The Only Things You Should Doubt Are Your Limits

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7 years ago

Whilst researching Supernovae as part of his post-doctoral research, 29-year-old Brian kept coming to the conclusion that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating.

But all the research at the time, by some of the world's leading astrophysicists, came to the opposite conclusion, that the expansion of the Universe was decelerating.

So Brian spent the next few months trying find out where he had gone wrong, because as he says, "I was an apprentice astrophysicist with littleexperience, contradicting the best Professor's on the planet. So I must have got it wrong."

But try as he might, he couldn't find a mistake.

So almost apologetically, Brian published his research, asking the world's leading scientists to correct his conclusion.

However, despite years of trying, not one astrophysicist could dispute Brian's conclusion.

In 2011, thirteen years after his research was first published, Professor Brian Schmidt was awarded the Nobel prize for Physics for "completely changing our understanding of the structure of the Universe."

Brian now has his own group of research students and one of the first things he teaches them is the words of St. Augustine who some 1,200 years ago said, "Fallor ergo sum", which translated is, "I err, therefore I am."

Brian also tells his students that the most successful are not the cleverest, it's those who are bold, not afraid to make mistakes, and who believe they are good enough.

The only thing we should doubt are out limits. They are usually self-imposed.