Beyond Murphy's Law

If you're working in robotics, I'm pretty sure that you have experienced a variation of Murphy's law even if you don't know what it is! Murphy's law simply states that "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". For example imagine that you're going to demonstrate your robot and you still have a technical problem; be sure you'll face that problem but in almost all cases not during the demonstrating your robot but only half an hour before it -- That is why I named it "Beyond Murphy's Law" quite similar to Prof. Robin R. Murphy's "Beyond Asimov's Law" ;-) Having a technical problem is very common in complex systems like robots (honestly I usually become worry if everything goes fine with my robots in my first attempts) but, your reaction after facing a problem shows if you are an experienced person or not! I have seen numerous people that cannot do very simple things (e.g. checking the wiring) when they become stressed.
As a person who designs and builds robots for several years I suggest taking these points in your account if you want to demonstrate your robot:

1. Be sure your robot is not perfect and it is not the first system in the world that is not perfect!
2. Nobody can guarantee that everything will go fine!
3. Don't be angry or embarrassed if you noticed your robot don't work at all before demonstration, just calm down!
4. Check obvious things at first (e.g. if your robot has battery or not)!
5. Don't think about "philosophy of life" if you couldn't fix the problem!