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Abstract Early career researchers often asked me: how I became the editor‐in‐chief, what editors, associate editors, and editors do, why I wanted to become an editor, how much time an editor committed, would I rather spend more time on my research and publish another paper or my personal life? All of these questions make sense. When I started as an assistant professor nearly 20 years ago, I did not plan to become an editor; I wanted to do my research and teach to achieve tenure. Sound familiar? Fortunately, I was gradually pulled into the publishing process not as an author but as a reviewer, associate editor, and eventually editor‐in‐chief by several senior colleagues, for whom I am forever grateful. Now, it is my turn to prepare the next generation of editors, the backbone of science.