In early 2023, I embarked on the riskiest experiment in my life to date; to create what I believed had not been created before. There was no blueprint, no map. All I had was a compass: the desire to combine research data with strategic insight in a publication series wrapped in the beauty of art.  

I didn’t set out alone, but went on this journey with a group of people who shared my vision and while like me they had never created something like this, they had the important skills I didn’t have. It took about a year to create and produce, and on International Women’s Day, several thousand units representing the outcome of our collective efforts arrived at my front door. 

Nervous and excited, it took a few hours to marshal the courage to open the first publication. Armed with high expectations, like most perfectionists, it didn’t take much time to spot the errors. Initially minor, and probably not easily spotted by readers outside the minutia of the writing process, all of a sudden, my worst nightmare became a reality: a full blank space on one page. No text. No images. Nothing.