Alas none of them have motivated me that much. If they had, I would be great physicist, or a notable humanitarian instead of the shmuck that I am. :)

But several have influenced me to a degree.

The life and work of Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman helped to get me turned on to science in general, and fundamental physics in particular. They also influenced how I thought about life and the world in general.

I was also involved in microfinance for a number of years. One of the pioneers of that field was Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 2006, so you coud say he had a big influence, though an indirect one.

There are also plenty of other that have had some influence on me, ranging from the writers Yeats and Shaw, through organisations like Amnesty International, leaders like Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill, and economists like Herb Simon, Milton Friedman and Amartya Sen.
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