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My 20s were scattered, with failed stints in the federal bureaucracy and tech sector, and years of marginal writing. I didn’t have two pennies to rub together, but struggling taught me lessons success never could. And I lived just enough to inform an opinion over how a country should be governed.

My political career was a fluke. Without the Federal Accountability Act, I would never have been plucked from my life as a freelance writer in Toronto to come work in the Conservative research office. Such was the paucity of staffers that I was given a post despite having no discernible political qualifications.

Fortunately, it was there that I was brought under the tutelage of some veteran hands. In fact, the best piece of advice I ever received in politics was from my first boss on the Hill, who said never to take myself seriously. He told me that no matter what position I reached, it was the position that was important and not me. Those words were still ringing in my ears when I started as the prime minister’s press secretary two short years later.

Feeling like a bit of an imposter in the highest office in the land made it easier to have some perspective. What business did I have telling the prime Minister of Canada what to do or say? It was then that the second best piece of advice I ever received in politics kicked in: In your first six months in politics you’re a danger to yourself and others, so shut up, listen and learn.

Too bad serving the prime minister doesn’t exactly afford you the opportunity to ease into the job. I had to learn on the fly, and quickly. I learned from some colleagues what to do, and from others what not to do. And what an education! The five years that followed will rank as the best experience of my professional life. I walked away last September without regrets.