Those following a career in microbiology who manage to avoid criticism must surely be adhering to both of the following mantras:

• Are trying to please too many people, too much of the time.
• Are unwilling to express their own ideas about how to change things for the better in the laboratory. (New ideas, even if they are great ideas, always attract criticism from someone…..)

Only by learning to take criticism, then either accept, ignore, rebutt or learn from it, do we manage to stamp our own style and personality on our jobs.

Those who avoid criticism at all costs during their career, are simply living someone else’s life.

Michael