Some call them “rebels.” Others call them “heroes.” Some may know them as geniuses, while others are content to describe them as brilliant. Who are these people of which I speak? They are the INNOVATORS.

Innovators have a habit of making our world a better place — more exciting, more efficient, more pleasant, and more enjoyable for all. And in 2021, they (innovators) did it more than ever. When our world was in need, innovators stepped up with a vengeance. They didn’t do it for money, or for popular acclaim, or for “clicks.” They did it because, simply put, that’s just what they do. You can’t ask a stream to stop flowing; you can’t ask a stallion to not run free; you can’t ask the sun to not shine brightly whenever it wants to. Similarly, you can’t ask an innovator to not revolutionize things and make our lives better. To do so would be to go against nature. I speak not, here, of Mother Nature, but of something we could call Innovator Nature … a nature that will define our future. (“Thanks for everything Mother Nature, but we’ll take it from here!” — The Innovators)

Even if the innovators that define our world are too humble to be recognized, we should not fail to celebrate their achievements. Doing so is a small way we can say “thank you” to the innovators I have been talking about. Here are the TOP TEN INNOVATORS OF 2021:

10. Humble innovators

9. Male innovators

8. Innovators who made headlines … and history

7. Those who inspired us to see possibilities beyond our horizon in 2021

6. Tech overlords with a sense of fun

5. Some of the coolest innovators

4. Creative geniuses who think so far outside the box that Galileo himself must say, “I wish I was as smart as them”

3. (TIE): Innovative minds who changed the way we worked by leading us to the bleeding edge of the future / Media personalities

2. When all is said and done, we must praise the innovators

1. Whoever did the best job