Rally

It was a beautiful Sunday morning at 7:59 AM. Partly cloudy skies, a soft breeze and cool temps as is usual in December. All was well in the beautiful paradise that is Hawaii. The seas were calm and the sailors were already hard at work cleaning their ships – a process that never seemed to end.

Then as one, they heard the sound. As the clock flipped to 8:00 AM the sailors heard what first sounded like a mosquito, then it got louder. In lockstep thousands realized what was happening. Pearl Harbor was under attack. Immediately, terror broke out as the battle ensued. 

The next day, December 7th, 1942, President Roosevelt addressed a nation in panic. The people of the day were absolutely terrified and the economy locked up. It’s hard to understand how terrible things were in the days after the attack – now 79 years later. But make no mistake, every man, woman and child was suddenly thrown into an emotional shock like never before in their lives.

But here’s the thing: they pulled together as a people. Only 6 months later, The Battle of Midway occurred June 4-7, 1942. The battle is profiled in the 2019 major motion picture Midway directed by Roland Emmerich. Military historian John Keegan called this United States win “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare. The win was clearly a tipping point of the war.” The citizens of the US were suddenly jubilant.

As you might imagine, our nation back then was having many conversations similar to the current day in light of the Covid-19 crisis, except there was no Twitter and information was a lot harder to come by.

There are two points to the story I just shared with you. First our battle of Midway is being fought in current day before our very eyes. Health professionals, police and firefighters are on the front lines each and every day. Scientists are the generals and strategists working hard to defeat our common enemy. Sadly, we are losing some good people in the fight.  But know that we will RALLY as a nation – America is strong and has amazing history of resiliency. In fact, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel in this Covid battle right now.

Secondly, we have to defend our own flank here in 2020. What does that look like for a corporate real estate professional? It means we have to protect our corporate brand and help as many people as we can. Right now, profit is second to the best service delivery of your life.

What is the issue with the brand, you say? There are those at other companies who are being predatory and taking advantage of this crisis. They are leading with fear and false promises. This is a terrible disservice to occupiers who are in great need.

As my friend Johnny Boyle said recently, people will remember how we treat them long after this crisis is over.

Let’s hold our head high and act with integrity. Client first, and act like a Boy Scout…trustworthy, loyal and helpful.

This crisis of 2020 is the battle of our professional lives. Our clock flipped from 7:59 to 8:00 and we were all shocked. But we are going to have a huge victory by investing in people by doing the right thing (whatever that is) now. Scout’s honor.