Peggy Noonan: 'Lessons From the Recovery of 2001'

By: Ray Pellecchia

File Under: NYSE

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If you work on Wall Street or used to -- and by Wall Street I mean the financial-services industry, not just the literal place -- you must read the op-ed article by Peggy Noonan in today's Wall Street Journal, "Lessons From the Recovery of 2001; Not so long ago, there were heroes on Wall Street."

The article begins by placing a task squarely on Wall Street's shoulders rescuing and restoring the Street's reputation.

This will, in fact, be the great work of a generation of American business leaders.

More is at stake than their standing. At stake is the standing of a free-market system that has flourished since America's founding and made it the wealthiest nation in the history of man.

Ms. Noonan writes of the higher, larger purposes of capitalism: to "lift the greatest numbers out of poverty;" to bring "more services, more creativity, more opportunity, more ferment and movement—more life." To pursue this work requires a moral, ethical foundation, out of which positive actions flow, she says:

Noble. Constructive. Admirable.

When was the last time anyone thought of Wall Street like that?

There was a moment, a very public one well within memory, that was all of those things. And it might help the coming generation of business leaders to keep its lessons in mind.

Ms. Noonan recalls, through the words of my colleagues who were there, the dark day of 9/11, and how in the tremendously difficult days that followed, people worked together as never before so that the financial markets could resume operation and again take their place as not just financial engines but highly visible symbols of economic freedom and opportunity.

I wouldn't count those who worked around me as heroes, though the work was indeed daunting. The real heroes were the firefighters and police officers who ran into the World Trade Center when everyone was running out; and countless others who put their lives on the line to save the lives of others. But in the days that followed, their heroism resonated and inspired others. Was there a sense of higher purpose among my colleagues -- that they absolutely had to figure out a way to patch it together and get it going? Yes. That suddenly, ringing the Opening Bell seemed like a matter of national interest and global importance? Absolutely, it felt just like that.

But after that triumphant moment, it all went astray: a bubble burst, followed by a trail of bonuses, bailouts and bankruptcies, leaving each of us today with an important decision on which path to take forward, Ms. Noonan suggests:

In the years after 2001, they took care of themselves. But that bright shining week, Sept. 11 through 17, they took care of tradition, the exchange and their country.

So maybe wisdom begins there for them, and for those entering and living out lives in business in America: Look only to yourself and wind up with ashes. Know it's bigger than you and wind up a hero.