Dare to try.

 

At the end of each semester I give my students a pep talk.  I thought I'd share it now because we could all use a pep talk these days.  Bear in mind that I teach Consumer Behavior.

 

"We've spent a fair amount of time in this course discussing loss aversion and the fact that we hate to lose more than we like to win.  Because of this we are hard wired to be risk adverse.

 

But if we don't take risks we can't succeed.  And based on my observations, people my age don't regret their failures as much as they regret the times they were too afraid to try.  So my advice is -  if something scares the heck out of you, as long as it won't physically harm you - you should do it. 

 

People ask me how I ended up being a professor at NYU.  I tell them that I had mono when I accepted the job. 

 

I was just past the contagious stage when I interviewed.  But my head was still so fuzzy that I never had the chance to second guess myself and wonder if I would be able to do it.  Later on when my head cleared, I did start to worry about what I had said yes to.

 

But, I was committed and I keep my commitments so I completed my syllabus and lesson plans and headed off to my first class.  I was so nervous that I misread the clock in the back of the classroom and accidentally let everyone leave an hour early.  I didn't realize my mistake until I got on the subway to go home.

 

Even so, I remember thinking - "I could be really good at this someday."  So I stuck with it until I was.