Imagine a World Without Ideas

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Text: Alex Umole
Photography: Caroline Hargreaves

Yesterday at 10:00am, I was reminded of how the development of the railroad had major significance on the State of California’s economy. I went on a tour of the Sacramento Railway’s fascinating museum. I was impressed by the sheer wisdom of those four men in Nevada who dared to believe that they could “make more money”! Yes, that’s what they thought to do. That’s simply insightful to the many things that drive individuals who encourage development across nations through their ideas. These men understood that when there’s a need, ideas grow to fill it. They sought for these life-changing ideas and improvements, and it made all the difference. I choose not to go into the details of the story of the railroad development. But the moral of the story is that ideas drive development. Ideas redefine the way we live.

Think about it. What if we lived in a world without ideas? What if there was never an idea for computers today? I may never have been able to type this piece with the convenience of my Apple Mac book Pro! About 20 years ago this may not have been possible, but today even toddlers know about computers! Someone said, "They say one of a baby's first non-verbal forms of communication is pointing. Clicking must be somewhere just after that."

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Imagine if there was never a cell phone, a radio or even a T.V? What if the Wright brothers, who are credited with invention of the airplane, were the Wrong brothers? What if Thomas Edison had given up the Light bulb idea? And the candle was never invented because the inventor was discouraged by his grandmother? What if?

Time Magazine gave the recognition of the person of the 20th century to Albert Einstein. Initially, I wondered why they did, because I really did not know what Einstein did specifically. I hear he made astonishing scientific discoveries, but did not quite understand how. So I went to do research on him and his contributions to physics.

Basically, Einstein's many contributions to physics include “his special theory of relativity, which reconciled mechanics with electromagnetism, and his general theory of relativity, which was intended to extend the principle of relativity to non-uniform motion and to provide a new theory of gravitation. His other contributions include advances in the fields of relativistic cosmology, capillary action, critical opalescence, classical problems of statistical mechanics and their application to quantum theory, an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules, atomic transition probabilities, the quantum theory of a monatomic gas, thermal properties of light with low radiation density (which laid the foundation for the photon theory), a theory of radiation including stimulated emission, the conception of a unified field theory, and the geometrization of physics”.

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Well, I am sure you are asking the same question I asked seeing this, “What the heck does all this mean?” Well, simply this man had IDEAS that REDEFINED THE WORLD. He rewrote the laws of physics, established the foundation of numerous inventions, redefined how war is waged and yet most importantly he promoted the cause of peace through discussions with the U.S government about the United Nations role. He understood the need for his ideas and vision.

It was Helen Keller who said: “The only thing worse than being blind is having eyes but no vision.” This world needs visionaries. The responsibility of creating ideas that change the world is upon us. We must see a need. We must make our own contribution.

Finally, I am tempted to stop the flow of my pen with these words that caused me sleepless nights recently. It was Charles my own buddy who uttered the words and it went this way, “If you are not making some uncommon contribution to the earth today, you are unnecessary”. For me, I choose to be necessary, to create ideas that will make this planet better than when I met it, at least, so I can sleep well at night. The Universe is awaiting your “world-changing” idea, but before then, stay inspired, never expire or retire, but re-fire!


Alex Umole is Nigerian. He is also a lawyer with an LLM in Business Practice and is passionate about motivation and its benefits on mankind.