What made you decide to stop something you were known for, and how did you know it was time?
Recorded Tom Kerridge said elsewhere, not written here
It’s very easy to get caught up in a habit of work hard and play hard. I couldn’t tell you how much I used to drink in a week – I haven’t got enough fingers. I own two pubs and had built up a reputation of being the best party person in the industry. It got to a point where I realised I was getting too old to be that guy. Now I enjoy the challenge of being on a stag weekend for three days, but drinking Diet Coke and coffee.

Katie Forster, The Observer, The Guardian, 12 December 2015 source ↗

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Dan Carter New Zealand international rugby union fly-half, 2003–2015
But I'm ready for what's next after rugby. Being able to not just say that, but to truly feel it, is a privilege. Ultimately, getting to leave your sport on your own terms is all you can really hope for as an athlete.
Recorded Retirement letter, The Players' Tribune, 20 February 2021 source ↗
Sonny Rollins Jazz tenor saxophonist and composer
I realized I wasn’t sounding as good as my reputation was, so I wanted to kind of get to that point where I wouldn’t be ashamed to go on the bandstand, which happened to me one time on a job I was playing with… Elvin Jones, at that time, was the drummer playing with me. We used to go around, had a big sign, “Sonny Rollins is coming to town,” everybody was there, but I didn’t sound good, and I knew I wasn’t playing up to what I should be. So I said, “Okay, I am getting out of here. I am going to go and woodshed,” as they say, and get myself together.
Recorded Academy of Achievement (achievement.org) source ↗
Jessye Norman Operatic soprano and recitalist
As a very young singer, I was invited to the opera house in Berlin by the then-director of the opera house, Egon Seefehlner, and I had one opera to my name that I knew. He felt that there was a lot that I could learn there, which was very true, and I was so lucky to be able to have this opportunity. The thing that was happening is that I kept being offered operas that I knew that I wasn’t ready to sing, just from an experience point of view, as well as being 24 years old. So I was always asked to sing things that I thought, “Well no, I really don’t think I should sing that now. I need to sing that maybe in five years, or maybe in 10 years, but not right now. Couldn’t I please sing something else?” And that became a difficulty for me. And after being at the opera house for three years, and singing Elsa and Elisabeth — the Wagner roles that are not sort of the heavy Wagner roles — and then Mozart operas that suited my voice at the time, I was continually invited to sing things that I just felt I shouldn’t. So I took it upon myself to go to speak with the artistic director to say that I thought I should leave the opera house, and come back in some years when my maturity sort of chronologically would have caught up with the invitations that I was being offered. Of course, considering that he’d taken me into the opera house when I knew one role, he wasn’t all that happy. I thought he’d say, “Oh, what a smart girl. Oh yes, absolutely. That’s what we’ll do.” No, no. He was absolutely furious.
Recorded Academy of Achievement (achievement.org) source ↗
Leelee Kimmel American actress and artist
I don’t want my children to look at Netflix and see me on screen in the arms of someone who’s not their dad.
Recorded Sarah Cascone, Interview, Artnet News, 7 February 2018 source ↗

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Question What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? Time & hindsight
Everything that’s happened to me was because I said yes to everything and gave it a go. I never thought, wouldn’t it be good if I got two Michelin stars and my own TV shows. I just tried my hardest at everything I got the chance to do. If I could give the younger me advice I’d just say, never underestimate graft. Give up on sleep, work very hard, and it will pay off. Graft graft graft. And never give up.
Recorded Hannah Westwater, Letter To My Younger Self, Big Issue, 14 January 2019 source ↗

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