 Step 1. Start with an open mind. Science is a search for explanations, a mind that is closed to certain possibilities will overlook important clues. Try an investigative approach to a variety of problems in your everyday life. I've already started with my preteen kids. When they ask me a question, I try to respond with, what do you think? Step 2. High school. Study hard in high school. Take as many science classes as possible and don't neglect math and especially calculus. High school is also an excellent time to start reading science journals. Check out your local library for journals like Cell or Nature or Science. Step 3. Undergraduate. Apply to good schools. Focus on majors that present you with a solid foundation in several sciences. Real molecular biologists use chemistry and physics on a daily basis. Don't neglect math courses either. Calculus and statistics are surprisingly useful at the bench. Another important line of education is the ability to write and present technical information. It may be the difference between being world famous and never getting your own lab. Look for courses on technical writing. Step 4. Graduate school. Hopefully you've got a good GPA and excellent GRE scores. Picking a graduate school is a little different from an undergrad institution. Here's the process I recommend. Decide what area of research most interests you. I recommend you focus on areas with applications in the real world. Cancer, HIV, agriculture, domestic animals. But if you find that you are fascinated with the diet of the greater Indonesian water buffalo, more power to you, find a lab with a positive reputation in that field. Look for frequent publications on their website. Look for numbers and diversity of faculty. Do a tour of the departmental facilities. This is going to be your home and work for several years. Pick wisely. Before you even apply to the school, do an interview with the principal investigator. Make sure there is an opening for you. This person will be your graduate advisor and will get to decide when you have done enough to earn a degree. At this point, your coursework is going to be very focused in your field, but don't neglect technical writing and make sure you get a sufficient statistics background. This is also the point where most of my friends hit their first financial barrier and many went into debt to pay for grad school. I highly recommend getting a job as a teaching assistant or research assistant. These look good on academic resume or curriculum vitae. You can choose to pursue a Masters of Science or go straight for the PhD in most cases. If you are working on a PhD, you should begin your original research as soon as possible after starting grad school. Discuss with your graduate advisor what your interests are and agree on an initial project. Do not be afraid to change, but settle on one you are happy with as soon as possible. This is what delays most people's progress through grad school, and unless you are wealthy, grad school costs money. You will also want to put together a graduate advisory committee composed of individuals who can judge your research as worthy of a degree. Be very careful who you pick. If you get one jerk on the committee, it could cost you a year of your life. You will spend two or three years working on your project, then write up the results. You'll need to pass either a written or oral examination by your graduate committee with your advisor as the chair. This may be the most stressful moment in your life up to this point. Congratulations if you passed. You are now a PhD. People will have to call you doctor, and your long road is over. No, wait. Actually, you're now ready to start. Step five, postdocs. You've hopefully published a few results that are meaningful. Put together your CV and start hunting for postdoc positions. No more classes, although you may do some teaching at this stage. Postdocs get paid out of grant money awarded to principal investigators. And they get paid very, very little for someone with seven years of college under their belt. Your goal now is to start cranking out papers. Shoot for two papers a year, at least one or two in a first-tier journal like Journal of Blank or Your Field. The longer the title of the journal, the less prestigious in most cases. European Journal of Immunological Techniques and Cell Biology of nematodes is not going to impress as much as nature or science. The first name on a paper is the one with all the glory. The last name is often the person in charge. Shoot for first author on everything you do. These are going to be your most productive years, your magnum opus years. Work hard, sleep in the lab, eat a lot of ramen noodles. Don't get sidetracked by things like mentoring graduate students or a personal life. To successfully graduate from a postdoc, all you have to do is get your own lab. The best way is to write up your own grants, get funded, and essentially convince a university or medical school that you can pay yourself. For many researchers, the postdoc is a three- to five-year process. And some scientists complete multiple postdocs before that all-important job. Step six, junior faculty. You've made your bones as a researcher. Now you're given your own lab to see what you can do with it. Hire some staff, take in some students, and if you're lucky, a postdoc. Your staff should be kept busy producing data. Your new job is to write grants to keep your lab in business. You'll become very familiar with the NIH grant proposal process with budgeting and HR and with good management practices. Your staff will, in all likelihood, be from all over the world. Keep them on task, working together, and fired up. If you're lucky, you'll soon be ready for... Step seven, tenure track faculty. Tenure means never having to say you're a sorry. You've made it. At this point, you're a scientist of standing with a reputation built on hard work. Keep the grant money coming in, train future scientists, and play the political game in your institution. The work doesn't ever slack off, but you are now part of an elite community of dedicated people working for the betterment of humanity. Congratulations. Now, what about that department chair job? That's another video.