Turning forty for a business is different than it is for a person. For one thing, there are no teasing implications that “it’s downhill from here”. More the contrary—if a company weathers all the challenges it will encounter over that length of time, it is probably proving itself multi-generational. That takes us into the province of legacy.

Heritage is what we receive from past generations; legacy is what we leave future ones. At this very moment I sit upon a chair I could not make, wear clothes I could not fashion, write with pen upon paper I could not produce—and that is the small stuff. We are surrounded, sustained, and enabled by the developments and accumulated work product of countless generations. With appreciation for all that has come before, what do we see as we turn to the present and future?

What we see at Schmidt Associates is that our turn to pay it forward is now 40 years along with plenty of road ahead. Although this milestone finds us in chorus with Kool and the Gang: “Celebrate good times, come on!” we are also engaged in a bigger, broader picture of all that we have been and yet will be. We see your journey is on the same map as our journey, so go on expedition with us! Uh, you can lose the pith helmet.

 

“You don’t get older. You get better.”

—Shirley Bassey