Skip to main content

"The first casualty of the next great war"



"He was the first casualty of the next great war." were the words spoken by Charles Lewin at the funeral of his son Daniel Lewin. Daniel Lewin was on Flight 11, one of the planes that slammed into the World Trade Center on 9/11/01. Mr. Lewin, once a member of the Israeli Special Forces was killed by the terrorists.

FAA reports suggest that Mr. Lewin attempted to defend the take over of the plane by the terrorist hijackers. Had he been successful, the events of the 9/11 attack could have been very different.

One man, ironically trained in counter-terrorism by the Sayeret Matkal division of the Israeli Defence Force, gave his life fighting the terrorists. It is believed he was the first death of the 9/11 attack.

סיירת מטכ"ל is the motto of the Sayeret Matkal and means "Who Dares Wins". Mr. Lewin dared to take on roughly half a dozen armed attackers. He went out fighting.

Today I will remember the events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and how it has changed our lives, our country, our world. I will also read as much as I can about the life of Daniel Lewin. Thousands of lives were lost, all with their own stories. This year I will focus on one.

To learn more about Daniel Lewin see the below:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2006/sep/07/daniel-lewins-vision-lives-large-on-internet/

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/lewin.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_M._Lewin

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Patron Saint of Salespeople

St. Lucia or St. Lucy is the Patron Saint of salespeople. Her story?? She stood strong in her faith and was persecuted because of it. She was hooked to a team of oxen, but could not be moved. She stood strong in her beliefs. Then she had her eyes cut out and was stabbed in the throat. Nice metaphor. In October, I missed my 'quota' for the first time this year. My 2010 personal goals allowed for this (plus one actually), but I was attempting to pitch the sales equivalent of a no-hitter. I missed. Even though I am still at roughly 150% YTD Even though I am guaranteed to go to President's Club (they've already listed it under 'taxable gift' on my last paystub). Even though I will almost assuredly be in the Top 10 nationwide..... Even though I have not been dragged away by a team of oxen, I still feel my eyes on a plate. But, I'm the one doing the gouging. There is no one as critical of me as me. Self-flagellation....works well with the Patron Saint/Catholic mot...
Post a Comment
Read more

Telecommoditization: Part 2 / Fungibility

Fungibility is a fun word. I look forward to beating several CIOs and IT Directors over the head with it. Fungibility seems to be the defining word for what makes a commodity. The nut-shell definition for fungibility is "the same regardless of who creates it." Every telecom provider has a multitude of differences, therefore they are not fungible. Since most people tend to LOVE to talk about the negative, let's focus there. Ask any IT professional about their telecom provider. They will generally grumble and whine (typically these people hate their lives) and tell you about EVERYTHING that is wrong with their telecom providers. Each story will have different issues and problems. Each will show the weaknesses of a given provider. Logically this shows that we (telco's) are all different and not fungible. Also if each provider has different weaknesses, we must have strengths. There is an old telecom mantra "Everybody sucks, we suck less." In future blogs I will...
3 comments
Read more

Say it succinctly

I saw a play today. It was based on a movie that had, as one of it's primary characters, a very famous person. Fans of the movie will love the play. Many critics will have a field day with this play. It, for me, wasn't great. I took my mom to see it, and we had a nice bit of brunch beforehand, so it had that as a positive. My primary issue? It was too long. Two and one-half hours. It was longer than the movie it was based on. It also had, at it's center, a somewhat outdated and highly repetitive theme. It took two hours to repeat the same concepts a movie had made, much more enjoyably, two decades earlier. 'Les Miz' gets a much larger point across, in less time. So...how does this translate to my 'somewhat-business related blog?" Be Succinct. We strive daily to make our points. We inform, persuade, and influence our clients by making a point. We also (and I can be one of the worst) tend to prattle on. We like to hear ourselves talk. Let's work on that. ...
2 comments
Read more