Seventeen years ago, I wrote my first real piece of copy. It was a series of radio commercials I wrote as a favor for a colleague and it led to my first agency job. I had no idea that one small line would lead to a career spent chasing clarity, connection, and that rare, shimmering moment when the words finally work.

The creative process is wild like that—equal parts magic and muscle. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that gratitude is the through line. It keeps you grounded when the pitch flops, centered when the inbox explodes, and humble when the idea actually lands.

So in honor of 17 years of this strange, wonderful, unpredictable job, here are 17 lessons in gratitude I’ve learned along the way.

1. Be grateful for the bad ideas. They clear the path for the good ones. You can’t skip the messy middle—it’s where your instincts sharpen.
2. Be grateful for the client who asks, “Can we make it shorter?” They’re teaching you precision. Every word has to earn its place.
3. Be grateful for rejection. It hurts. But it also reminds you that feedback means someone cared enough to read your work.
4. Be grateful for creative partners who challenge you. The best collaborators don’t nod—they push.
5. Be grateful for tight deadlines. They teach you to trust your gut, to find focus when there’s no time for overthinking.
6. Be grateful for quiet seasons. They’re not pauses—they’re refills. That’s where your next big idea usually hides.
7. Be grateful for edits that make you groan. Editing is proof that someone sees potential in what you wrote.
8. Be grateful for the work that scares you. Fear usually means you’re growing. Or about to make something worth remembering.
9. Be grateful for the proofreader who catches your typo. They save your reputation one misplaced comma at a time.
10. Be grateful for your younger self. The one who stayed up late finishing pitches and still believed in the power of a great line.
11. Be grateful for the teams that trust you. Creative freedom isn’t handed out—it’s earned through consistency, collaboration, and care.
12. Be grateful for the weird briefs. The ones that make no sense at first are often the ones that open new creative doors.
13. Be grateful for the days it feels like work. Because even the tough days mean you’re still creating for a living—and that’s no small thing.
14. Be grateful for mentors who tell you the truth. Kind honesty is rare. Hold onto it.
15. Be grateful for your creative community. The people who get it. Who celebrate your wins and commiserate your rewrites.
16. Be grateful for the projects that remind you why you started. Those moments are your creative reset button.
17. Be grateful for the blank page. Because every time you face it, you get to start again—and that’s the real gift of this work.

The Bottom Line

Gratitude doesn’t make the creative process easier. It just makes it richer. When you treat every draft, deadline, and detour as something that’s shaping you, the work starts to mean more, and so does the person behind it. Seventeen years in, I’m still learning, still writing, and still grateful.