Encouragements are priceless, don’t be stingy with them…..

 

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

 

 

Yes, I am going to Mauritius! Not only for the sake of work, but also for something deeply personal.

 

I lived in Mauritius for 5 years between when I was 8 and 13 years old. That’s when I was gifted with some of the most encouraging people on earth who helped me see possibilities, who encouraged me to put efforts into areas which matter.  Some were from the not so fancy local schools I went to.

 

The last time I was back I spent a whole day with my former headmaster. When I was small, going to university was a big deal. It was the equivalent of going to the moon.

 

I was only aware of two people I knew who had been to  university. One was my father’s teacher who took care of him during the Japanese occupation of China and the other was my headmaster in Mauritius.  

 

My headmaster demonstrated to me that a regular guy from a small agricultural island in the middle of the Indian Ocean in the 1960’s could become a mathematician in England.  

 

Most important of all, the encouragements he and my teachers generously dished out were priceless. And the imprints they left in my mind still help me to give the best shot in life to this day.

 

We have a duty to be generous with encouragements, especially for the young ones