In this personal narrative, the speaker recounts a pivotal career moment when, at nearly 40, he left a 16‑year tenure as a strategist in San Francisco to join a London agency on a two‑week notice. The move was prompted by a call from the London agency’s CEO, delivered in a “posh” accent, and was ultimately approved after consulting his 101‑year‑old grandmother, who reminded him that any decision can be undone. He packed his belongings into storage, relied on a network of friends‑of‑friends for initial support, and arrived in London to face cultural and workplace differences, describing the British agency as “stuffy” and the transition as a fresh start on day one.
Chapters
One of the, I guess, one of the most pivotal ones was when I was living in San Francisco. My career was definitely on a wonderful trajectory. I was a strategist for a very long time in agencies. And I got a phone call from the CEO of the London agency that I was working at in San Francisco. And he said, I hear we need someone with your skill sets. And he said it in a very posh accent. When I said, you know, how soon do you need me? He said 2 weeks. And so I was kind of in a, in and out of a relationship. I love San Francisco. Um, that was my home. I had been there for 16 years at that point. And so why did I say yes? The reason I said, and I certainly had to hem and haw about it, you know, my Nana, who I talk a lot about, who was my best friend, lived until she was 101. I spoke to her and she said, You know, Claude, all decisions can be undone. You can, any decision you make can be undone. Obviously she's not talking about children and stuff like that. And when she said that to me, it allowed me the space to be like, you know what? She's right. She's like, maybe she was like 90 at the time or something. Like, she's right. If, if I really don't like it or I'm terribly homesick or whatever, like I can take care of that. And so I put all my stuff in storage and within 2 weeks I was living in London and it was really crazy. I was almost 40 years old starting again, literally day one. People had set me up with their friends of friends or friends of friends' friends. And those wonderful people were generous enough to, you know, share dinner with me or something when I got to London. But I didn't know anyone. And here I was, you know, the American. Walking into a very stuffy British agency. Very raw, raw, raw. And had to make sense of that. Had to
