As a college professor for over 30 years now I have had the great fortune of having many, many wonderful students, and countless enriching intellectual exchanges with those students in our class, my office, the hallway, and over coffee or lunch. Some of these students were, as young people tend to be, brash, noisy, and arrogant; students who truly took to heart Disraeli’s comment that “almost everything that is great has been done by youth.” Others, like the author Mike Rocque, were more contemplative, naturally accustomed to thinking before speaking, but who when they did speak were carefully listened to. Mike was one of those students that all college professors have at one time or another who have a quiet intensity about them, a stillness that suggested both great thought and great humility toward those thoughts. He was also a student whose immense talent was brought about by hard work, one who believed that a good paper was not simply written, but revised and rewritten many times. As a student and as a young professor, Mike was the paragon of hard work, self-discipline, and responsibility toward one’s work. Not surprisingly, like all those who think that their success, if it comes at all, is going to depend on work rather than natural brilliance, Mike lacked self-confidence.