changed jobs and by 1927 he and his family were on the catastrophic verge of financial ruin. His life was so miserable that while strolling on the shore of Chicago’s Lake Michigan he decided to commit suicide. The event that took place after that changed his life forever.

Fuller, in his own words, claimed that he felt as though he was suspended several feet above the ground enclosed in a white sphere of light. A voice spoke directly to him and declared, “From now on you need never await temporal affirmation to your thought. You think the truth. You do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you. You belong to the Universe. Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume that you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to the highest advantage of others.

http://www.therealityfiles.com/guinea-pig-b-by-buckminster-fuller/