2001: Learning through adversity
However, adversity teaches us more important lessons than prosperity. So my bet is that 2001 and the upcoming 2002 will prove to be very educational--and in ways that matter.
THE DOT-COM ERA was not a character-building experience. Life since 9/11 has been. It's as though the excesses of the 1990s, which lingered even into the recession, ended all at once. The events of the last few months are like hitting the reset button on your computer, writ large enough to change us all.
The Silicon Valley maxim, "When the wind blows hard enough, even turkeys can fly," really applied to most of the last decade. The turkeys of Silicon Valley not only flew, they were richly rewarded. Sadly, those rewards often came not from contributing real value, but simply for being the best at playing the game.
Now that game seems a distant memory. Can it really be such a short time ago that 25-year-old millionaires seemed important? That the Nasdaq hit 5,000? That a "new" economy was touted as a replacement for the old one? That real money and faux business opportunities flowed like water?
Everyone was headed for a future of endless wealth, at least until the bottom dropped out of the market. But even then we were merely in a reversal, waiting for things to return--if not to the glory days, at least to some semblance of the prosperity we'd known before.
While I am quite bullish on economic recovery in 2002, we will also remain a nation challenged in many ways. And you know what? The dollars don't mean so much anymore. At least not to those of us still lucky enough to have our jobs and careers intact.
SEPT. 11 WAS THE absolute conclusion of the roaring '90s. But it also provided immediate and dramatic examples of what really matters. As we leave an era of self-interest and greed, Sept. 11 reintroduced us to the people we might all strive to become.
I would be very surprised if any of the New York public safety workers--firefighters, police, and others--who died that day had ever seen a stock-option package. While there are probably a few firehouses with pool tables--or maybe not--I am quite certain none are equipped with the oxygen bars, espresso machines, and expensive office toys that came to symbolize Silicon Valley extravagance.
And what about those schoolteachers working near the World Trade Center? If these people are such idiots and union hacks--as the critics of public education would have us believe--why did they risk their own lives to protect the children that were entrusted to them that terrible morning?
Like you, I am aware that some New York police officers don't live up to the trust placed in them. But next time I'm there and I see a cop, I'm going to assume he or she is one of the ones willing to give his life to protect mine.
WHAT CAN BE SAID for the U.S. Army Special Forces officer who, when a misguided bomb went off near the man who has since become the new president of Afghanistan, threw his own body over the Afghani leader to protect him? And what about the three Green Berets who died in the accidental bombing?
Likewise for the Secret Service agents whose job it is--and they practice this--to catch the bullet before it can strike the President of the United States? Do you think any of these people spent the '90s dreaming of riches doled out by venture capitalists?
And have you thought about the ironworkers who helped build the World Trade Center and are now helping cart away what remains of the buildings that became a tomb for so many of their countrymen? Think they might be happier sitting in an expensive Herman Miller chair and pondering an ever-rising Nasdaq?
Can we ever do enough to honor the people whose last words were "Let's roll"--spoken over a wireless telephone on an airplane only moments before they confronted the terrorists, sealing their own fate but likely saving many others and national treasures we hold dear?
I could go on. There are all those who gave money, donated blood, left their jobs because National Reserve duty called, flew a flag, or went to church and prayed. They were ordinary people being their best selves in extraordinary times.
There are people who say all this will pass. And if that's what you believe, then it will probably be true for you. But just as I expect to carry the pain of Sept. 11 with me for a long time, I will also carry its lessons.
THE MOST IMPORTANT of these, at least to me, is that the people who matter most are often the ones we take for granted most. Also, I learned that in a pinch, many people will act heroically and throw aside self-interest for the common good.
That commitment to community and to others, more than business, more than technology, more than anything, is what both makes us great and carries us through times of incredible sadness.
After a tragedy, we all come out on the other side a little better, a little more connected to each other, to our families, our friends, even our country and those who serve it, than we started. For me, Sept. 11 pushed aside many things I thought mattered and replaced them with things--and people--that do matter.
What lessons did you learn from the hardships and tragedies of 2001? How do you think the year will be remembered? TalkBack to me.