I am sometimes asked about how did I become so productive by early career faculty.
I sometimes wonder, when asked, if they think there is a magic formula.
I know some people think that is true - bc of comments that I’ve received.
Once, I was told my record was a function of having served as a volunteer leader in my professional group.
Another time, I was told my record was a function of being part of the in-crowd.
A third time, I was told it was bc of my famous coauthors and mentors.
There are more comments that I could relay, along with the foibles of the commenter, but they are all beside the point.
Bc none of them are true, esp. if you want to stay productive over time.
Becoming very productive is a function of three elements.
First, resilience. Every accept is accompanied by three rejects.
You learn to overcome the pain.
Second, effort. Einstein wasn’t wrong when he talked about 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.
Behind every paper is daily writing & calls to coordinate projects.
Third, teamwork.
I work with people I like and care about.
I invest in them.
I’ve been lucky bc most of my teams have worked out.
To make these elements works required developing two personal attributes - patience and conscientious.
Patience is needed to deal with academic personalities, the vagaries of review, and to let ideas mature.
You can’t speed up idea creation.
Conscientiousness is needed to keep projects moving.
Sometimes, it means late nights and other times it means knowing when to judge.
When I was young, I was neither patient or conscientious - it took time and purpose to develop them.
There are other factors - like training, resources, and experience - but none of them are magical - all of them required resilience, effort, and teams to develop.
If you want to build a pipeline, you can - but it won’t happen over night - and it won’t happen without patience and conscientious.
So what to do?
Take a deep breathe, recognize it is not simple, and get to work.
If you do, the publications and academic reputation will follow.
Best of luck!
#research#career#experience#work#inspiration#teamwork#writing#building#publications#pipeline#projects#training#training
Comments