After spending several years running her own agency, Valentina Gomez Bravo learned that success can come at a cost when you don't know when to stop.

Today, as Executive Creative Director at the University of Washington and President of AAF Seattle, Valentina brings a different perspective to work, leadership, and what it means to build something that lasts. Here are three lessons that stuck with me.

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LESSON: Burnout doesn't always look like failure.

Valentina's agency had its best years during the pandemic. More clients, more projects, more awards. But behind that success were 16-hour workdays and a pace she couldn't sustain. Sometimes the warning sign isn't that things are going badly. It's realizing that even when things are going great, the way you're working isn't sustainable.

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LESSON: How you do the work matters as much as the work itself.

Valentina believes a beautiful, award-winning project isn't really a success if the process of getting there was miserable. The people, relationships, and experience behind the work matter. Great creative leadership is about the work, of course. But it's also about building an environment where people actually want to make it together.

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LESSON: Knowing when to let go is part of building something.

After 12 years, stepping away from her agency wasn't a quick decision. Valentina took more than a year to make sure her team had opportunities and her clients had support before moving on. Sometimes moving forward means letting go of something you've worked incredibly hard to build. And trusting that “for now” doesn't have to mean “forever.”

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