P.T. Barnum

Lived: July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891

Americans always loved Phineas Taylor Barnum, he was a showman, businessman, scam artist and entertainer, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus. He had thrilled people with circus with sideshow acts from the midget Tom Thumb to Jumbo the giant elephant. He solely invented the modern advertising and became rich with all his promotional activities. Much of his popularity and richness came through circus and other shows and he always credited the crowd for it. “Every crowd has a silver lining” is one of his most popular quotes. 

Thomas Edison

Lived: February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931

The inventor of electric bulb, phonograph, the motion picture camera is undoubtedly one of the great entrepreneurs of all time. He holds 1,093 US patents in his name for various inventions and also has patents registered in United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is also known to be the fourth most prolific inventors of all time. He exploited the profit potentials in his creations, and had great entrepreneurial ideas even when he was a teenager. He is known to have made great impacts in the lives of the people with all his ‘second to none’ inventions. As a combination of inventor genius and great entrepreneur, he is just the only one and stands alone.