4 things make you a distinguished scientist.
Science becomes an applicable art that revolutionizes the understanding of the most complex concepts, phenomena, and processes. The major discoveries through our time were translated based on scientific backgrounds, and human time now has never been reformed like it is today. Indeed, the tremendous modernization of our civilizations is shaped by scientists. However, with the existing of a massive number of scholars, only a few of them have made breakthrough findings that provide the others the power of continuity. Digging in their lives, one can find that there are a number of characteristics that seem to be the key to their success. In this blog, I will summarize the most important traits that distinguish an outstanding scientist.
Imagination
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” ―Albert Einstein.
The ability to produce novel ideas and stimulate your creativity to make significant achievements is defined by your own scientific fiction. Coupling imagination to experimentation seems to be crazy, however; the evolution of major discoveries that mutate our understanding of some of the most complex scientific questions has actually started with imagination. The discovery of the periodic table by Dmitri Mendeleev, the structure of benzene and aromatic chemistry by August Kekulé, chemical nerve transmission by Otto Loewi, all these discoveries have been fueled by imagination.
Our conscious mind has limited processing capabilities compared to the subconscious mind. Research shows that the subconscious mind can process millions of sensory information through the nervous system in any one second which makes it superior to conscious and realistic thinking. The conscious mind is dominated by the logic of natural behavior and realistic background which keep you always in a close circle governed by limited resources. Nevertheless, not all of us can utilize this hidden power.
Curiosity
“The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” ―Albert Einstein.
Curiosity is neither a trait nor a skill, curiosity is driven by an immense interest and extreme desire to find answers and solutions. In fact, curiosity is fundamental to our life existence. Curiosity is your airport where your imagination flight can take off. The more curious you are, the more wonders will trigger your imagination to think about. Curiosity enables you to think out of the box, to explore different ways and to experiment thousands of times to find out what you are looking for. Being curious in science means that your thought’s dynamo is unstoppable and your ways to approach are unpredictable.
In order to feed your curiosity, you need to be determined towards specific goals and interests. Once your idea is fully boiled in your mind, it is time to concentrate because only your interest will create your curiosity. Have you ever heavily thought about something you want to do, to buy, to achieve and then you found that everything around you, every resource in hand; people, money, ways, etc. are all set to facilitate your accomplishment?! Yes, this is true, and this could explain what some philosophers call; the law of attraction. It is a natural phenomenon that science yet cannot explain it. The combination of positive attitudes and emotion is believed to allow one to attract positive experiences and opportunities by achieving resonance with energetic laws.
Insistence
“Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.” ―Winston Churchill.
An important feature of distinguished scientists is that they never give up. Do not let your downtime kills your ambitions. Edison made 1000 unsuccessful attempts to invent the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.” As a scientist, you have to try many times to succeed. You must introduce different attempts and optimizations to unravel specific problems. Coping the identical approach during your attempts for the purpose of trying will give you nothing. Albert Einstein defined stupidity as repeating the same thing in the same circumstances and conditions and expecting something new. In fact, the power of insistence can actually take you beyond what you can ever think about once you have a defined goal. It is indeed that only failure can shape your strength and provide you the most hardcore experience that creates the future solid scientist.
Patience
“If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.” ―Mahatma Gandhi
Patience is by far the most important factor that lets you stand out of the crowd and orchestrate all the above characteristics that distinguish outstanding scientists. Patience helps to acquire a positive attitude. Outstanding scientists have always green eyes. What I mean by green eyes is that they look to things in a very optimistic eye. If they find any life situation challenging or find it difficult to bear, they try to adapt to that situation and try to see its positive side. In science, patience is the key to success. With frustration and downtime that most of the scientist run through, only your patience attitude would allow you to tolerate these hard times and pursue with insistence. Discoveries and achievements are never easy tasks, and hard work requires long-lasting patience. I personally define patience as the ability to maintain a steady-state of calmness in the midst of disappointment. I have read many books about the power to change and I can certainly assure that patience was the cornerstone for positive changes. Scientists are keen to master patience over time and acquiring this attitude is like building experience and practicing it leads always to correct decisions, and remember; good things to those who always wait and try over and over.