A suicidal drop-out whose designs changed the world

Buckminster Fuller was thrown out of Harvard twice. First time when he was found partying with a circus group. After being readmitted, he was expelled again for his "irresponsibility and lack of interest." 50 years later, Harvard's oldest honor society would make him a member...

Buckminster Fuller was a maverick inventor. He earned 28 patents and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His most popular design - the geodesic dome - was globally adopted and reshaped 20th century architecture. And yet, at 32, Fuller almost committed suicide...

Fuller was a tinkerer since childhood. He created a new system for propelling boats at 12. He served in the Navy in WW-I, commanding a crash rescue boat. The death of his first born child pushed Fuller towards his first interesting invention: a new kind of home.

Fuller's first daughter Alexandra died at 4 from Polio complications. Fuller was devastated. He believed their damp and overly humid house worsened his daughter's condition. So he started a construction firm that built light, fireproof, and weatherproof houses. It failed.

5 years later, Fuller's finances had significantly worsened. The birth of his second daughter added to the pressure. On a long pensive walk around Lake Michigan in Chicago, he seriously contemplated drowning himself. Atleast his family would get the life insurance payout...

And then Fuller had a profound religious experience. Decades later he would report feeling suspended a dozen feet above ground. A sphere of intense white light ensconced him. And then a divine voice spoke to him in clear words he would never forget:

A voice told Buckminster Fuller: "From now on you need never await temporal attestation to your thought. You think the truth. You do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you." Fuller was told: follow your gut. No need for external attestation/proof.

Fuller's unexpected religious encounter sparked off a lifelong "search for the principles governing the universe." He would use these principles to advance "the evolution of humanity." His north star: "Doing more with less to the end that all people everywhere can have more."

Fuller's greatest creation would be geodesic domes. These domes are incredibly strong for their weight because of their unique weight distribution. They've been used as roofs for airports, Olympic stadiums, and U.S. Military bases. These domes made Fuller a world-famous designer.

Fuller, a great polymath, innovated to help others. This line captures his spirit: I live on Earth at present, and I don't know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing—a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process—an integral function of the universe.