Career in Science - What they don't tell you in advance

There are many things I wish I knew early in my career in Science. I thank God for a few good mentors who did teach me along the way, but the earlier the better, so some things do not need to be learnt the hard way. A few words of advice:

1. You need perseverance - lots of it. You do experiments all day, and over 90% of it will fail. And even when experiments do work out and you have a nice story to tell, 90% of your journal submissions will fail the first time round. Talk about being critical about our science. And it doesn't stop there. The success rate of NIH grant applications is <20%, and that includes competitors from the largest and most famous labs out there. 
2. Do not be afraid of the unknown. Because you will be uncovering the unknown. That's exactly what science is about!
3. Be bold. Dare to ask. Having a PhD doesn't mean you should be expected to know everything. In fact, you could possibly know the least since you have spent the bulk of your life studying a single problem. Don't be embarrassed to ask question. 
4. Rejection is an ever present companion in science. Says Andrew Hendry in a recent interview by Nature Journal (Nature 2015. 523, 381-382)
5. You will not earn big bucks. At least, most people won't. Unless if you win a Nobel Prize, or if your work spins off into a very successful startup. 
6. You will forever be learning. Science is not about obtaining a PhD, then becoming the master of all things. The PhD is but the start of everything that you're going to learn. It is probably just an indication that you can think independently, and have spent enough years living off your family / spouse. In Science, the field changes rapidly, knowledge is constantly being created. and different fields are converging and diverging. You'll always need to work hard to keep abreast of all related work, and even more to learn about other fields of science that could be the key to bringing your science to the next level. 
7. Diversify your learning. No one told me that mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering would be useful to a biologist. Or maybe more than useful - essential. Had I known that earlier, I would have allowed my inquisitive self to take more undergraduate and graduate courses in these areas, which I happened to excel more than in biology. 

On hindsight, although I wish I knew these things earlier, I wouldn't have wanted to know them before I started my career in Science. Knowing these would have deterred me from doing Science! And I must say, despite its challenges, I love being a Scientist :)