COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP
Chapter One
The Stakes
of Leadership
Ten days after the attacks on the World Trade Center
Towers, I stood in the rubble at Ground Zero, overwhelmed by the
aftermath of one of the most horrific events in history.
On that world-changing morning of September 11, 2001,
Manhattan, New York, became a war zone. The terrorists took no
prisoners, held no hostages. Death was the only option they offered,
so three thousand ordinary people died that day, most without an
opportunity for a final embrace or even a last good-bye.
The New York City officials who invited me to tour Ground
Zero led me past the check points and into "The Pit," the area
immediately surrounding the fallen towers. In the grim shadows of
the huge cranes that slowly shifted scraps of twisted metal, rescue
workers dug through the rubble, and bucket brigades passed pails
of debris from hand to hand. The workers moved silently, listening,
I knew, for the sounds-any sounds-of survivors.
Those ninety minutes will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Words cannot convey, nor televi ... read full excerpt from: Courageous Leadership ebook
