This might be ancient history for you. Or maybe you just went through it. Here’s the question: Were you a cool cucumber or a wreck during the time you were waiting for your bar exam result? I recall that some of my law school classmates came out of the exam nauseatingly confident that they passed. Others were nervous Nellies, convinced that their legal career was over before it started.

I was the latter. I was sure that I had failed. So sure that I refused to check the bar results until a law school friend harangued me for two straight days. It turned out I passed, and I was elated—so joyous that I practically stopped strangers on the street to tell them about my victory.