Question: Do you think you would have got where you are in your career now if you hadn’t been open to new ideas?

Oliver Gordon answered on 6 Mar 2019:

100% not a chance.
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Let’s list the first things that come to my mind:
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1) I was very unhappy and bullied a lot in primary school, and generally interested by nothing. If I told my teacher to go away and that I didn’t want his stupid present of a science book (Body Owners Handbook – Horrible Science, go buy it now I love it to death!), I wouldn’t ever have gained a good attitude to learning new information (key for a scientist!)
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2) I always wanted to be a doctor when I was about 8-13 years old. If I wasn’t open to new ideas and stuck with it even though I knew I didn’t really have it in me, I would have persued something I didn’t enjoy, which is a fast track to not succeeding.
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3) I hated maths in school. I laughed at my year 7 teacher when she told me I was going to take A Level maths and so help me if I didn’t take it. If I didn’t listen and I didn’t try, I wouldn’t have ended up liking it, and wouldn’t have gained the skills I needed to not only get into university, but still very much use today!
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4) I never wanted to study physics at university. My parents dragged me to the physics department kicking and screaming (Now that I work there, I very much still do this 😉). I was so sure I’d hate it, and so sure I wasn’t good enough. If I didn’t listen to them and try it, I wouldn’t have fallen in love with it.
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5) When I got into university I was originally very into just doing my work and nothing more. I ended up doing outreach activities like this on a whim, and ended up loving it. I wouldn’t be speaking with you all now (and gaining a LOT of skills in communication, etc) if I wasn’t open to trying out new things.
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6) When I was looking for jobs last year, I already had 2 offers (and turned down another one) for some pretty cool sounding companies in London/Oxford. It was only then that I ended up speaking to my now supervisor. If I wasn’t willing to listen to what he was suggesting, this PhD wouldn’t have happened nor existed for anybody.
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7) Going back a step – that conversation only happened because my best friend happened to speak to him. If I wasn’t open to new ideas, I wouldn’t have the friends I do, so it wouldn’t have happened that way, either.
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8) Now that I’m in the PhD, I do things that are stupid and a waste of time and flat out wrong, all the time. If I didn’t listen and talk to people around me who had better suggestions, I’d be months behind in my research, if not more.
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So yes – it helps you because a) it gives you a good attitude, and b) it makes you a good person, and good things generally happen to good people!