A man who focused and lived his life with the power of determination, born on this day in Edinburgh, Scotland, Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was only 29 when he invented the telephone, United States Patent No. 174,465.

When he uttered the famous words, "Mr. Watson -- Come here -- I want to see you," over the wire... The transmission revolutionized the world.

"When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don't see the one that has opened for us." he said.

Before inventing the phone, Bell worked in Ontario and Boston as a speech therapist to the deaf. He fell in love with one of his students, Mabel Hubbard, who inspired him to concentrate his research on sound and its electrical telegraphic transmission. 

"What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists," he advised. "And it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know EXACTLY what you want...and are fully determined not to quit until you get it."

Bell's legacy goes beyond the invention of the telephone. He formed Bell Telephone Company and donated millions to schools and foundations for the deaf. He continued to discover and create, inventing a home cooling unit, hydrofoil, and iron lung. He improved methods of lithography and sonar detection.

In 1887, he met Helen Keller and recommended Anne Sullivan as a teacher to her parents. In 1888, he founded the National Geographic Society and under his presidency the National Geographic Magazine began publication in 1899.

"There cannot be mental atrophy in any person who continues to observe, to remember what he observes, and to seek answers for his unceasing hows and whys about things," explained the great inventor.

Focus to achieve.