But I also hope that rather than staying where you feel comfortable, you continue to push yourself to try new things (whatever they may be – I truly don’t know where your interests might lie in a decade’s time), learn new skills, and continue to challenge yourself both creatively and professionally.
Funnily enough, as you write this letter, you’re in the middle of another career transition, similar to when you left your job in advertising 10 years ago to pursue writing (although, thankfully, this is a far smaller leap).
If I know you – and I do, better than anyone else – you’ve probably achieved quite a lot career-wise in the 10 years since writing this letter, and you’ve almost certainly set yourself a series of new, even more ambitious professional goals.
Because the writers and artists you most admire, the ones whose work you treasure and return to time and time again, who write things you rave about and tell your friends to read – in essence, what you, yourself, aspire to be for others – aren’t the ones who concern themselves with personal brands and algorithms.
You’re trying your hand at new things – writing a novel, working on some screenplays – and I imagine that by the time you read this letter, you’ll have had some successes and established yourself within those fields as well.
