I’m totally ripping of a Wil Wheaton post with this, but in wil’s fundamental rule for successful auditions (or, how not to go crazy in a crazy business) he posts the following blurb (which I think is in his newest book).

I believe that actors have to find a way to enjoy themselves whether they book the job or not. We have to find ways to enjoy auditions, and as hard as it is, as counter intuitive as it is, we just can’t make success or failure about booking the job. We have to make success or failure about enjoying ourselves. We have to enjoy the process of creating the character, preparing the audition, and then giving the people on the other side of the desk whatever our take on the character is. We absolutely cannot go in there and try to give them what we think they want. The way we stand out, and the way we enjoy it whether we are hired or not, is to take the material, prepare it, and find some way to make it our own. Even if we don’t book the job (and the ratio of auditions to jobs is something like 20 : 1 for successful actors) we’ve been creative. Casting people will recognize that, and even if we’re not right for this particular job, they are more likely to bring us back in for other parts, because they’ve already seen us take a creative risk. I guess it’s kind of twisted to say that I enjoyed myself by being such an evil man, but committing to something completely, and refusing to look back until it was all over, was tremendously satisfying.

Okay, so now lets do only minimal edits and see how relevant it is to testing.

I believe that testers have to find a way to enjoy themselves whether they find the bug or not. We have to find ways to enjoy testing, and as hard as it is, as counter intuitive as it is, we just can’t make success or failure about finding the bug. We have to make success or failure about enjoying ourselves. We have to enjoy the process of planning, preparing the oracles, and then giving the people on the other side of the desk whatever our observations on the product are. We absolutely cannot go in there and try to give them what we think they want. The way we stand out, and the way we enjoy it whether we are hired or not, is to take the product, question it, and find some way to make it our own. Even if we don’t find the bug (and the ratio of bugs to code is something like 20 : 1 for successful testers) we’ve been creative. (Good) Testing people will recognize that, and even if we’re not right for this particular job, they are more likely to bring us back in for other parts, because they’ve already seen us take a creative risk. I guess it’s kind of twisted to say that I enjoyed myself by being such an evil man, but committing to something completely, and refusing to look back until it was all over, was tremendously satisfying.

Neat, huh?