Last week, on 05/08/2008 M5 turned 8 years old. Is the date a little too convenient? Sure, I made it up. Our fifth birthday was 05/05/05 M5 turned 5, and what a great Cinco de Mayo party that was. While we did incorporate in May, 2000, I get to have a little liberty with history because one of my roles as CEO is a chief historian.

Someone's GOT to do it. startup junkies- it makes us feel a part of something, something we've built with our own hands. It bonds us together. But as a leader it can be a great way to illustrate points about why we are who we are, and I get to edit our history to be able to steer us to who we want to be. I teach an hour of M5 history to all new employees. I used to think corporate museums were weird.

Anyway, we had a party for our 8th and started with a 30 minute company meeting. We had a seven-year veteran, who is moving to a new office, give a tear-jerking farewell (miss you, Jason). I acknowledged the founders, and pointed out how their personalities were evident in our culture today. I pulled up a working version of our first website - so CUTE!

And the meeting ended with my making a weirdly appropriate blooper. I usually read aloud the list of birthdays that month and anniversaries and by accident I read two names of people that no longer work at M5. Whoops! Well, look at that, without thinking about it I had rewritten those people out of the story.