Getting Fired Can Save your Life

Getting Fired Can Save your Life

A couple of months ago, while attending the DLD12 party in Munich I ran into Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald Securities. He was greeted with a bear hug from me.

From 1993 to 1996 I worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, whose offices were at One World Trade Center.

It was Howard's decision to fire me in July 1996 that changed my life's direction and saved my life.

Cantor Fitzgerald Securities lost 700+ people on 9/11. And I had the kind of job that would have had me at my desk at the time Tower 1 was hit on 9/11.

I enjoyed listening to Howard tell my friend Yossi Matias tell the story of how my appearance in a May, 1996 Sunday New York Times story about Internet Telephony lead to my firing. It felt great hearing Howard feel proud about the work I did after I left his company.

And when Howard was done telling his story, I came up to him and told him, "Thank you for saving my life."