Think of your Ph.D. as YOUR business that you are driving and are in control of. No one can mess it up, you won’t allow that to happen. You can make mistakes, move on, and keep going.

Also, all businesses have a risk of failing and so does your Ph.D. Embrace risk-taking and let it empower you rather than put you in paralyzing panic.

YouTube video: Your Ph.D. is your business

Podcast episode: Your Ph.D. is your business

Many Ph.D. candidates leave with a master’s degree and are perfectly happy about it. I know so many people who have done this. They are successful, alive, and kicking. Absolutely zero of them thinks that they cannot carry on due to a lack of a Ph.D.

So, in case you really, really want a Ph.D., that should hopefully give you some power back. During the last year of my Ph.D., I leveraged this lots to calm myself down. If I left with a master’s, all of the work I had done wouldn’t vanish. I would have still done great.

Not having a degree is not the end of the world. Letting go of that terror of not having the degree after all helped me lots to actually finish.

When you start a business, there is always that risk of things not ending up how you planned them. But you take the calculated risk and do it anyway.

A Ph.D. is the same way – when you start you are taking a risk. You might not finish with a Ph.D. Lots of things could happen and maybe you don’t get one at the end.

But you do it anyway. Because you are really, really passionate about something. You are no different than an entrepreneur!

Would you mind rating the ‘How to PhD’ podcast?

Here is the link to my podcast 🙂 please check it out 👩‍🎓 and let me know your feedback and any requests for topics to cover 🙏🙏🙏🙏 #phdone #phdchat #phdlife #AcademicTwitter https://t.co/dp4O6kqRLk

— Oindree Banerjee (@oindreebee) September 20, 2020

Check out the previous post on this topic!

Why doing a PhD required me to think like a business owner