The next morning, Priya walked to Professor Mehta’s office, humiliated. “Sir, I think I’m not cut out for this.”
He then gave her a strange assignment: “For one week, don’t solve any problem. Just write down every wrong approach you can think of. The more creative the failure, the better.” priya iit delhi
Success isn’t avoiding mistakes—it’s mapping them. Next time you’re stuck, stop hunting for the right answer. Write down every wrong one you can imagine. Somewhere in that graveyard of bad ideas, the real solution is buried. And unlike a perfect first try, you’ll never forget what you learned from failure. The next morning, Priya walked to Professor Mehta’s
That week, her understanding deepened more than in the previous month. The more creative the failure, the better
Priya had dreamt of IIT Delhi since she was fourteen—not for the fame, but for the library. She’d heard it had three floors of engineering archives and a silent reading room facing the rose garden.
Priya thought he was mocking her. But she tried. On day three, she listed 17 wrong ways to solve a heat exchanger problem—one involved monkeys and fans. On day five, while writing a particularly absurd wrong method, she saw the right path.
Priya said, “I know 500 ways to fail at thermodynamics. And I remember every single one.”