All Quotes

"[Jobs are scarce in Elma, but for Larry's dad, Cookie, business is booming. The more folks don't work, the more they hang out at The Office. And it is just about the only place in Elma that is open for business on a regular basis]"

"[That afternoon, the atmosphere in The Office is gloomy and dull. That is, normal. Cigarette and pipe smoke waft through the air as folks sip their beers. Some are leaning against the bar, while others sit at the few tables that are scattered about the room]"

"[Tom Palmer has just arrived. He takes his usual seat at the bar until he hears Darius shout from behind]"

"Darius: Showtime!"

"[Tom turns around. Darius, who has been staring out the window, shouts from the other end of the room]"

"Darius: Here she comes!"

"[Everyone in the room jumps from their stools and crowds around the window]"

"[Sure enough, Anna Montgomery, the new schoolteacher, is jogging down Main Street. She is big news in Elma]"

"Darius: Uh-oh. She's coming this fashion!"

"[They do a fast about-face and hustle back to their seats. As Anna enters the bar, everyone acts as if she are just another customer]"

"[The boys give her and "Isn't it obvious?" look]"

"It gives you a degree of stamina and allows you to empathise with people in a different way."

"I have this thing about being ‘human’ in business."

"It’s because I’m a young, female CEO, but I think it’s important to build an environment where people don’t think that to be successful."

"We all have personal challenges, and I’d love to foster an environment to feel that’s OK."

"Ben and Aaron are my mentors. They have totally formed my career."

"They could have hired a big gun externally for this role yet they’re empowering their own."

"Half of luxury consumers in the world will soon be millennials, but at the moment our product isn’t focused on them."

"A key theme will be making sure we’ve got a membership offering that does."

"They call out bullshit really quickly."

"You have to really give them what they want, or they’ll walk."

"If you’re genuinely offering the right experience the cool little hidden spot in Marrakech to go to then they’re going to want to use you."

"The technologies that will drive 30 years from now have not been created, so you cannot play safe."

"During that time in school, what went through my mind sometimes was fulfillment in the sense that, nobody gave me money; I made it myself even though my mum gave me the land. I felt it was a training on how to be independent, make your own money, manage your life yourself. At a young age, I became independent and I was proud of myself when I made money from it."

"My parents did not have education so we were relatively poor. My mum is hard working; I saw her waking every morning at 3:00 a.m, to go to Shasha market to buy what she sells. My mum sold pepper and dry grocery. She went from Shasha market to Bodija market twice a week. I call her the lioness. She just believes in working hard and not asking anybody for money. How my father supported her was very encouraging. I grew up in a home where, doing the house chores, taking care of the kids was something my father was open to doing."

"In the beginning, if I didn’t have a role model, I could have been demoralised, and this can cause you to have low self-esteem, make you feel like you shouldn’t talk where others are. Physics was so tough, it wasn’t an easy subject to take on, but I knew where I was going. Whatever anybody was saying didn’t really affect me. I just look at them and how they don’t really get it. It was okay. I’m happy I took that path because with physics, multiple doors opened."

""I remembered how I paid my tuition and that was the biggest motivation I needed. It fuelled my passion and fight for quality education, my fight for being the best at anything. I went back to school like it’s a war zone, like I had to ‘fight’ to scale through in life."

"To students, you may be going through a tough season now; you can’t lose yourself right now. You have to find your way out. For me, it was 3D printing. I knew 3D printing was the future. I crossed without funding but three months later, I had funding. The new funding was not as good as the old funding. I knew if I endured that, I was going to soar, and at the end, before I graduated, a job was waiting for me. Sometimes, you need to make that call. In the beginning, it may not be good enough but with perseverance, you will come through."

""Comfort zone is your enemy. Easy is your enemy. What you believe in, if well calculated, do it and the results will follow."

"“People wanted young Black people to have someone like me in their lives.”"

"“If they cannot see us, they cannot become us.""

"At a very early age, I knew that I could use education as my compass to navigate wealth."

"I knew that I needed to focus on something that would get me out of poverty and for me, it was education. So, education was a do or die affair. I kept going, and I started seeing results."

"I decided I was going to just register a not-for-profit organisation, get like-minded Nigerians together and we would regularly go to communities and help youths, professionals who need help and just give back to our community. So, it’s a hub of like-minded people like me who came together and said we want to give back, and raise giants who are going to be stronger than us, more powerful than us, who look like us. Because people cannot be what they cannot see, we want young people to see us so that they will know that basket ballers, musicians and so on are not the only inspirational people out there, and that was how we got them started."

"What do you need? You have to ask yourself because we are in the hood this year. What can you add this year? If you need skills, go get it. But if you evaluate and your skill is enough, maybe you need to switch strategies and begin to collect influence. That’s how I got the job. I was headhunted."

"I needed to encourage black people to understand that the future of work is going to have new innovative technologies."

"Evan: Feeding the birds."

"Biomedical was so new that people wanted me to cross over to mechanical, but I told them biomedical was for those who could see the future. Did I get discouraged by Africans? Absolutely, because we’re always playing safe. Africans do traditional stuff to know how it’s going to end, if so, nobody wants to go in that path. Where the world is going today, you cannot play safe."

"I think the suffering brought out the zeal to ‘fight’ to excel."

"I founded the company because my passion is to get more black people into successful areas because it is possible. This is the life I want to live, one that is not selfish, the life that makes it possible for others. I’m thankful to God for it."

"If you’re a leader, the community needs you beyond what you do. You’re not created to warm the bench, come, eat and close your door and say it’s you and your children. People can use your support, your skills and motivation. Do more!"

"Knowing that the work you do contributes to the betterment of society is an added privilege worth experiencing."

"The diversity of projects I get involved in and the different project teams I get to collaborate with excite me. Developing a new method, improving an existing engineering method, mastering a new software, technique, opportunities to travel for work, and successfully managing a project from concept design to construction also excite me about my job."

""Since winning the award, I am convinced that these awards play a part in helping to attract and retain more young women in the profession by promoting the achievements of female role models across the industry."

"Engineering is a prestigious career with diverse routes and global opportunities that encourages individuality, creativity, ingenuity and collaboration."

""I think mentorship and encouraging more participation in STEM is very important for the continuity and benefit of the industry.As professionals in engineering, we are all role models who can inspire others to join the profession by being engaging living examples, and by creating inclusive and equal opportunities for all."

"about what excited her about her career"

"[The four boys, all aged thirteen, pedal their bicycles down the dusty main street of Elma, Texas, population: 923. Not much is going on in Elma that day, but the boys know that is not unusual. Not much ever happens in Elma anymore. Just about everybody who lived there agrees that Elma is the most boring town in Texas, especially if you are thirteen years old]"

"[The boys ride slowly and lazily, until they reach the gas station and general store that is run by Polly's mum. They park their bikes, laying them down in the weed patch behind the gas pump, and go inside. Polly's mother, who is counting the store inventory for the second time that day, is glad to see them. After all, they are the only customers she's had all afternoon]"

"[The boys stay just long enough to buy a bag of cheese curls, but hurry back outside. One of them, Nick, kicks an empty beer can into the middle of Main Street, where it is immediately crushed by a passing truck]"