Our house is a bit of a student dorm these days. Like most kids, my daughter takes her classes online, and now my wife, Pragati, has also started her remote classes for her fellowship at Harvard. This week, she had her first monthly assignment submissions. I was quite taken by her general approach towards it.

Instead of simply finishing the assignment and moving on to the next one (like most people do), she got started with the assignment pretty much from the day she received it. She then did a copious amount of research in the first couple of weeks and then started working on the arc of her storyline.

To make her assignment standout, she considered things like what are the obvious things other students might bring out, and hence should be avoided. She consulted with other artist friends to get their perspective and finally got multiple people to proofread her document before submitting it.

I was curious if everyone in her class followed a similar process. Her response fascinated me; she said - Everything you ship has your stamp on it. Years from now, if people see it, they should recognize that you produced this work. When you look at any of Picasso’s works, you expect them to be perfect, just like all his other masterpieces. You never see a shoddy work with a side note which says - Oh! He didn’t put his 100% on this one because it was not an important assignment. That’s why you should always put your best foot forward in everything you do.

The advice hit home.

Best,
Kaddy

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