A few years ago, I attended a wake for an author who had passed away unexpectedly. There was a display table with three items representing the author’s life: a picture of their family, a hockey stick, and “the book” as the family affectionately called the university textbook he had spent thousands of hours writing.While I was in charge of the Science product portfolio at Pearson, the world’s leading educational services company, I had the honor of working closely with this author for many years. Together, through countless conversations, we turned his vision into reality, creating a text that is more than just a comprehensive overview of his field, but a story – his story – that is a deep understanding and a unique perspective of the what, how, and why of the field. As he worked on the text, I got to work too. I interviewed dozens of instructors, subject matter experts, and students across the country to understand market needs and collaborated with internal teams to hone our strategy to ensure the success of this author and his book in the highly competitive higher education marketplace.Our collective efforts paid off: the text quickly overtook the long-standing market leader in the category and sustained the #1 position for years to come. Seeing “the book” again displayed prominently at the author’s wake reminded me that the end product is the expression of the expertise and dedication of the people who helped to create it.While I continue to lend my expertise in product development and marketing to educational services companies, I now delight in working as a Senior Career Strategist with Briefcase Coach where I have the privilege of collaborating daily with senior-level and executive clients to help them meet their career goals. My favorite part of this job is that I get to meet and talk to interesting people, learn about their life stories, and dedicate myself to helping them present their best selves in our journey together.