When I started work on data quality nearly 30 years ago, I had no idea how revolutionary most people would find the concept of preventing data errors at their sources. Nor did I anticipate the outsize resistance that putting this simple idea into practice would engender. Over the years, I’ve learned some hard lessons about what it takes to advance a data agenda, whether that’s advocating for a new data quality program, a different type of data, or a fresh strategy that relies on data. These lessons are particularly timely as more and more people find opportunities to push data into previously uncharted territory.