The Lessons of 9/11: Embracing a Life That Matters
It started as a beautiful, sunny September morn. A perfect day. I was getting ready to go to work when the nasty old lady downstairs knocked frantically at my apartment door, screaming.
“What the f*&k can she want?” I said to myself. I let her in, not knowing why she was screaming at me.
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” she kept saying, and literally pulled me down the stairs and into her apartment. Her TV was on. Chills went down my spine and I was paralyzed for a moment: the World Trade Center North and South Towers were burning. The TV people said two planes had hit the towers.
For some reason, I felt compelled to get to the office as soon as I could. Just as I was arriving, WCBS NewsRadio 88 said the North Tower had fallen. Fallen. The World Trade Center. I had been in that building myself just several weeks before.
My employees and I watched the TV in our conference room. In silence. One of my clients, already en route to my office, joined us as we witnessed the unimaginable horror unfold. The sense of helplessness was overwhelming. I had clients at Sidley Austin Brown and Wood and at Marsh & McLennan in the North Tower. I also had friends and neighbors who worked in those towers. We all knew people, and we all knew nothing about whether we would ever see them again alive. At one point I anxiously checked my client address list to see if we had lost anyone. Thankfully, we did not, but so many others were not as fortunate.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001, left an indelible mark on the world, but especially here. As the twin towers fell, so did the illusion of safety and certainties about life that many of us held: You get up, go to work, go home, have dinner, watch TV, go to bed. Repeat.
We couldn’t count on that anymore. Now it was Get Up. Go to work. Pray that you don’t die.
In the immediate aftermath, my phones were silent. I was surprised. I had thought that people, realizing life was very fragile, would be abandoning jobs they hated in droves and be seeking new careers that were satisfying and fulfilling. That didn’t happen at first. Our September retainers were down 56% from August, always our slowest month. The phones didn’t ring at all. I didn’t want them to. The hell with business — it was time to burrow down inside ourselves, grapple with the shock and horror of what had transpired on that beautiful morn, and look closely at our personal values and our lives.
But as the dust settled, a profound realization began to take root: life is fleeting, and we should spend our time doing things we love and that bring meaning to our lives. Instead of killing ourselves at the office in a job we hate and billing 2100 hours to get our bonuses, we should be spending time with our families and doing things that we find fulfilling and meaningful.
The lessons of 9/11 remain with us today. They remind us to live each day as if it matters, because it does … and we may not get another. We should each strive to find our own paths, paths that align with our passions and values, and do work that makes us feel alive and connected to something greater than ourselves.
In doing so, we honor the memory of those 2,977 souls who were lost, and ensure that their legacy lives on in the lives we lead.