This Day

This day. 22 years.

What can I share of value about that day? What can we learn?

Let's go back, to Sept 11, 2001. It was an unusually crisp sky and so beautiful. I was in early, heading into my office right around 8:35. That's early for New Yorkers, and then suddenly a rare cloud downtown. We all thought a small plane had crashed.

Well, as the day developed, I sat next to my best friend from Thomson Reuters as all phone service went down. He let me know that four guys in his wedding party were working at Cantor Fitzgerald, in offices at the top of the towers. Then we huddled and sat stunned around a small TV as the towers fell, as did his friends.

My friend and I still touch base most every Sept 11th.

There's so much more to say, and so much more of the very best of humanity, that we experienced that day. Reach out to me privately for the full story.

Here's what I saw and learned after that day in NYC:

• Gratefulness: Literally for quite a while every time anyone saw a fireman we all simply stopped and applauded. For years my young kids left school to go to fire stations on 9-11 to say thank you. They were not alone.
• Grace: Just one example: For about a year after 9/11, we only had a couple landlines that worked, since 20% of the phone service lines in Manhattan were under the towers and our office was not deemed essential. This is when businesses did these things called conference calls. No one ever complained. Not once ever.
• Love wins: Our office was two blocks away, on 5th Avenue right across from St Patrick’s Cathedral. For what seemed like forever, not a week went by that didn’t have a funeral procession for NY's Bravest or the Finest. Streets were overflowing with love as they went by. I don’t think NYC has ever been closer.
• Heroes are real: When we moved to Arizona, we knew we would never forget. They have an amazingly powerful experience here called The Healing Fields. The picture on this post is of my kids who joined so many others to pay their respects and volunteer. Right behind them is a first responder who saved many—and then he was trapped and rescued—by another hero.??

What else can we learn??Listening.??

I’ve recently been asked to serve as the Chair of a Cannabis Company in my hometown called BeLeaf Medical.?I’m getting up to speed on it all, and one of the experts I follow is a guy I knew a bit from the NYSE era. Back then, he broadcast from the floor on financial markets.? Todd Harrison writes daily and here’s his post from today. Todd, I didn’t know your story then and how your life had changed. But we are better because you allowed us to listen.?

Thank you all for listening…

And never forget.?