Touch screen is not invented by Apple. It is invented in 1960s by E. A. Johnson and was used by IBM in 1993 when it released the first ever smartphone named Simon. Jobs believed that this tech will change the world and rocked the world with his smartphone, which he called iPhone.

All these people have one thing in common that they have ability to spot a good idea and implement it. If you spot any idea shamelessly copy and implement.!

Likewise AAP, the name which shaken the whole political system in India and a dream of impossible, made possible! AAP campaigning has close similarities like Obama campaigning. At that time in 2008, Hilary Clinton in USA is a most powerful candidate than Obama which is closely similar here as Sheila Dikshit is like invincible CM in Delhi, he defeated her.! He used the same strategies used by the Obama to reach out to the voters. Like Obama, who used the power of the youth to help him win, Arvind Kejriwal too used the young first-time voters to campaign for him. Like Obama he too used the power of the social media to create a large volunteer base and reach out to many people. Like Obama he too had the whole campaign planned out (software to track voters). Each polling booth was tracked and mapped and campaigned for with the ultimate goal being of getting 100% of the supporters of the party to the polling booth. No politician had ever spoken like this to its voters as him. He had a message that people loved ‘Aap (you) against the corrupt biggies’. He inspired people to vote for change – just like Obama. He positioned himself as the ‘common man’ which appealed to the electorate and his logo, his slogans (power to the common man) all were totally in sync with the positioning and made him stand out distinctly from other parties. In short, one can say Kejriwal did an Obama in India