Making a significant contribution

As an engineer, i have always dreamt that someday i will be able to mark my name in the technology history timeline as someone who actually made a noteworthy contribution towards the society and towards the advancement of our existing technology, but working here i have always been bogged down but trivial issue that is important to the company but does not have a good milestone in the scientific progress, alas eventually i will be stuck with doing routine things that will not justify any significant contributions towards this scientific world, again when we look at those people who are actually able to mark their name in the history of science i would tend to believe that only geniuses are able to do such thing, to come out with something significant, most of them are either working in research institute or research company that pays a lot of emphasis towards developing something important and significant, hence working in profit oriented company will not give you the luxury of extending your contribution further than the company's goal which is making a lot of money