Be Bold!
I know it’s cliche, but I learned this summer not to let fear of failure get in the way of my work. Several times this summer, I was scared of completing a task or asking for help at work. The fear almost kept me from even trying! For example, at the beginning of this internship, Robert Dunne and I wanted to work on a schedule builder. We thought we were going to work from scratch, but found out that another Computer Science student at U-M was already working on one. Several people put me in contact with the student in charge of the project -- Prateek Sachdeva. I was hesitant at first to contact him, thinking he would not be interested in working with us. After all, we were younger than him and not super experienced. Eventually, I contacted him. I guess I figured worst case scenario, he just wouldn't respond. To my surprise, Prateek got back to me really quickly and worked with us this whole summer. He’s really passionate about getting people into technology and he was really great to work with.
Learn from your failures -- and allow others to do the same
"Defeat may be victory in disguise. The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide"
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Loss and Gain
Learning from failure is definitely not fun. When I fail, I can be scared to face the failure and learn from it myself, much less share my failure with others so that they can learn from my mistakes. When I didn’t achieve the goals I set out to accomplish for my internship project, I felt pretty disappointed with myself. Discussing the project with DePriest and Dan helped me to see that I had in fact learned something from the project. They also encouraged me to share the experience in my reflection or at the poster presentation, so as to help others through sharing the lessons I learned. Although it’s arguably pretty miserable to fail at anything, especially if you’ve worked hard at it, remember that it can still be used for good. Learn from the mistakes you made, and if you feel comfortable doing so, share with others so that they can learn too!
P.S. If you haven’t read all of Loss and Gain, check it out; it’s short and really good! :)