How to Make an Impact on the World?

I'm 15 years old, and I want to make an impact on the world.

My father and I engaged in a long, meaningful conversation about the world we live in today, the economy, and what the future has in store for us. We talked about stocks, from steady shares in GE to the rise and fall of Taser, real estate, and advances in medicine. We talked about the polio vaccine, and how the man who conceived the cure saved over a million lives.

We talked about Apple, Microsoft, and Google. We talked about how the surge in technology, from operating systems to processors, ended up bringing forth billionaires in one of our nation's most successful economic periods.

Now the economy isn't what it used to be. The strong will succeed in times like these. The world strong minds and even stronger initiatives.

I have an entire lifetime ahead of me, and I want to make an impact on the world. A cure for cancer. A cure for HIV. Advances in robotics. How can I take the initiative to make an impact on the world?

Read up on people like Albert Enstein, Nikola Tesla, Dr. Otto Warburg, read up on all of their ideas, read and learn everything you can, the more you learn the more you will see how all professions relate to eachother in some way, become obsessed with what you know and figure out why people think the way they do, what drives peoples decisions, is it intelligence, is it money, it is comfort. Learn why and how people think and learn something that you will have a passion in doing, then come up with an idea or concept that you know will benefit mankind. There are already cures out there for cancer, for hiv, but whats a current problem to thinkers like you is that most people dont posses the drive you have. They settle for conformity, for social structure and a feeling of belonging to society, this creates problems with coporations and governments taking advantage of their citizens, by for exmaple: taking 20 years to release a cure for HIV, even though there is already one out there, what they seek to do is benefit off of current treatments. Remember that anything in life that is too good to be true, usually isnt, but anyone who is at risk of losing money in future profits will brainwash people into thinking a good idea is a bad idea this is how the world works today, and its kind of sad and disgusting. Find a way to break politics and coprorations and you have freedom to invent anything you want and be praised for it, rather than possibly killed for the intelligence you posses. Read, read, read and absorb everything and make meaning of it.

This may be the boring answer... but STUDY... learn everything you possibly can... soak it all in... (not just science/math/etc, but also poetry/science fiction/philosophy) you will find your path in life, but explore all the branching pathways before you decide "I must do THIS!" Without the "spark" of true interest (not just what makes you money or benefits others) any acheivement will be hollow...

Your father sounds like an amazing man... he will be proud when you surpass him...

Hi rux, it鈥檚 nice to know someone as young as you are pondering on what to do about pressing problems in the world. At your age what you can do now is not to become one of those young delinquents in your society. Do not be a burden to your parents- study hard- then when you reach your age that you need to choose which career you want, I would advise you take economics or any other social science courses鈥?because those are for altruistic people like you. You know what, I am an accountant by profession but I am taking Economics for my master鈥檚 degree and I realized that economists have more noble mission than accountants (in my opine..).
But, if you want to make an impact in the world NOW, you have to assess first what you want to attack in particular - alleviate poverty, protect environment, etc. You better join the rest of world (more heads are better than one). There are organizations with missions that could match yours. At your age focus first on one aspect, you can鈥檛 do all those things that you want at the same time..good luck rux!