7 Life Skills To Learn From THESE Influencers

While there are plenty of influential people in this world, this article will mention seven of them in this article. Looking at the global scale, some are more popular than others, but they all are inspiring in their own ways. Please note that this article is not written in order of most influential, it's just a list of some of the significant people we had in our minds!

1. Sal Khan - Be Passionate about what you do

Salman Khan is the founder of Khan Academy, a free educational platform that has over 6,500 videos with over 1.7 billion views. Starting out with teaching his niece math over the Yahoo Doodle Pad, more people requested for his videos and soon moved to a YouTube channel. Gaining more followers over years, he quit his job and developed the Khan Academy website, which has enabled free education for everyone. With his mission to “accelerate learning for students all ages”, he has gained viewers from all over the world including some rural areas in Africa and Asia.

Being one of the early online educational platforms, he has inspired so many others to create similar platforms. His dedication and energy he puts into each of his videos has changed so many lives and has received “worldwide interest from students and non-students”. His site includes videos covering many subjects across the website, truly showing that learning (and teaching) has no limit. He mastered several concepts, from AP World History to Advanced Calculus to coding and his content provides no barrier.

2. APJ Abdul Kalam- “Simple Living, Higher Thinking”

Abdul Kalam was the 11th president of India and an Indian aerospace scientist for four decades. Famously known as Missile Man of India, he worked with Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) . Born into a Muslim family of boat owners in South India, Kalam was exposed to all the religions of India at an early age. He implemented syncretism as his religion, following Hindu, Christian, and Muslim customs, proving to be the best example of India’s unity and diversity.

He sold newspapers as a child to support his large family financially. Dr. Kalam only pursued school for a couple of years, but his crave for knowledge surrounding science raged on. Dr. Kalam always wanted to be a part of the Indian Air Force as a pilot since he was a child, but he was never selected. Realizing his path was different, he became a scientist, and joined the Indian National Committee For Space Research (INCOSPAR). From 1969 to 1980, he was a vital part in the launch of India’s first satellite, SLV 3, which successfully placed the Rohini Satellite in Earth’s orbit. Just the year before, the satellite had crashed in space just after 370 seconds. Despite going through that major failure, becoming weak mentally due to backlash, he was able to defy all odds by launching the satellite again, this time successfully. After this, he launched five other missiles from India. He was known as the Missile Man after that.

Later in his career, he was elected as the 11th president of India, fondly called “the People’s President.” Despite being catapulted to such a high position, he was extremely humble. He called off the annual party, because it spent 22 lakhs (2 million USD). He felt the money could be spent elsewhere, and he donated the same money to orphanages across India. He bought them food and blankets, many times using his own money.

Despite his massive achievements, Dr. Kalam was extremely down-to-earth. After his lectures at various universities, he used to give out his email, and actually answer every question he used to get. He touched everyone he met. He believed in being a life-long learner, which is why the UN commemorated his birthday as “World Students Day.” In a world where influencers are getting more and more haughty and arrogant towards common people, Kalam was a gem. He is a true example of “Simple Living, and Higher Thinking.” His humble roots continue to inspire everyone to follow his revered footsteps.

3. JK Rowling - With your passions and determination, anything is possible.

JK Rowling is a British author, best known for writing the Harry Potter series. Her innovative stories have created a magical childhood for many. Besides her successful writing career, she has donated a lot of money to so many charities that she lost her billionaire status. Despite these charitable donations, she still remains as one of the richest women in the world, having a net worth of £238 million .

Another outstanding quality, besides her selfless character, is her determination that brought her up in life. She suffered miscarriages, underwent two abusive relationships, and was a single parent of three children. During this period, she was jobless, poor, and had no sort of financial support for her family. In addition, she suffered from depression and had suicidal thoughts. Despite this, her illness inspired characters such as Voldemort, Malfoy and the Dementors in the Harry Potter series, which eventually turned out to be a success. She used to write manuscripts of the first book on restaurant napkins while her child was sleeping, because she toiled each day to provide a living for them. A big takeaway from this is that she still clung on to her passion, writing, and used her experiences to shape her stories, which she never knew, turned out to be an inspiration to many.

When Harry Potter was first written and ready to be published, she was rejected from 12 publishers. Many refused to publish her book because she was a single parent and “was a bad influence” on her readers. Despite this, her books smashed records and is the best-selling series in history. In fact, the first book has exceeded 120 million copies!

Rowling is a founder of the international Lumos Organization, which strives to help 8 million disadvantaged children in orphanages find new loving families. Her message serves to inspire many people, economically disadvantaged or not, to pursue their passions, help the world, and persevere.

4. Anita Moorjani - Live and love life, it is very precious

Anita Moorjani is an author of the New York’s bestseller Dying To Be Me. In 2002, she was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer after finding a lump in her neck. Over the months, she approached different treatments, but despite that, the cancer continued advancing. At one point, her doctors told her family that it was “too late” to save her life, and the cancer has already spread to the rest of her body. In 2006, she fell into a coma for 30 hours that she claimed was a NDE. She asserts that she had an out-of-body experience along with awareness of her physical surroundings. She also claimed that she felt liberated and blissful, and was reluctant to return to her dying body, but was encouraged to come back from her deceased father and best friend, who told her to “live her life fearlessly”.

Upon returning from the coma, her tumors shrunk and her body quickly healed. There has been no medical explanations regarding her sudden recovery. Through her powerful story and motivational speeches, she spreads the message of self-love, true healing, and confidence.

From her, we can learn that one should live life to the fullest. With faith and hope, Anita was able to escape the clutches of death itself. After that incident, she told her story to everyone, living the life she couldn’t live before the out-of-body experience.

5. Laxmi Agarwal - Don’t let setbacks define who you are as a person

Fifteen year old Laxmi Agarwal from India aspired to be a singer in the prime of her youth. However, a man named Naeem Khan tried to crush her dreams and aspirations by throwing acid on Laxmi's face, just because she rejected his advances. In 2005, Laxmi Agarwal was on her way to a bookshop when she was attacked by acid, which burned through her skin. To this day, Laxmi’s face remains permanently scarred and disfigured. She has undergone seven surgeries to reconstruct her ears and cheeks. During the process, she was even ostracised from society, and people oppressed her, stating it was her fault acid was thrown on her. Laxmi contemplated suicide many times as well. Despite all the negativity, Laxmi rose up like a phoenix and began to spread awareness, just as the cases in acid attacks rose. However, Laxmi proved that the man had only changed her face and not her spirit. “I now realise that hiding my face is the same as staying silent,” she says. She refused to be enslaved to the injustice done to her, and she spoke out against the evil intentions that the perpetrators had. She organized numerous movements, including a hunger strike that many acid attack survivors participated in. Former first lady Michelle Obama praised her for her works, and the Bollywood film industry, inspired by her self-confidence, created a movie, Chhapaak, based on her life story.

6. Madame C.J. Walker - Use your talent to catapult yourself

Born as Sarah Breedlove, Madame CJ Walker was well-known to be the first black woman to become a millionaire in American history. Her confidence and determination led to her successes. She made her career by selling hair care products for black women, which was a novel idea because, back then, such products never existed. Her story truly correlates to the underdog, as she was born to former slaves. Sarah was born after the Emancipation Proclamation, being the first free black in her family. Her childhood was stained with tragedy. Her parents died when she was six. She was married at fourteen years old, and was a single mother and a widow by twenty. After she underwent a scalp disorder that led to extreme hair loss, Walker decided to create products for women just like her. She sold her products at doorsteps, and when they were received with acclaim, she decided to start a company.

Soon after, her company began to thrive with the help of her husband, Charles J. Walker. She was soon catapulted to the status of the first black millionaire. However, she still remained humble and believed in helping her community.

She was also a notable philanthropist who gave back to black women in her society. She gave back to black women by providing career opportunities and investing their futures with training programs. She used her wealth to help other women and also help the younger generation of women through offering scholarship funds in the Tuskegee Institute and offering donations to the NAACP Organization, dedicated to help the underprivileged African Americans. She not only had significant contributions in terms of business, but she also had a good influence on people in terms of leading and helping the society. From her story, we learn that she created a massive fortune just by doing things she enjoyed and loved. If we recognize and build on our strengths, we can truly achieve heights.

7. Elon Musk - Dream Big

If there is one man who revolutionized the advancement of technology and space science, it is Elon Musk. If, around 20 years, someone stated that one man could be our stepping stone into advancing our technology into an entirely different country, Mars, people would have just walked away. He has been behind many top companies, including Pay-Pal, Tesla, SpaceX, and Zip2. He taught himself to code in just three days, as well as used friends books to help him learn how to create rockets. He truly dreams big and promised to send humans to Mars by 2030. Even though he was fired from being the CEO of PayPal, he fought back and became a billionaire, amassing much more than he would’ve if he stuck with PayPal. He truly dreams big, and has imagined and blueprinted flying cars, and a 700 miles-per-hour transport network. Though he arguably may be eccentric, he proved that one just needs to believe to achieve. He dropped out of Stanford University after just two days and launched his first company, Zip2, which was an extremely successful venture, paving the path for his future career. One may feel Elon’s life is a bunch of dreams coming true, but he did work long and hard for them. Later, he founded SpaceX. In 2012, the company made history when it launched its rocket into space unmanned. It was followed by many more successes, including the successful landing of the Block 5 Falcon Rocket. Hollywood was so enamored by Musk’s successes, that Tony Stark’s character in Iron Man was partially based on Musk.

Edited By: The Eureka Journal Committee