Most people don't fail to become a pilot. They run out of money before they finish.

I grew up on a farm outside a small town in Finland, wanting one thing: to fly. At nineteen, my own country told me no - the air force over a fraction of depth perception, then the national airline in a room with two captains. I could have been realistic. Instead I bought a one-way ticket to America with a duffel bag and a pocket dictionary, and started over from nothing. Here is what I learned the hard way. The people who don't make it aren't the ones without talent or money. They are the ones who tried to learn everything in the airplane, at a hundred dollars an hour, until the budget ran out. I did it the other way - I built the knowledge first, on the ground where it is calm and less expensive, and finished my certificate in 35 hours when the average is sixty-plus. Since then, I have been flying for a living for thirty years, nearly nineteen thousand hours, in more than twenty-five kinds of airplanes. Now I teach that same order to the next person who was told to be realistic.

- Tero