Thirty years ago, I flew to Mexico City to open a news bureau for Bloomberg, armed only with a credit card and a vague idea of how to recruit a reporter.

I needed to find someone who could speak fluent Spanish, write fluent English, knew something about finance and didn’t already work at a bank. It was a tall order.

Bloomberg’s then Editor-in-Chief Matt Winkler sent me because I was writing about Latin American finance from New York and spoke Spanish.

One of the interesting things about the evolution of Bloomberg’s business is how the company used news to pave the way for sales. Setting up a bureau with reporters raised local visibility.

Mexico City at the time was filled with reporters from major U.S. papers, including the New York Times and Washington Post.

I focused on the English-language newspaper, The Mexico City News, which is where I found Eduardo Garcia. He joined Bloomberg in 1992, operating out of a tiny one-room WeWork-style office.

Eduardo established the beachhead, along with Luis and Alejandro, two technicians who handled the installations of Bloomberg terminals.

No one had more team spirit than Luis and Alejandro. Every day they both wore smiles and matching polo shirts with Bloomberg logos.

Mexico boomed in the early 1990s, then slumped after the 1995 devaluation. It has since rebounded spectacularly. The city is now a tourist magnet and has been transformed into a foodie paradise and outpost for digital nomads.

Condesa and Roma, two of the most popular neighborhoods, have the student vibe of the East Village, the classic architecture of Barcelona and the pleasant weather of LA.

Eduardo left Bloomberg in 2002 to start his own company, Sentido Comun. It was later acquired by Infosel, the dominant Mexican provider of electronic information.

I ran the Latin American news operations for years, but eventually changed jobs and lost touch with the office.

Five years ago, I returned to Mexico City and visited the office, now located in one of the premier skyscrapers next to the stock exchange. I found three dozen people, along with fancy fish tanks.

I didn’t recognize anyone.

Then, two people approached and welcomed me warmly. It was Luis and Alejandro. Not only were they still working for the company, but they were also still wearing matching Bloomberg shirts.

The reporters and sales reps were baffled. Who was I and how could I possibly know them?

It was a good reminder that no matter what you start. No matter what you build. No matter how important you think you are to a business, you will eventually be forgotten. Often, remarkably fast.

What counts is the work you did. How well you built the thing you built. How much you learned. And of course, the friendships you made and maintained.

I was back in Mexico this past Spring and visited Eduardo.

He has a fabulous house in Condesa, a block from Parque Mexico. It’s surrounded by lovely cafes and dog walks and Pilates studios and boutique grocers that sell bone broth. All of it inconceivable in 1992.

We went up to his roof and took a picture. The jacarandas were starting to bloom, just like they always do at this time of year.

It was a small, yet consistent detail amid the landscape of change.

(Part of a series of management lessons learned from three decades at Bloomberg)