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16 years ago this week, I founded Civic Initiatives, leaving 10 years of Texas State government to go on a difficult but incredibly rewarding journey. I had no clients, no prospects even, no staff, just a stubborn streak and a naive hope that I could build something that would be a force for good. In those 10 years, immediately before Civic, I was a governor's special assistant, a deputy state CIO, and I ran a specialized procurement shop called the Council on Competitive Government. So I came to procurement late in my government career, but I found it to be impossibly compelling. I often say you never have more opportunity to create change in government than when you have money in one hand and requirements in the other. But I also observed that in many instances, procurement is not allowed to act creatively or hasn't been empowered to act creatively. So I saw a great opportunity that I could help not only in Texas but across the country with how to leverage procurement as a strategic asset and understand what we have to do to make it fill that role. And I felt that this was an area I could really make an impact. And somehow or another, I feel like we have succeeded in that. And if you look at the arc and the trajectory of civic initiatives growing to do work in 45 of the states, I think we've fulfilled that goal. So historically in this week of the year, I've talked about our people and our growth and our ability to serve. This year, of course, we were acquired in the spring by Public Knowledge, which is a company full of similarly thinking people who've dedicated their life to public sector service by extending government operation success across the country as well. We're so happy to be part of Public Knowledge with all of their process and infrastructure and great people. It's a wonderful new home. So as I said, generally in this week, I pull out some of the greatest hits, specifically rehashing this meme of where we started, where we're going. In the left is a picture of me from one of our very earliest projects where we were able to work out of state in support of Gardener on a project. And that's me with snow on my earmuffs, wondering why it is that the northern states always choose to start projects in the winter. In the right, I've typically shown our growing staff, but this year I really want to use this opportunity to highlight coming together with public knowledge and how happy we are to be part of their family, and we will continue to grow and blend in the years to come. Also, traditionally in this week, we have celebrated a founding day, commemorating the perseverance of this group to grow to this size and succeed. This year we're making a shift to that to convert it into a day of service. We're encouraging our folks to get out and give back to the community as a way to show the gratitude for the opportunity that life has given us to work in this style of service. We'll share some pictures on that in the next coming days. So I'll close this particular post with a quote from one of my favorite authors, Terry Pratchett. He wrote, It's well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing what you're attempting to do can't be done. When I look back at the last decade and a half of this work and the almost hilarious naivete to try to create a management consulting company from dead zero, I'm glad I didn't know how hard it was going to be when I started because I'm very happy that I'm here. And I know through all the hard work it was definitely the right choice. So for all of our staff and clients and partners that have helped us to be able to get to this point and live this life of service, I'm very appreciative.