GRASP

Prof. James Arvanitakis on 'The road to success is never a straight line'.

July 1st, 2026, by Karen Miller Tag(s): Wellbeing, Resilience

This week the Library hosted Thesis Fest, the popular annual two-day event where many of our wonderful HDR students come together to listen to some great speakers, participate in a range of workshops and activities, and connect with each other. This year one of the highlights was a keynote from Professor James Arvanitakis, Director of the Forrest Research Foundation based at the University of Western Australia, an organisation which brings together the five Western Australian universities to attract world class research to the state and confront the world’s grand challenges.

The title of his talk, “The Road to Success Is Never a Straight Line”, pointed to the idea that navigating the HDR journey reflects the messy, non-linear reality of research. He stressed the value of learning through mistakes and setbacks and unpacked the daily emotional realities of research. He also shared some practical tips to support HDRS along the way, including how to navigate imposter feelings. His core message was that, as HDR students, we are not really sure what we are doing and are making it up as we go along. Inevitably we make mistakes, but how we learn from those mistakes matters more than whether we make them in the first place. Eventually we all get there, but invariably it is not by the straightforward path we expected.

I really enjoyed Arvanitakis’s talk, as I am a big advocate of the idea that mistakes are an essential part of learning anything. Acknowledging, accepting and even embracing our so-called “failures” is a valuable attitude to cultivate while navigating the HDR journey and beyond.

In this post, I’ll outline some of the main points from the talk from the notes I took - I hope they resonate with you as much as they did with me!

Five provocations

Arvanitakis set the initial part of his talk within the context of his current role leading the Forrest Research Foundation, which aims to establish WA as a global hub for knowledge, research and creativity. He described that way the Foundation recruits across all disciplines and from all parts of the world with no fixed research themes. The researchers live in the same accommodation, thus throwing people from widely different areas together. They have weekly ‘provocation’ sessions (with pizza of course!) to bring the different disciplines together to share ideas and knowledge. This cross pollination is fundamental to learning from one another and forming genuine communities of support. The success of this program, he argues, is built on provocation - being challenged, and challenging others.

He then offered our audience the following provocations:

  1. We go further when we collaborate with others: We tend to do a lot on our own and struggle in silence, but we need to build cultures of collaboration. You should never feel like you’re doing this alone.

  2. Different disciplines need to talk to each other: We have the capacity to solve the world’s problems, but this can only happen if researchers from different disciplines share their knowledge and perspectives.

  3. Innovation comes from building communities of practice: It’s important to create environments where people can connect to one another and share ideas.

  4. As humans we are inherently playful, creative and curious - so practice it: Research is fun and we’re driven by curiosity. Let yourself go down rabbit holes for a while as you can learn a lot from that.

  5. Brave spaces are created through “mistakability”: It’s OK to attempt something you might not succeed at. Growth requires taking risks.

“Mistakability”

Arvanitakis has developed the concept of ‘mistakability’ (I love this word!) and defines it as “learning from errors, mistakes, failings and setbacks”.

Some of the threads he pulled together on this are:

  • We never really finish our journey - there’s no fixed endpoint where you’ve “arrived.”
  • We tend to plan everything out and expect a smooth path, but it’s never that smooth. Setbacks are normal, not exceptional.
  • Mistakability is an important element of the skill set of the “academic citizen scholar”.
  • You handle the mess not by avoiding it, but by building communities of practice, collaborations, and support around you.

Five daily emotions

Despite the many achievements Arvanitakis has enjoyed in his career, he still feels these emotions every day:

  1. I cannot write
  2. How do I ask questions without sounding clueless
  3. I am clueless (though I never admit it)
  4. I cannot do this
  5. I am an imposter

Given that most of us in the audience were also very familiar with these feelings, we found it very reassuring to learn that he also experiences them regularly! As he reiterated, however much you feel them, know it is OK and normal to feel them - just do not let it stop you.

22 Tips on how to survive your PhD

When Arvanitakis was the Dean of Western Sydney University’s Graduate Research school, many students came to him for advice on how to manage the challenges of the research journey. He shared with us some of the 22 useful tips he learned “based on successful candidates and outstanding supervisors.”

The tips fall into a few key themes: building community (networks, collaboration, and staying polite even under pressure), developing as a researcher (writing daily, publishing widely, learning to give and receive feedback), navigating academic life (teaching, conferences, funding applications, and avoiding office politics), and looking after yourself (avoiding burnout, staying resilient, and remembering there’s a world beyond academia).

Check out the full list of 22 tips in this downloadable pdf that the Thesis Fest team put together based on Arvanitakis’s original text.

Final reflections

Arvanitakis’s concluding message for HDR students boiled down to a few key points:

  • The path will not be straight - expect detours, setbacks, and mistakes.
  • Build your resilience.
  • Create strong networks of support - you’ll go further working with others than working alone.

It’s always reassuring when others openly share the challenges of the HDR journey - it reminds us that we’re not the only ones experiencing them, and that we are not alone in facing setbacks.

Please make any anonymous comments/ feedback, or suggestions for further posts at this link. If you would like to get in touch, or write a post for the Ideas Hub blog, please email karen.miller@curtin.edu.au. Contributions from HDR students are welcome!

Photo by Jerry Kavan on Unsplash