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Rick Rescorla was the director of security for Morgan Stanley. His preparation and relentless drilling of evacuation techniques (due to his strong suspicion that the WTC was a target for terrorism since 1988) resulted in nearly all of MS’ employees being successfully evacuated. When AA11 struck WTC1, the port authority made announcements urging people to stay at their desks. Rick ignored the announcement, got on his bullhorn and began the process of evacuating MS’ 2700 employees. In a call to his best friend Dan Hill, he relayed, “The dumb sons of bitches told me not to evacuate. They said it's just Building One. I told them I'm getting my people the fuck out of here." During his tour of duty in Vietnam, Rescorla had boosted morale among his men by singing Cornish songs from his youth. He did the same in the stairwells of the world trade center, directing people down stairwells and away from elevators while singing: “Men of Cornwall stand ye steady; It cannot be ever said ye for the battle were not ready; Stand and never yield!” Between songs, after successfully evacuating almost all of the 2700 employees, he called his wife Susan and told her, “Stop crying. I have to get these people out safely. If something should happen to me, I want you to know I've never been happier. You made my life.” Susan replied, "You made my life, too”. Despite successfully evacuating everyone, Rescorla then went back into the building to continue getting everyone out. When the message came through on his walkie-talkie that he, too, had to evacuate he said, simply, “As soon as I make sure everyone else is out.” Rick was last seen heading up the stairs of the South Tower on the 10th floor, shortly before the collapse. Just 13 of Morgan Stanley’s 2700 employees at WTC perished on 9/11 - Including Rick and his deputies Wesley Mercer, Jorge Velazquez and Godwin Forde who all went back into the building to help anyone who needed it. We don’t all need to be heroes, defying death with Cornish battle songs and saving thousands of innocent people. But if we could all internalize just a small portion of the sense of duty, preparedness and selflessness that Rick possessed, the world would be a much better place. I share this story on each anniversary with the hopes it gets us just a little bit closer to that.