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We’re Here

March 24, 2020 Uncategorized 0 Comments

Alrighty, so I’m going to be completely honest:  I’m not sure what a person is supposed to write about during a pandemic.

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The last couple of weeks have been weird.  When I’m not answering frantic phone calls, I’m having to work on our office’s systems for remote operations.  More emotionally taxing, I’ve been working on what I call the ‘Cantor Fitzgerald Contingencies’: i.e. the plans for how to continue providing uninterrupted service in the event that much of the workforce is incapacitated.

When your management efforts shift from studying motivational strategies to studying 9/11’s playbooks, it’s a sobering wakeup call.

Nothing prepares you for that.

I’ve spent my life analyzing trouble spots where things can go wrong, and still, I wasn’t prepared for this.  Not emotionally.  It’s just…not what a person goes into this line of work to do.

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But here’s the thing: We’re here.

And we’ll continue to be here.

In good times, I joke that this is the worst bunch of people to have around:  Our neurotic risk managers and accountants live for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  I’ll go into other offices, and it seems like they’re filled with sunny, bubbly people who’ve never had a care in the world.  Here, I’m one of the sunny, bubbly ones.  Me. The person who drives a Volvo and thinks that studying engineering failures is a fun hobby.

Compared to the other company principals, I’m Pollyanna herself.

But this also means that in bad times, I’m surrounded by some of the greatest minds in the industry.

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We operate on the assumption that things are going to go wrong, and we understand that it’s our duty to fix that.

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Right now, only God Himself knows what tomorrow holds.  But we’re here to plan for as many of those contingencies are humanly possible, and to figure out how we can assist you through it, as well.

So whatever you need, we’re here.

If you need financing, we’re here.  If you need suggestions for minimizing COVID-19’s impacts on your operations, we’re here.  And if you just need some distraction, we’re here.  I’m here.

I’ll happily tell you jokes that I stole from a Laffy Taffy wrapper, or pretend to be a dinosaur with you, or read you some really dumb fanfiction that I wrote, or whatever else it takes to remind you that things will be alright.

Because they will be alright.

That’s what we’re here to make sure of.

 



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About the Author

Tipper Coker

Lawyer. Vice president of business development. Hopeless nerd who's read far too many AIA contracts.