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In today’s edition, Joe shares:
- What Joe saw from his office window on 9/11
- The breakfast reservation that saved his life
- Why the answer to unimaginable loss was never a speech
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WHAT I SAW FROM 40 WALL STREET
25 years ago I was on a routine conference call at my office at 40 Wall Street. Just an average start to another work day.
That morning I had planned to meet my girlfriend of four weeks, now my wife, for breakfast at Windows on the World, the restaurant on the top two floors of the North Tower. We decided to back out. She caught a flight home to Boston instead.
At 8:46 am, I watched American Airlines Flight 11 slam into the northern facade of the North Tower from my window. Seventeen minutes later, United Flight 175 hit the South Tower. A block away from my chair.
What many people don't know is that some of the photos seen on magazine covers in the days that followed came from our office. We had hired a photographer that day for a website project. Suddenly, he was capturing history.
After the planes hit, my co-workers and I ran to street level to see if we could help. The police and firemen wouldn't let us close. Their training had prepared them for that moment. Their bravery has been well documented. So we walked home through the chaos, the sky darkened by smoke, ash falling like snowflakes, an eerie quiet settling over Manhattan.
UNLIMITED TUESDAYS
Seneca wrote: "Everything is borrowed. Only time is truly ours." The people in those towers had no idea Tuesday was the last one. Most of us live like we have unlimited Tuesdays. Like the calendar will always reset. Like there is always more time to become who we said we would become.
The day before 9/11, I had just returned from a 400-mile race from St. Moritz to the Matterhorn. During that race, one of the competitors had died. It brought home in a very personal way the importance of living the life you want. Then I watched the towers fall. Two reminders in two days that time is not infinite.
THE ANSWER WASN'T A SPEECH
Twenty-three centuries before that Tuesday, a king named Philip threatened to burn Sparta to the ground unless it surrendered. Sparta sent back one word. "If." No negotiation. No plea. Just a flat refusal to accept the premise, and then they went back to living exactly as they had.
I didn't have a one-word answer on 9/11. But I asked myself the same question underneath it: if it ended for me that day, would I be happy with how I lived my life?
I didn't have a clear answer. So I made up my mind to never complain about anything, ever again. I committed to doing hard things, pushing myself physically and mentally each day. I left Wall Street. I left Manhattan. I built my family, then my career, then Spartan.
THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT
I'm writing this from New York. I flew in last night for the 25th anniversary of 9/11. This time is different.
Last night I spent the evening with the women of AllTru. If you've seen "Lioness," that's the world, except this one's real.
The U.S. has a group of women who serve in its most elite Special Forces units. Badass doesn't begin to cover it.
I got to sit with women who spent the years after 9/11 traveling the world doing the quiet, unglamorous work. Finding answers. Finishing jobs nobody else could.
I'm filled with deep gratitude for the first responders who ran toward the towers that morning, and for the women I sat with last night who spent the twenty-five years since making sure it never happened again. I'm committed to using Spartan's platform to help as many of them as possible stay ready, because the truth is, we never know when we'll need what we've built.
I'm still not sure I've done enough. The verdict on Joe De Sena is not yet final.
Here's to The Hard Way.
Joe |
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HONEST QUESTION
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YOU DON'T NEED A ONE-WORD ANSWER TO A CATASTROPHE. YOU NEED ONE HONEST QUESTION: IF IT ENDED TODAY, WOULD YOU BE HAPPY WITH HOW YOU LIVED? IF NOT, START TODAY.
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| They Said It |
| “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think." |
| – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.11 |
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| ➝The Hard Way Podcast with Joe |
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| THE HARDWAY PODCAST |
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| He beat a 23-year-old Everest record by over an hour. Tyler Andrews on the training, the setbacks, and the decade of unglamorous consistency that got him to the top faster than anyone in history |
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