This quote is always an inspiration for me when dealing with a difficult situation or evaluating whether to expand our business into a new market. Another one of my favorites is, “Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.” While it has obvious application to the financial markets, I also believe it is relevant in many other aspects of running our business.

In our recent year-end company meeting, I used this quote as a segue into a discussion on the impact good decisions are having in career development, client satisfaction and our company’s performance; I thought I would share some of those with you. We had a number of current and future Cornerstone leaders celebrate milestone anniversaries with us last year.

Angela (Smolczynski) Oste celebrated her fifth anniversary. Not only did she marry in 2015, but also she commented numerous times that, “The lightbulbs just kept firing all year, and a number of things really began to make sense.” Not ironically, Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, documented that a genius level of knowledge is typically attained after spending 10,000 hours of focused study in a particular subject, whether that be sports, music, art or business. In the workplace, 10,000 hours is typically hit in the fourth or fifth year.

Rita Miller, head of investment operations, celebrated her 10th year with the firm. Rita started as a part-time receptionist with Cornerstone as a summer job, while searching for a permanent position. One day, I asked Rita what she studied in college. It turned out she graduated fourth in her class at Muhlenberg College as a math major. I asked if she would like to do anything else in our office, and the rest is history.

Kim Smalley, my assistant, had her 15th anniversary in October. Kim is outstanding at everything she does, including scheduling, corporate travel, database management, licensing and being the administrative team leader. If anything can be organized, Kim is that person within Cornerstone.

Kevin Karpuk also celebrated his 15th anniversary last year. Kevin started as an intern from Lehigh University. He graduated in three years and received his master’s degree in economics in his fourth. Throughout his career, he has been a part of every major project we have been involved in; he is our Chief Investment Officer, and has been a shareholder of the firm for the past five years. Kevin is one of the go-to people for virtually everything in the firm and is a recognized leader.

Finally, Tiffany Gilbert is the first Cornerstone team member, besides Skip Cowen, President; and myself, to celebrate her 20th anniversary with us. Tiffany began as a marketing assistant and then migrated into client services, operations, human resources and consulting during her career. Last year, she became a Principal of Cornerstone and is recognized as one of the current and future leaders of the organization.

These people, started at, or near, the bottom of the organization and, through hard work, education, experience, decision making and dedication, “compound interest” if you will, have risen to leadership positions in our company.

These are just some of the many examples we have of people who continue to invest in themselves and, as a result, earn the right to take on progressively greater levels of responsibility within the organization and with our clients. At the end of the day our business revolves around creating meaningful, long-term relationships based on trust and delivering on our promises. The compound effect of doing this well is having a transformative impact on the difference we are making for clients and on the opportunities we have in the marketplace. We look forward to seeing you all soon.