You live long enough and along the way life leaves you with many markers and guide stones of your so brief path through. These are the things that stick out as an index point when you take a general look back. As a kid from New Jersey these buildings represented confident success. My lighthouse when I could see absolutely nothing ahead. When times were really tuff and there was no more down for me, this was up, it seemed to be half way up to the stars I so wanted to reach for. It was a symbol to me of some achievement, not clear how with not even a penny was in my pocket and no home to live in as a kid in High School. This lighthouse helped me organize the world in to two paths I can choose: be a builder or a destroyer. I choose builder. A few years later this is the building I came to when I lifted myself out of that place. I walked out of my local bank after I deposited the first, substantially large check from a business I started from the back of my car: making computers I could not even dream to afford—run faster. I went to the Windows on The World restaurant and had dinner with the closest friends and looked out of those windows with awe on what we humans can build when we set our minds to it. This moment helped cement my determination, seeing where I came from, that nothing was impossible. And I spent my life studying that. Theses strong buildings are gone now and so are so many lives they intertwined with. We all have lost so much along the way, no matter how old or young you are, we have all lost by the determined hands of those that would rather destroy than to build. Each year since these buildings were taken down, life for everyone has by every historic measurement became much more complicated, even if you were not yet born. It is no illusionary assumption—life is immutably more complicated at this moment than the day before these buildings were taken. They are gone but the symbol of what these buildings represented to me is forever a part of me. It is my prayer that we humans can start reaching to every decision with the ultimate first principle axiom: Will I be a builder or a destroyer in this? The dust really never settles in one’s life. Tragedy will always be upon us. Find a lighthouse, in the best and the worse of moments… choose to be a builder.