• Question: Hi! Did you ever have to overcome an major obstacle that stood in the way of achieving one of your goals (be it in work or in life)? What was it? TrudyScrumptious

    Asked by TrudyScrumptious to Ed, Guido, Hugh, Stef on 18 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Ed Rial

      Ed Rial answered on 18 Mar 2015:

      Hi Trudy

      The biggest obstacle for me was very nearly failing my degree in my 3rd year at University.

      I had always done very well at School (A*s at GCSE, A’s at A level), and I had done very well in my first two years at University.

      But in the third year it got REALLY hard and I was very unprepared, and failed a lot of exams. I had to work really hard in my final year to even pass my degree and I finished with a 2:2. It meant I couldn’t study for a PhD.

      It was very difficult to pick myself up from those failures, but I have been very lucky to now have a job where I’m a scientist. The key is to pick yourself back up after a defeat and to just keep trying. The more you try, the more likely you are to be lucky!

      Ed

    • Photo: Guido Bolognesi

      Guido Bolognesi answered on 19 Mar 2015:

      Hi Trudy,

      that is really an excellent question.

      It actually has occurred to me quite a few times during my studies (school and university) and now during my work.

      The third year at high school it was a though one. Some subjects were really not for me such as Latin and English (English was a foreign language for us, since I studied in Italy).

      At university, it was about an exam. The exam itself was easy, but the professor was a kinda of very bad one (let’s say, it was truly mean) !!

      In both cases, the solution was perseverance. I have never accepted to be defeated (was an exam or what ever else) and each time I was failing, I was even more motivated to try it again. At the end, I managed both to get good marks in Latin and English at school and to pass that exam at the university 😀 😀

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