A 25-year anniversary has a way of stripping the story down to what’s true. Not a highlight reel, but the habits that held up under pressure, year after year.

That’s why our milestone wasn’t built on hype, shortcuts or overnight success. It was built through operational discipline, obsessive customer listening and the willingness to evolve from a traditional staffing model into a modern remote workforce company. It also demanded a different kind of leadership as we expanded across continents, cultures and generations of employees.

Over time, you learn that “legacy businesses” don’t survive by reinventing themselves overnight. They last by evolving steadily, without losing their backbone.

Looking back, these are the four hard-won lessons that explain why we’re still here, thriving and evolving, 25 years later.

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Lesson 1: Longevity forces you to redefine what “success” means

In the early years, success is mostly momentum. You’ll measure wins in growth, new accounts and the ability to survive the month. You’re proud when you move fast, when you outwork competitors and even when you keep the lights on.

After 25 years, success becomes less dramatic and more durable. It looks like resilience when conditions change. It looks like consistency when the market is unstable. Above all, it looks like delivering the same quality even as the business becomes larger, more complex and spread across the world.

That shift changes the question you ask as a leader. When I was starting, it was, “How do we grow?” As time went by, it became, “How do we stay trusted?” One of the things I learned is that the most effective way to earn trust is to simply listen obsessively. Without a deep understanding of your audience, even the best ideas fail to gain traction. Trust is built on empathy, and empathy starts when you listen.

Customer listening isn’t a phase you outgrow once you think you already “know your market.” It’s the discipline that keeps you relevant. In a business that lasts decades, the customer’s world changes. Expectations rise. The definition of value evolves. If you keep building from assumptions, you drift. If you keep building from reality, you stay useful.

Lesson 2: As a company grows, leaders have to trade control for trust

Early in my career, I equated leadership with being hands-on. I used to scramble to catch every ball before it hit the ground. I eventually learned that entrepreneurs and leaders cannot scale a business while acting as its primary bottleneck.

Real growth requires a fundamental shift, and you’ll have to trade control for trust. Step back from the details and focus on empowering the team. Move from managing tasks to enabling leaders. To this day, I’m more focused on defining the goal and the standard, then I get out of the way. This shift has created a culture that runs itself and delivers top-tier results, whether or not I’m in the room.

Lesson 3: Culture is built through daily leadership behavior

Over time, I learned that culture is how people feel when showing up to work every day, especially when something goes wrong, and there’s real pressure on the business.

In a legacy company, culture compounds because your reactions repeat. If leaders get defensive, people get quiet. If leaders stay curious and fair, people speak up sooner. The most durable cultures are built when leaders listen, lead with empathy and make it safe for people to tell the truth. Not “safe” as in low standards.

Stop punishing honesty. If your team can’t admit a mistake or question a decision without looking over their shoulder, you’ll never scale. Building genuine trust is an easy way to spot fires early and serve clients better. Transparency isn’t a bonus your people should thank you for. It’s the standard they expect. If you don’t provide it, not even a substantial salary will keep them.

Lesson 4: Progress ≠ perfection

Zero in on making progress rather than striving for perfection. Sometimes, holding out for that “perfect timing” can slow things down—there’s no such thing! Progress (movement) is what helps keep the business on the right track.

Over two decades in the business, and I’ve learned that keeping momentum going isn’t just about getting everything spot-on. It is sustained through steady movement and course correction. If your standard is perfection, you will move too slowly. If your standard is progress, you stay in motion long enough to learn what works.

This mindset builds confidence, both for leaders and teams. It creates endurance, which is what a long-term operator needs most. You do not need every answer upfront. The goal is steady decision-making, with people who provide strong judgment and technology that reduces friction along the way.

Legacy is built in mindset and constant adaptability

What I understand now, which I didn’t fully understand early on, is that time is the real judge. Not one great quarter. Not one big client. Not one smart idea.

Time rewards the businesses that keep their promises, even when no one is watching. It rewards leaders who trade ego for clarity and control for trust. It rewards teams that keep improving the work instead of defending the way it’s always been done.

Our 25-year-old company was built by showing up thousands of times with the discipline to get a little better, the maturity to hear hard feedback and the patience to let progress compound. That’s the long game. And it’s still the game we’re playing.