I've just realised It's 15 years today since I left The Scotsman - my crystal anniversary.

I wrote this blog last year and (I think) it still makes some sense: link.

A year on, I have a couple of other thoughts to share….

Things have gone well for me in the last year. I've put in the spadework to get here, but by and large I now enjoy the vast majority of work I'm doing - and I work with people I like. And I get pretty well-rewarded for it.

Maybe I'm lucky - but two simple things have definitely helped.

One is always taking personal responsibility for a piece of work, spending time to understand what's wanted, then delivering it to the very best of your ability.

The second is treating people well. Whether it's the CEO or most junior person in the PR team, be professional, be polite and be friendly. Ask questions; get to know what makes people tick. We all have grumpy days, but it costs nothing to be nice, and to be interested in people.

A final thought. As you get older, and work for yourself longer, it's much more enjoyable sharing the load and working collaboratively. There are always times when you don't quite hit the spot with an article, a podcast plan or an event agenda - and having a fellow professional to run things past is always helpful and reassuring.

So a shout-out to fellow collaborators Peter Ranscombe (media training and writing projects), Kevin Dorrian (legal PR) and Neil Cuthbert (all sorts of stuff). Having them as trusted partners allowed me to take my first long holiday in seven years in May, when I visited my youngest daughter in Australia.

A particular shout-out to Neil, who gave me my first chunky bit of freelance work in 2009, followed by a few more, before we joined forces (with Ben McLeish) in PA Cooperative Ltd more than a decade ago. We speak pretty much every day, constantly share ideas, and balance the workload between us.

We're very different, but our personality types and professional skills blend well. Neil is very knowledgeable about policy and politics, and extremely adept at finding new, useful information (often in hard-to-find places) and adapting it to our work. He's also very good at calming me down when I get angry or impatient (quite often), and is exceptional at business development.

OK, so it won't make a business manual, but after 15 years, my top tips are: be nice; always do your best; and work with good people, ideally with skills and personality traits that complement your own.

I'm not sure what my skills and positive personality traits are; maybe you can ask Neil.