After all the planning and preparation that went into that opening day, would the company be doomed to crumble with the twin towers in the subsequent economic backlash? Five years later, the answer is an unqualified “No!” Visual Apex, a company that sells and services display systems and accessories to an online clientele, was recently ranked as number 389 on the prestigious Inc, Magazine 500 list of fastest growing private companies in the U.S.

Its three owners, Paul Gilmore, Charlie Moore, and Jeremy Meyer, all credit the people who make up the company as the reason for its success, and point to a page from the current employee handbook on the Visual Apex Web site that reads: “Our Culture: Come for the job and stay for the people. We hire only folks with high integrity, good minds, kind hearts, and wonderful senses of humor.”

That sums up the company’s philosophy, and if it’s success is any indicator, would be a something other firms could take a lesson from.