Just over 13 years ago, Microsoft gave me my first "Most Valuable Professional" award. Out of the blue, as far as I was concerned. It wasn't something I'd planned for and it certainly wasn't something I'd expected, but it has become a cornerstone of my professional identity.
Indulge me while I go off on a bit of a tangent here: like the other things in my professional life that have turned into a success, the things I did to earn that first MVP award were things I was going to do anyway. Things like speaking at events, writing blog posts, and, of course, running Have I Been Pwned. It's an enormous privilege that these activities are things I do out of passion, and they've given me a successful career. That's wild, and I can still hardly believe it 😊
As I've said each year when this award has landed in my inbox, and I'll say again now after the 14th one just landed, thank you for giving me the platform on which I've been able to build this career. It takes people like you reading this now to turn up to my talks, consume the posts I write and use HIBP to do useful things after data breaches happen to make me successful at what I do.
So, cheers to everyone who has contributed to my 14th Microsoft MVP award 🍻