September 11, 2001: Like many people, I can remember exactly where I was that morning.
I was sitting on a plane at Dulles Airport waiting for a mechanical issue to be resolved so we could take off and fly to NYC. I remember hearing about the first plane that struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. It was a fast-spreading rumor, most of us thinking it was a small plane and pilot error, incapable of believing that a commercial flight with a professional pilot could make that mistake. Even as it circulated that it was a commercial passenger plane, we still just assumed it was a terrible accident. We searched for explanations that fit within our naive understanding of the world.
Then the flight attendants told us to move to a different plane at a gate next door. He instantly had hope of taking off within the hour. We all got our things and walked up one jetway and down the other, getting seated so we could finally take off. Then the entire flight was cancelled for a nearly inconceivable reason.
A second plane had just hit the South Tower.
In that instant, everything changed.
The confusion disappeared. So did the comforting belief that this was an accident. We collectively realized we were suffering something intentional. Someone had chosen destruction. Multiple someones had decided that fear, chaos, and death would be their contribution to our future.
I still remember almost every detail from that day. The eerie silence when leaving the airport and no planes were flying. Then watching all of the footage on the news. I was stuck with no work and not wanting to be consumed by it, so I went to the gym. Ironically, there all the treadmills around the room had TVs, and they were all playing the news with the horrific footage of the second collision, the towers burning, the towers falling, the fortunate people who weren’t at ground zero running to avoid the rushing debris and billowing smoke.
I remember the feelings, the silence, the total disbelief.
Realization set in that the world had changed in right front of our eyes. And here in D.C., we heard about the plane hitting the Pentagon. Dread surrounded us that there could be more happening all over the country.
And I remember understanding, perhaps for the first time, that there are people and organizations in this world who are willing to destroy what others have spent decades or even centuries building.
Twenty-five years later, that lesson still resonates.
Not because I focus on those who seek destruction.
Quite the opposite.
I think about the people who choose creation, innovation, and caring for others.
History is full of individuals and organizations driven by fear, anger, division, and greed. They exist in every generation. They always have. They always will.
But history is ultimately shaped by something stronger.
The builders.
The innovators.
The problem-solvers.
The people who wake up every day asking not, “What can I take?” but “What can I create?”
These are the people developing life-saving medical treatments.
They are advancing clean energy.
They are creating technologies that connect and empower people.
They are designing better businesses, better communities, and better ways of living together.
They are building what’s next for humanity.
The lesson I carry from September 11 isn’t just that there are people with bad ideas who want to destroy our future.
We already know that.
The more important lesson is that a better future doesn’t happen automatically.
It must be built intentionally.
Every generation inherits a world shaped by the choices of those who came before. The future isn’t something we discover. It’s something we create.
That belief is one of the reasons I created Futuremakers.
Futuremakers exists to serve leaders who are building something that matters. Leaders who look beyond quarterly results and ask how their work can improve lives, strengthen communities, advance knowledge, and create lasting value.
I am inspired by entrepreneurs, CEOs, innovators, and change-makers who see possibilities where others see obstacles.
The people who recognize that intelligence, creativity, science, technology, and human ingenuity are among the most powerful forces for good the world has ever known.
I love the people who refuse to let cynicism have the final word.
On this anniversary, we remember those who were lost. We honor the courage shown that day by first responders, families, and ordinary citizens.
And we recommit ourselves to a simple but profound idea:
The future will always face forces that seek to diminish it.
Our responsibility is to build it anyway: one innovation, one breakthrough, one company, one act of leadership at a time.
Because the most powerful response to destruction has always been creation.
And the most meaningful way to honor the future is to help build one worth inheriting.
This article was first published in my LinkedIn newsletter, Feeding the Flame. Read the original.