This was the view leaving my apartment this morning.
I live in Maida Vale in West London. It’s a beautiful neighborhood characterized by red brick Edwardian mansion blocks and wide tree-lined avenues – a little like the Upper East Side in New York, Neuilly-sur-Seine in Paris or Los Feliz in L.A. It’s the kind of place where, even after a year, you still appreciate it every morning.
Today I dodged suicidal cyclists and unforgiving bus drivers on the congested 4 miles to my office. Driving in central London is not for the fainthearted. You have to be defensive and know where you’re going, which makes it a pretty good (if a little cheesy) metaphor for life in London.
For me, though, driving is also an escape. Amongst all the people rushing to work on crowded buses and tubes, crossing the street and the vehicles coming from all angles, my car is my personal territory. I set the temperature, the pace and the sound, whether listening to my iPod or making sure I’m completely up to date with global news on BBC Radio 4. It’s 25 minutes in the morning where I can think about the day ahead, find out what’s going on in the world and prepare myself for the exciting things and the challenges that await.
Talking of challenges, I recently changed jobs and as of today, I am officially three weeks in. I moved from a small, independent consultancy where I had good friends and a lot of autonomy to one of the great names in my industry.
Change is a great thing. It’s an exciting new start. My new workplace is equally fantastic but in a totally different way. I’m surrounded by super smart people from incredibly diverse backgrounds. It’s already changing the way I think and how I view the world.
I used to think making money, driving a flash car and living in the best neighbourhood were the most important things in life.
Whilst it’s great to have all those things, it’s no longer what defines who I am.
Just don’t make me give up my car.
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About the author: William Smith (@VenturaBlvd) works in the London office of leading brand consultancy, Wolff Olins. He also spends his free time working with music producer Steve Levine on the digital strategy for some of his signed artists and likes to think of himself as an advocate for food provenance and buying locally.
