Celebrate your successes!

Running a photography business is a mix of highs and lows - learning how to focus on the positive, rather than dwelling on the problems, can make all the difference

- Paul Wikinson

A few decades ago, I gained a PhD in a little-known subject called Machine Learning. It was called Artificial Intelligence back then, and my specialism was still-emerging: Committees Of Neural Networks, specifically Self-Oriented Feature Maps.

No, don't worry, very few people have heard of that even now.

Back at school, Dr James - a charismatic young Physics teacher - told a tale that has stayed with me since those school days in North Wales.

"Guys," he said, "listen up." We were a particularly boisterous class, and it took a moment to settle us down to listen. As we turned to pay attention, he continued, "When you study for your O-Levels, you'll learn very little about an awful lot.

When you study for your A-Levels," he continued, "you'll learn a little more about a little less. If you do a university degree, you'll learn quite a lot about nothing. However," he said, pausing for our unruly class to hang onto his words, "if you're lucky enough to study for a PhD, you will, frankly, learn a heck of a lot about nothing!" "A heck of a lot about nothing." Those words have stuck with me - and they turned out to be profoundly true, except for one tiny detail: you will also get to comprehend how little you know.

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