What to do when the odds seem stacked against me?

[SenorZ]

That is very unfortunate. FIRST is all about pushing young minds to their highest level, and achieving what you didn't know was possible.

Sounds like you have a leadership problem. At our first meeting, after I assigned manual reading and brainstorming for HW, I asked for ideas, presented some of my own, and we discussed them all. I had to insist that going for the easy build was fine for our rookie year, but not anymore. We had to plan a good, efficient, elegant design, and MAKE IT WORK.

In the end my students agreed with me. We have a LOT of work ahead of us, but I know it will benefit them more in the end.

You should talk with your mentors about this.