“There’s no making it,” says Nicola Coughlan. “You just have to keep going and can’t rest on your laurels.” It was at 19, Coughlan tells TIME in our most recent cover story, that she decided to pursue a career in acting. It has taken her nearly two decades to reach her current peak, delivering for Netflix the sixth most watched season of television in the streamer’s history with the most recent installment of Shonda Rhimes’ Bridgerton. Coughlan’s persistence and her refusal to accept the status quo represents the spirit of Next Generation Leaders, the series we launched 10 years ago in partnership with Rolex.