I recently had a discussion with a former student of mine who was worried about possibly failing a test. I told him, “failing means you’re learning.” I thought, “eeeeep, how would I respond if I thought I had failed something important?” And then, a friend of mine posted this to Facebook and I totally stole it, because if Neil Gaiman says it, it must be true:
So — get out there and do, do, and do. If you fail, at least you’re doing something. And if you don’t believe Neil Gaiman, maybe you’ll believe J.K. Rowling, who essentially says the same thing:
And no, I don’t think that people in graduate school are too old to believe these sorts of things. I think graduate school is where you need to believe it most of all.
Melissa Ridley Elmes 