2016 has been a lot of fun so far. We’ve got a surplus of balloons in the office as proof.

In case you missed it, we celebrated our 20th anniversary on February 2nd! We were fortunate to commemorate the milestone with so many of our community partners – it made for a spectacular day.

Since our fearless leader, Bill Janzen, built this company basically from the ground up, we’ve learned some tricks to growth and longevity. In the spirit of our recent celebration, we thought we’d share a handful of those core lessons with you.

1. The risks are worth it. Avoiding risk will land you in the realm of humdrum, one-size-fits-all anything. Taking a risk will rarely feel like a comfortable option. But it does open up avenues for creative thinking and problem solving. Even when they don’t pan out exactly as you planned, risks are worth it.

2. Complacency isn’t an option. Ever. This goes hand in hand with taking risks. If you’re constantly aiming to make a memorable impact, there won’t be room for complacency to take hold. We don’t want to get too comfortable. It keeps us from reaching our best work.

3. A unified team is crucial. We work in one of those weird offices where everyone gets along. See, we have this really cool belief that, in order to get the work done as well as possible, there has to be a sense of camaraderie. A team that really feels like a team will pull together when it counts. And it just plain makes going to work every day better.

4. Never stop learning. Information exchanges hands quickly these days, and people add to it frequently. If you aren’t intentional about keeping your knowledge base current, there’s a chance that you’ll miss trends that could be great asset to your business. Now, we know that you’ve already got a full calendar, but we promise that continuous learning won’t require hours of reading bland content and studying. Instead, read an article that peaks your interest. Take a refresher course. Attend a seminar. Fill your mind with the kind of knowledge that will help you bring your very best to the table.

5. Never go it alone. We are who we are because of the community that has shaped us. The people we’ve interacted with over the years have had an incredible impact on how we do business. Regardless of size or industry, businesses are built by people. And the more people you have in your corner, the better it will be.

We’ll have to take the balloons down eventually (it’s hard letting go – they’re just so fun!). But we’ll maintain the most important pieces. They’re the reason we’ve been able to grow.