Studying and emulating the lives of great people is a useful practice with a long history, but our culture tends to endorse celebrities, self-help gurus, and politicians.
While such celebrities did not do much during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many “ordinary” people found the strength to act with incredible courage and determination.
Story Rick Rescorla The work offers a particularly poignant lesson for our times: the triumph of personal know-how, experience, and common sense over bureaucratic “expertise.”
The British-born Rescorla used songs to calm his soldiers when he was a platoon leader in the Vietnam War, and he used the same tactic years later while helping evacuate the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Twenty-three years later, it's clear how woefully unprepared our leaders were for 9/11. Rescorla, on the other hand, was prepared.
Even before he became head of corporate security at Morgan Stanley, he was warning anyone who would listen that the Twin Towers were vulnerable to attack. When American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower, the Port Authority ordered Mr. Rescorla to keep everyone at their desks.
Given his somewhat familiar view of the unfolding crisis, his response was understandably blunt: “Fuck off.” The evacuation plan, which he had forced all his employees to rehearse through countless surprise drills, went smoothly. His defiant attitude saved some 2,700 lives.
After leading his Morgan Stanley men to safety, Rescorla returned to the building looking for more people to help, and was last seen on the 10th floor. He never shied away from publicly touting his wartime heroism, for which he was awarded a Silver Star and a Purple Heart. “The real heroes are dead,” he would say. When the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m., Rescorla joined the others.
