Leadership Viewpoint

As I sat with friends last evening, we reflected on the challenging times that we had each faced. Aside from my spouse’s death, which impact can never be equaled, I told of the difficult times the business faced post 9/11. The nation’s eyes were on retrenching then, not growth, and like many small and medium size businesses, our clientele pulled back. As we all reeled from the emotional trauma of the attack, businesses throughout the NYC extended metropolitan area were also faced with cancellations of orders and plans. Not only did we lose a substantial piece of business that we performed for a few clients in the World Trade Center’s extensive training center, but people needed time to heal, to feel secure again, and it took far more time in this part of the US than it did elsewhere. Our business was down dramatically for about a year after the attacks. So what did we do?

First, I remember agreeing to let each client cancel without penalty. It hurt us, but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Besides, we too needed time to heal. We are expected to be upbeat and positive, which is typically our normal state of being. We were devastated emotionally, and none of us are phony enough to pretend we’re upbeat after such a major shock. Then we did quite a few volunteer jobs, speaking to groups and helping out wherever we could. These led to a number of small programs for little companies that provided modest ‘survival’ income for several months. In our business, like many others, we have no guaranteed income.

We kept ourselves out in the business community, and kept holding to our values and beliefs. We continued to help out people and businesses that were in trouble, keeping our eye on doing the right thing. Hearing about us and our efforts, a large pharmaceutical company called and asked us to custom design a major program for them. That commenced about 14 months after the attack and got us completely back up on our feet. With time, our clientele all returned to normal operating levels.

There were times when we were each tempted to do something for quick easy money. We may have been able to gouge somebody or oversell more than a client really needed. We chose instead to scrape by with meager incomes, incur debt for a year and invest in our skills and character. I was never as proud of my team as I was that year, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for standing together.

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