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Or a punch in the gut. I'm talking about that sinking feeling you get when confronted by a problem you have no idea how to solve. While daunting, these moments are wholly necessary in the making of an architect.

We learn soon enough that architecture is as much about compromise and negotiation as it is about designing great buildings. In fact, your success as a designer can often be defined by how well you navigate complexity and agree favourable solutions. As architect you are there to fight for the project and defend your design. Unfortunately our lack of commercial training in the early years limits our ability to understand clients and collaborators as well as we should. Understanding and satisfying your client's needs without submitting to them is the greatest challenge in architecture. The design training we receive is of great value to society, but this has to be sculpted into the form of deliverable, affordable buildings.

Architects have a responsibility to pass these core skills down to graduates. Of course if you were to brief every team member about every issue a project was facing, nobody would ever get any work done. The skill here is learning to pass information out – and get it back – as efficiently as possible, all the while increasing the abilities within your team.

Buildings are bespoke objects, their delivery requires determination and sustained effort, often to strict time scales. Prioritisation and time management are two of the key skills that architects have to master, but they are not learnt overnight, so in the words of the Gallagher brothers, "roll with it."