Today, my company, Adducent, turns 26.

About a third of businesses make it to ten years. Far fewer reach twenty-six. I understand now, in a way I didn’t in 2000, that longevity isn’t a milestone you arrive at — it’s the sum of a lot of ordinary days when you did the work, kept people posted, and delivered the thing you said you’d deliver. Then did it again the next day.

None of it happened alone.

Over 26 years, we’ve published 114 titles, edited many — including books we didn’t publish — and I’ve personally ghostwritten 42. Clients I’d never otherwise have met: first-time memoirists and novelists; professors, doctors, law partners, and business owners; national-security professionals; military officers—flag and general—among them two four-star officers, a former U.S. CENTCOM commander, and a former Assistant Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.

From New Haven to New Zealand, they trusted us with their stories; some with the ones they’d carried their whole lives.

So on our 26th birthday, to every client and author who trusted us with your ideas and stories and let us build your book alongside you — thank you.

Here’s to the next chapter.