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Career development 15 of the Most In…

15 of the Most
Inspirational
People Changing
the World
Indeed Editorial Team
Updated March 11, 2023

There have been several people

throughout history whose stories of
success in adversity or unique thinking
have made a lasting global and historic
impact. Being inspired by others can help
us to grow and realize what is possible
within ourselves.

In this article, we reveal 15 of the most

inspirational people in history and their
stories to help you inspire your own
success.

Related: How To Practice Inspirational

Leadership

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15 inspirational people
and their impacts
Here are some of the most inspirational
people in history and the ideological and
physical impacts they’ve made to help
inspire you:

1. Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks, born in 1913, shaped the
landscape of civil rights when she refused
to stand on a segregated passenger bus in
Montgomery, Alabama, so that a white
person could sit. The Montgomery Bus
Boycott was a reaction to Parks' arrest. She
inspired actions that lead to the end of
segregation in the United States.

The National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
awarded Rosa Parks the Martin Luther King
Jr. award. She also received a Congressional
Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of
Freedom for activism.

2. Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai is a contemporary activist
who was shot in the head by Taliban
soldiers after campaigning for girls to have
the right to attend school. She grew up in
Pakistan and was only 11 years old when
she became an activist. Unfortunately,
Yousafzai's views on a girl's right to
education resulted in her being attacked by
the Taliban when she was just a teenager.
Today, Yousafzai's journey has been written
about in books, including her own memoir,
and she is a social influencer and
international activist against oppression.

Related: Transformational Leadership:

Definitions and Examples

3. Anne Frank
Anne Frank was a German-born Jewish girl
of Dutch descent who kept a diary that has
been touching lives for generations. For
this reason, Frank is a timeless source of
inspiration for all. Published as The Diary of
a Young Girl, the story tells of a family's
hardship hiding during the Nazi occupation
of the Netherlands.

4. Nick Vujicic
When Nick Vujicic was born in Melbourne,
Australia, with no limbs, no one knew what
his life would be like. However, despite his
physical challenges, Nick decided to talk
about his experience to people and share
the inspirational stories of his success
around the world. He is a nonprofit
founder and entrepreneur whose many
successes make him one of the most
inspirational people of this century.

5. Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an iconic civil
rights leader who was instrumental in
activism in the United States. King was
born in 1929 in Atlanta. He was the son of a
minister who received his own doctoral
education in theology. He helped organize
the successful Montgomery Bus Boycotts
and was instrumental in the passage of
civil rights laws, like the elimination of poll
taxes and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. King
was assassinated for his beliefs in April
1968, but his legacy against systemic
oppression lives on today.

6. Bill Gates
Bill Gates was born in 1955 and went on to
establish the Microsoft empire. In 1975,
Gates pitched his BASIC interpreter for
existing micro-computing technology and
Microsoft was born. Since then, Gates has
been involved in corporate giving and
philanthropy. The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation is the second-largest
philanthropic donor in the United States.

Related: How To Get Motivated at Work

7. Nelson Mandela
Before becoming president of South Africa,
Mandela was an activist who stood against
the violent conflict known as apartheid. He
was the leader of a part of the African
National Congress (ANC) and received over
250 awards in his lifetime. This includes the
1993 Nobel Peace Prize for his joined
e!orts in ending apartheid.

8. J.K. Rowling
Acclaimed Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling,
was a struggling single mom on welfare
when she wrote and released Harry Potter.
She had moved around a lot, gotten
married and divorced, and faced a string of
rejections before anyone would agree to
publish the book. In fact, a dozen
publications rejected Harry Potter before it
was picked up and became rapidly
successful.

Related: Vision Statements: Tips,

Example and Importance

9. Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey started as a news reporter
who was fired when she was told she was
"unfit" for television news. Despite this
setback, Winfrey went on to have the most
successful daytime talk show from 1986 to
2011. Oprah is a successful entrepreneur
with an established foothold in several
types of media. She is also an actress and
philanthropist.

Related: How To Become a

Philanthropist

10. Sanna Marin

Sanna Marin, who was sworn in as
Sweden's Prime Minister in December
2019, became the world's youngest prime
minister at the age of 34 years old. Marin
inspires girls and women everywhere who
want to see people more like themselves in
positions as world leaders. She was elected
on a platform of equality and
environmentalism.

11. Peter Diamandis

Peter Diamandis is a highly regarded,
award-winning innovator. X PRIZE
Foundation is a nonprofit organization
Diamandis developed to drive innovation
and create new projects in exploration, life
sciences, energy & environment and
education/global development. Diamandis
has been responsible for innovations of his
own and he is among international leaders
pioneering private space travel.

Read more: 50 Inspirational Business

Quotes

12. Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg is a brilliant
mathematician with a Harvard education
who has worked for such companies as
Google and Facebook. Sandberg's story is
inspirational because through her own
hard work and exceptional background she
was able to make a name for herself as a
Silicon Valley tech executive. Being a
woman leader in STEM has posed its own
unique challenges for Sandberg, who
wrote the best-selling book, Lean In:
Women, Work and Will To Lead.

13. Jessica Cox

Jessica Cox is a philanthropist, writer and
motivational speaker from Arizona. She has
one challenge that she overcomes every
day: she was born without arms. Cox has
learned to do all the things that someone
can do with arms, using her feet. This
includes things like driving and raising kids.
Cox is in the Guinness Book of World
Records, has been recognized as an anti-
bullying activist and is the Director of the
International Child Amputee Network. She
has been recognized with many awards for
her great accomplishments.

Related: How To Become a Motivational

Speaker

14. Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony was an American civil
rights activist, lecturer, teacher, author and
famed abolitionist. Anthony was a Quaker
who educated those around her. While
leading the women's rights movement of
the time, she became acquainted with
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and together they
started the National American Woman
Su!rage Association with Lucy Stone.

15. Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is an animal activist,
conservationist and scientist who has spent
over 60 years studying and living among
chimpanzees in Tanzania. At the age of 26,
she began one of the most comprehensive
and longest-running studies of chimp
behavior to understand both the human-
chimpanzee connection and to protect
them from extinction.

She is also well-known for redefining

species conservation on a larger scale to
include the needs of local people and their
environment and is considered among the
most impactful ethologists in the scientific
community for her work.

Related: 100 Famous Quotes To Inspire

and Motivate

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