To look back year after year on your work life and be impressed by your own personal development.

I am pretty convinced that I am just about to start taking on this challenge: my first parental leave, growing into this new role and at the same time, realizing the ambitions I have for my professional life. I support the idea of ??“choose your partner well” when it comes to female careers. Not that it can ever be the leading argument, but it indeed helps a lot to have a modern partner at your back who is willing to support the family to extend it fully.

You will never get as much inspiration and learning from your peers at only one company, with one culture, set of values, experiences and skill sets of people. The professional world is so diverse, there is always more to it.

Value first. I am still amazed (not in a positive way) how much time, effort and money the world is spending to redo or rebuild what is already there, maybe in a slightly different but not measurably better fashion. It is really tough to apply the principle of value first consistently, but surely worth the invest.

People who are so competent, authentic and charismatic that they do not need an official leadership title – they are being followed by others freely.

“You have the skills, we know your worth, now just be patient and gather more experience.” Not in itself a bad advice, as it is partially true: experience is very important for knowing different perspectives. But if I would have listened fully, I would have kept myself on one spot without developing as much as I could.

If it feels like a little too challenging, or even quite overwhelming, you should go for it.