My hands are shaking.The coffee is on the table, but I cannot drink it because my hands are stuck to the microphone. I tell myself this reaction is normal, i’m about to meet a Nobel Prize winner (Mr. Edmund Phelps , 2006 winner in Economic sciences).

I say to myself, ‘Andrea, relax, at the end of the day he is just a teacher’. I finally manage to leave the mic and enjoy my coffee. In the meantime the questions are running through my mind. It’s ok… now it’s my turn. The anchorman gives me the floor, and as I stand up I’m feeling pretty relaxed. My questions go smoothly and everyone laughs as I tell my joke about how my mother is proud of her son talking to a Nobel Prize winner.

After this the topic get serious: ‘how to change the European mindset?’. A mindset which is against involving young people. A mindset which sees anybody taking leadership, any entrepreneur, as a bad guy, not as a role model.

Mr. Phelps seems to agree and enjoys the question… and the answer? Well in order to change the mindset it takes time, generations, culture and education.

Pretty easy, isn’t it?

My Second question, was much more personal: “How did they tell you that you won the Nobel prize? Was it a phone call or did they send you an e-mail?”

He gets personal: “Nice question, I’ve never told it to anybody”. He gets more and more personal imitating the Secretary of the Sveridge Riskbank: “He called me early in the morning, at about 6 AM, and told me about that. I’ve asked him whether I was the only winner ”.

Cool! He is a down to earth guy, just like the rest of us!