As we all know, timing is everything in business. We all remember where we were on 9/11. It was a day we all shared collectively as a community, nation and a world. Timing is something we seek to control as we feel it is somehow controls us.
Back in 2001 I was running a growing business that was hungry for capital. Sales had been going through the roof. We were on the INC 500 list as one of the fastest growing businesses in the US. We had begun the process of working on the refinance of the line of credit with our bank. During this time, we had hired new salespersons. One of our new sales people had brought in an account that was in New York City. The customer had started to use us as their source for Cisco equipment. Within months they started ordering a significant amount of equipment from us. Enough equipment and services had been sold to the client that I suggested to the salesperson that we should go out and cultivate the relationship in NYC.
I began to look at hotels, airfares restaurants etc. We put it in the calendar the last week of August that we would fly to NYC the second week of September in the morning. Like all things when you are a manager, you sometimes feel like one of those carnival acts doing the plate spinning routine. This was no different for me. The company was growing, I was in a constant state of learning, creating and adapting to the new challenges of managing a growing business. The bank financing at the time held the largest set of unknowns for me in business. I have come to understand debt/equity ratios and what the P&L represents to a business, but at the time it was new territory for me. After a phone call with my accountant, he suggested I delay my trip for a week to get the books organized to present to the bank the 3rd week of September. Fate had truly intervened.
Only six months later did I realize how fate had saved me. Our plane was going to arrive Sept 10 in the evening in NYC. We were to stay at the Millennium Hilton Hotel. If you haven’t been to New York, it sits directly across the street from the World Trade Center and sustained massive damage on 9/11 and took almost 2 years to reopen. My client, whose office was three blocks south of the south tower, was completely blocked after the attack and subsequent collapse of the two towers. There is a picture somewhere of the front landing gear of one of the planes in front of their main door. There is a picture somewhere of the front of the hotel being sheared off by the collapse. Even ten years later, it is difficult to comprehend that we were supposed to be there on that terrible day. We had planned on the meeting taking place around 9:30 or so on 9/11.
While nothing in life is for sure, my salesperson and I were spared that day. We were spared not only from actual bodily harm, but spared the trauma of the horrible events as they had unfolded and traumatized millions of New Yorkers that day. On a rare occasion I will talk about my twist of fate for September 11th. The recent programming on television, along with the 9/11 tenth anniversary has brought this vivid and painful memory back to me. I can’t help but think how a simple yes or no decision could have impacted me and everyone around me. At the time, my children were six, four and two years old. In July, My wife and I had just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. There was so much future to be had, so many things to do. It took me a couple of years to even tell my wife about the twist of fate. It still gives me goose bumps to think what could have been.
The truth is that there is only so much you can control in this world. Much of our lives are left purely to fate. This could mean divine intervention to some. This could mean dumb luck to others. I’d like to believe it’s both. Whatever the reason, I was given the past ten years as a gift and hope I made the most of it. It is never lost on me how fortunate I am to have so much in this world. I am grateful for my family, my friends and life as a whole. Don’t ever take your life for granted, the present really is a gift. This September 11th I will stop to remember those whose lives were changed forever, as well as mine.
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