Hero of 9/11
When American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., the Port Authority initially advised people in the South Tower to stay put. Rick, Morgan Stanley’s Vice President of Corporate Security, ignored this directive.[1] He immediately grabbed a bullhorn and systematically guided the corporation’s employees out of the 44th to 74th floors.[2] Eventually, leading 2,700 people safely out of the South Tower. Because of this effort, he is remembered as a hero.
Rick started his career at the World Trade Center in 1985, leaving his position as a criminal justice educator and author for a higher-paying position with Morgan Stanley in downtown New York City. He was undoubtedly qualified for the position after a distinguished military career, serving both in the British and United States military. After the 1988 bombing of the Pan AM Flight 103, the potential of a terror attack against the World Trade Center had become a genuine concern for Rick. This concern was so intense that he trained for and relentlessly rehearsed an evacuation plan. But even with all his experience and disciplined training, he did not train specifically for a terrorist flying a commercial airliner into the towers.
What caused Rick to choose a different path that fateful morning? The “easy” decision would have been to follow the direction given by the Port Authority, which oversaw the response that morning. Don’t forget that following directions in a crisis was something Rick was accustomed to after serving eleven years in the military. Yet, he responded opposite to what he had been told. He grabbed a bullhorn and took matters into his own hands. In doing so He made the right call and acted confidently in a complex reality that neither he nor others in his position had ever faced. Ironically, the ability to engage head-on with difficult situations is not an intrinsic trait Rick was born with. Instead, this ability to remain calm in difficult situations is a trained characteristic that permeates the culture of first responders.[3]
During the coursework for my graduate degree, I was introduced to first responders’ disproportional ability to make the “correct” decision while navigating a unique crisis. (Oddly enough, it was a class on leadership.) Rick’s and other first responders’ abilities may seem to be statistical anomalies until you look at one key thing: their training. Two pieces within their training make this anomaly not only possible but reproducible.[4]
- Identify intimidating situations
- Train to produce muscle memory
This same desire for the ability to make more correct decisions versus incorrect ones seems to be at the core of mankind. Though making wrong decisions may happen more than anyone would like, no one enjoys the feelings or results of being wrong.[5] Leaders are no exception. They desire the same results as the first responders do: to make correct decisions (or at least more correct decisions than incorrect). This ability is not innate in leaders, according to Eve Poole, author of Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership. She asserts that “…leaders are made, not born.”[6] Assuming this is true, which I have no reason to believe it’s not, it would suggest that something else is necessary for anyone and everyone desiring to become a better leader. In the book Leadersmithing, that “something” is the creation of a template, which is accomplished by a developing leader who repeatedly exposes themselves to difficult mini-situations in controlled settings and allows their amygdala to learn a route that helps ensure success.[7] This is precisely what Rick had done for years. He identified an intimidating situation in the form of a terror attack and began an almost two-decade-long process of creating a template through muscle memory. He regularly thought through the chaos that an attack would have and, in doing so, laid the foundation for his amygdala to take over in stressful events.[8]
We all face stressful events and, in doing so, are forced to decide how we will interact with them. Will I confront the injustice? Will I stand up for the innocent? Will I do what is morally and ethically right in the face of chaos, stress, and fear? Those items seem so big and complex that often I don’t think I have what it would take. But I am reminded in this book that I am an apprentice with the opportunity to choose to become better. I don’t have to have all the answers, all the solutions, and all the experience. Today, I just need to be a better leader than I was yesterday.[9]
[1] Rick’s birth name was Cyril Richard Rescorla. He had changed his name to Rick shortly after arriving in the United States in the early 1960s.
[2] OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com
[3] Amanda Ripley, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why (Harmony/Rodale, 2009).
[4] Ripley.
[5] Kathryn Schulz, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error (Harper Collins, 2010).
[6] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017). 2.
[7] Poole. 14.
[8] Leadersmithing | Eve Poole | TEDxDurhamUniversity – YouTube, accessed February 14, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73L1613KDnw. 10:05.
[9] Poole, Leadersmithing. 181.
About the Author
Darren Banek
4 responses to “Hero of 9/11”
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Thanks for your post, Darren –
Your story about Rick and how you process Leadersmithing is a great reminder that today’s stresses can be foundational for tomorrow’s successes. What have you found are the biggest roadblocks to remaining pliable and teachable in the midst of today’s stresses and anxieties? How have you seen others successful overcome those barriers?
Jeremiah, Great question, as usual. I think that there is a step prior to remaining pliable and teachable. Can I suggest that self-awareness and self-evaluation live in the space prior? For me, my teachability has been inconsequential if I don’t prioritize White Space in my life for the reflection of where I am at and who I am. If I am truly honest in that it will lay the groundwork for humility and then for pliability and teachability.
Thanks, Darren. I wasn’t aware of that story of courageous leadership from Rick, Morgan Stanley’s Vice President of Corporate Security. I wonder how he felt and if he imagined being responsible for the death of all his staff or if he imagined the story that is written today or both? I find it very helpful.
I also appreciate your closing words from Poole that, ‘Today, I just need to be a better leader than I was yesterday.’ That is so true. I wonder how we can measure that? I shall ponder on that sentence. Thanks!
I believe some people are born with a propensity towards leadership and innate wiring to do so, but a good leader only comes from continually growing in and practicing better ways. This whole discussion makes me wonder about how one’s self efficacy propels people to succeed in leadership. I work with a people group that have very little self efficacy, which I attribute to the low self esteem and lack of opportunity people in socio-economic disparities often experience. Because they believe they do not have in them the ability to become better or know another way, they never come into better lives. We often hear the stories of the underdog who grew up in rough circumstance who overcomes all odds and becomes the hero leader. These are inspiring stories because it is such a unique thing to happen. For every one of these examples there are probably 100,000 others who never become this. I write all this to say that people can become leaders in the hardest situation if someone else believes in and invests in them until they come to have strong self efficacy. Leaders can make more leaders by believing in others and having them come to believe in themselves. We can help polish the diamonds in the rough.