What happens when you believe in yourself?

My Ph.D. dissertation defense at Colorado State University, USA in 2015 went great. However, one of my committee members said in the committee meeting following the defense that she has major comments on my dissertation and she thinks that it would take me about “three months” to finish them. Since my scholarship has already ended and since I did not want to go back home (Egypt) with incomplete/unfinished work, I was completely disappointed and totally down. After I heard that, I took a deep breath, gathered my inner strength and said courageously “I do not have three months and I will not go home before getting my degree, I will finish all your comments in two weeks”. After hearing my response, everyone in the committee was silent for a moment (probably shocked) but they couldn’t help but to say “good luck”!

My Ph.D. advisor told me after this meeting that he is willing to support me in this challenge. He saw that I believe in myself and he had to believe in me, not only believe, but also back me up and help me towards my (what seemed to be impossible) mission. In two weeks I was done with all the comments/edits/extra analyses and I submitted my dissertation. I finished my Ph.D. in only 3.8 years, which is relatively a short time compared to the average American Ph.D. study time, especially in my field. This is despite the fact that I was involved in 10th of other activities besides my Ph.D. These activities included teaching and a dozen of elected, appointed or volunteered leadership/service positions ranging from department, college, university, region and all the way to the national level.

The message from this anecdote is: “When you believe in yourself, the others can not help but believe in you”.