What Motivated Me to Challenge Long Held Beliefs?

What motivated me was that my approach to science was an observational one: I tried to understand a phenomenon by describing it in the utmost detail, but since I lacked education in Latin and math, contemporary scholars mostly ignored me (although I did teach myself Latin) so I wanted to prove them wrong. I was fascinated by the phenomenon of flight, so I created plans for several flying machines, including a light hang glider and a machine resembling a helicopter.