What lasts usually has someone quietly maintaining what everyone else assumes simply works.

Anything that has lasted a long time is being maintained by somebody, usually invisibly and usually without much credit. The institution, the friendship group, the building, the running system. From outside it appears to simply work, and that appearance is itself the product of continuous unnoticed effort by people who chose to keep it going.

Look at something in your life that seems to run by itself and find out who is maintaining it. Thank them, or take a turn. The maintenance is not optional, only invisible.