[thegathering]

I think the big thing that separates FIRST people from the rest of the world is our selflessness.

Dean Kamen created the FIRST organization, not to make money, but to advance humanity with no benefit to himself. Dean's spirit of the competition is shared with all of the FIRST teams who work to the bone for 6 weeks to be innovative, teach, and problem solve their way into the competition.

Unlike sport atheletes who compete for money, scholarships, and fame, FIRST atheletes only compete for themselves to carve out our technological future. Unlike musicians who compete for notoriety, glory, and contracting deals, FIRST specialists train their hands and their minds to familiarize themselves with engineering so that they can teach and provide engineering technologies in the future. Unlike race car drivers who are friends only with those people who are friends on the track, FIRST members stay friends and make friends on the competition grounds and off.

FIRST people may not be better than anyone else on the individual scale, but FIRST people share a degree of selflessness that is on a far higher level than the average people. There may not be anything other than the FIRST attitude and spirit that separates FIRST people from other people, but that attitude is what will carry our society into the future on the wings of technology and engineering, a future that we can be proud of founding even now while the spirit is still growing in our common culture.