The work that stays with you
You can spend fifty years in a career doing impressive work. That is not the same as work that means something.
2 min read
Most work is transactional. A problem gets solved, money changes hands, you move on to the next one. That is fine. That is how business works.
But every now and then you end up doing something where you realise the value does not stop with the person who commissioned it. Where the thing you built quietly matters to people who will never know your name, who will never say thank you, who do not even know you exist.
That feeling is completely different to anything else.
I think about this a lot. The projects that have stayed with me are not the most prestigious or the most profitable. They are the ones where I know the work is still doing something good long after we left.
It is why building digital systems for hospitals really resonates. We are not just changing how the system works. We are having an impact on people’s lives.
That is what giving back through work actually feels like. And once you have felt it, it can change what you go after.
“The thing you built quietly matters to people who will never know your name.”
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