First class I got when I got to university, freshly arrived to the capital for my studies, still a kid. The calculus professor walks in and proceeds to do the "1/3 times 3 isn't 1, but it is" shtick, blowing everyone's minds. Continues doing this for 40 minutes and at the end he says:
"You're not competing with the people in your town anymore, you're not even competing with the people here, from now on think of yourselves competing with every engineer across the world. Aim high."
For a kid from Portugal that came from a smaller town, it changed my whole perspective. I loved that guy. Was an excellent professor for the rest of the semester as well. Can't say I met any other student of his that didn't walk away thinking fondly of him. Manuel Oliveira Ricou, you the man.
The point went past you. The core of the message is that you should not limit yourself to those you see around you in your small country, and keep a small country mentality. It's telling young people they are as good as anyone else, and that they should aim as high as someone that grew up say in the US and went to Stanford, because they are no better than you. I thought it was a great message.
"You're not competing with the people in your town anymore, you're not even competing with the people here, from now on think of yourselves competing with every engineer across the world. Aim high."
For a kid from Portugal that came from a smaller town, it changed my whole perspective. I loved that guy. Was an excellent professor for the rest of the semester as well. Can't say I met any other student of his that didn't walk away thinking fondly of him. Manuel Oliveira Ricou, you the man.