Yesterday was my last day at Google. Before I left, I sent the following email to a few thousand people on the teams I worked with during my nine years there (2011-2016 and 2021-2024). I received so many heartfelt replies from Googlers who expressed how much my note impacted them, so I hope you’ll benefit from this, too (very little of it is specific to Google). If there’s wisdom in here, assume that it’s something I learned from my many teachers. For anything that doesn’t sound quite right, that’s probably my own misunderstanding.