Byte: Lyubim Kogan - Keeping A Promise Saves A Life

Lyubim Kogan tells an astonishing story of being in the right place at the right time...but ALSO, that he had to follow up on a promise that he had made earlier, even though he was very tired. His choice, to rally and go to dinner, in this case, meant saving someone's life.

Transcript

Hello,

Friends,

And welcome back to another episode of the podcast.

Yes,

It is hotter than Hades here in Santa Fe,

New Mexico.

So I'm hoping wherever you are,

You have access to a lake,

To a swimming pool,

Somewhere cool,

Where you can just get out of the heat and chill out a little bit.

I just want you to know that I am sacrificing myself right now and sitting in my car in 100 degree heat because I love you guys very much and I love producing this podcast.

And so here we go.

Here's another incredible guest for you this week.

And to be honest,

You know,

Besides for just being an Olympic athlete,

Which would be one thing,

He's also changing the world.

And I think my guest is kind of an example of someone who sees the need or is in the right place at the right time and then takes an action that literally saves lives.

I'm going to have him describe what he does and how he is in the world.

But suffice it to say that this was a longer interview.

I mean,

I could have really literally talked to my guest,

Whose name,

By the way,

Is Lubim Kogan,

For a very long time.

You know,

He's doing the groovy work of helping others,

Which is,

You know,

Always been a passion of mine.

I love meeting people who are changing the world for others.

But he's also just this incredible grace filled presence.

And he's funny and he's smart and he doesn't take no for an answer.

And frankly,

You know,

He was telling me this miracle story.

And then,

Oh,

By the way,

This miracle story.

And I just thought,

OK,

I'm just going to go with the flow because clearly I'm in the presence of a force of nature.

I'm going to have him tell you all about himself.

And then after the credits,

There's going to be a little bit of an extended Easter egg for those of you who are interested.

Yeah.

The whole conversation from soup to nuts was pure beauty.

And so let's get going.

Here's my interview with Lubim Kogan.

You know,

I think that day I put on more than 300 miles of driving around and I was really exhausted.

And I said,

You know,

I really I promised them that I will take them out.

And this is one day I have to go.

So I forced myself.

It's like super cold.

I'm driving.

We go out,

We have dinner and we're driving back.

And my my corner of my eye sees a kid outside.

Since you mentioned that,

I think it's appropriate to start with 9-11.

My father raised me.

He had the saying,

Punctuality is the privilege of the kings.

In other words,

You have to be on time.

And when somebody drills it into your head since you're a little baby,

Then that's what and who you become.

I don't remember being late in my entire life.

I remember seeing my bus and I would run after my bus.

And if I don't catch at this stop,

I would catch it at the next one.

And that day,

Well,

The day before I met with my friend,

We studied together for CPA for the CPA exam.

And that's an eight month process where you go every weekend.

And he worked for Merrill Lynch right across from me.

I was in the World Trade Center and he was in the World Financial Center.

And I was waiting for him for a really long time.

And his boss kept him for some reason.

It just went on for really late.

We met already really late.

By the time we caught up and we finished,

It was almost morning time and we slept through.

But I decided I'm going to work because I had a lot of things to do.

He said,

I'm just going to call the day off.

I'm not going to work.

So he stayed at home.

It was a Monday that we met.

And then Tuesday,

I think it was the mayoral election in New York City.

And I went.

This is how convenient everything was in New York.

From the Bronx,

Which is up north,

You could take a train for one hour,

The A train.

You can switch the train and then you can take a train underneath the World Trade Center.

So the stop is World Trade Center.

Then you take an escalator to an elevator,

An elevator to another escalator,

To another elevator.

And then I'm up on the 83rd floor.

So technically,

You can travel from the very north or the very south of the city and be in your office at the top of the world and never go out.

But that day,

I decided I'm going to go out and I'm going to get some coffee.

And I walked out and I saw everybody standing like this.

And lots of sirens and everything.

It was just that our building was the North Tower.

It's the one that got hit first.

And I look up and I see this light smoke coming.

And I was like,

I was way up in somewhere in our because we were in the upper portion of the building.

I thought that something burned overnight.

And then I crossed the street and the second plane hit the South Tower.

And that's when,

You know,

Everything shook,

All the ground.

And people started running away.

You know,

People are running away.

Police and firemen running against the crowd into the building.

And I thought that it was a successful terrorist attack in terms of before that.

They drove vans into the South Tower,

But they couldn't detonate them.

And I thought that this time they were successful because I couldn't see the plane.

It was on the north side and it flew from the south.

And I thought,

You know,

I went to the New York University.

And New York University at that time was the second largest property holder after the Catholic Church in Manhattan.

And if you look at the undergraduate Stern School of Business,

They're building maybe like 10 stories.

But all of those stories,

There were no classrooms there.

It was research and professors.

All the classrooms were down below.

You go levels into the basement,

Like underground.

And I was like,

Oh,

Cool.

We have pay phones.

We have vending machines.

We have security.

And oh,

By the way,

We're in the bunker.

So I'm walking north towards my school.

And on the way,

I found out about what happened.

And the following days,

I love the mountains,

You know.

I came to New York to go to NYU.

And I wanted to work in the World Trade Center.

But I'm done with school.

And,

You know,

The buildings are gone.

So I decided I'm going to go and find a home somewhere else.

And that's where the miracle thing started happening everywhere.

So,

First of all,

I went to Colorado and I got an offer to work in California.

But in California,

If you're working in the trading,

You know,

The market opens at New York time,

Not L.

A.

Time.

So in L.

A.

,

It's three hours earlier.

So you have to get up in the middle of the night.

You have the commute.

You have a very different,

Relaxed culture,

Where in New York,

It's like really strict.

And I didn't really,

It didn't work for me.

So then I moved back to Colorado.

And then I got an offer from a company in Texas.

But because my place of work was destroyed in an act of terror,

I was classified as a displaced person.

And American Red Cross sent me a check for $15,

000.

Oh,

My God.

And that was the first one,

Just like,

You know,

It's money that you don't have,

But you need to survive somehow.

And it came out of nowhere.

And later on,

I don't remember what year it was,

But I was already running my business.

And it just so happened that the situation was just so difficult that I didn't know how I'm going to make it work.

Basically,

You grow and expand,

And you grow and expand.

And if there's a change in cash flow when you're spending everything that you make into reinvesting in your business,

You hit a bump on the road,

And you have an issue.

I mean,

You can grow slower and put cash reserves,

Or you can go all in.

My style was go all in.

And I remember that day.

It was a Memorial Day weekend.

And I'm standing.

I don't know if you ever had that experience when you think that you're finished.

You know,

You're done.

You're out of business.

I'm standing outside of Denver,

And everything is spinning around me.

I see the buses floating,

And people are running somewhere.

But it's a surreal experience because everything in me knows that the numbers are not working out.

And it's a Memorial Day weekend.

And I had some obligations to see people.

And I cannot even look in the face of family members because my business is going to fall apart.

And then something inside me says,

Go check the mail.

And I go,

Check the mail.

I open my mailbox.

I take out the mail.

And I look at this,

And this says,

Return address Texas.

I was like,

Who would send me a mail from Texas?

And I open the envelope,

And I take out there is a letter inside.

And there is a check for $5,

000.

And I'm reading this letter,

And it says,

Hey,

Lubim,

I know you're going through a difficult time.

Here is the check.

I don't need a promissory note.

Whenever things work out,

Just mail it back to me.

Foy.

Foy was the father of my clients.

He was a very successful businessman.

He wasn't even my client.

He was the father of my clients.

His son and daughter-in-law were my clients for years,

And I was taking care of them.

And I was just talking in the conversation.

I mentioned something.

And the guy came from he was an orphan.

You know,

He was in an orphanage.

And he picked it up.

He was just so zeroed in.

He knew that I'm a hardworking guy.

And,

You know,

I never – I led my clients.

I had a registered investment advisory firm,

2008,

2009.

None of them lost money.

And I always did the right thing.

You know,

I always did the right thing,

But it's just an outside event.

I just was facing this issue,

And I didn't know how it worked.

And that check just – I didn't even ask,

You know.

Wow.

I mean,

I just – I want to go back to the 9-11 experience and just clarify something.

So you would have been in the tower except that you wanted a cup of coffee.

Am I understanding that correctly?

Yeah,

Except that I was waiting for my friend.

We were supposed to meet,

And even though he finished his work really late,

I kept that promise.

You know,

I just met him because we haven't seen each other.

We started working,

And then years go by.

We graduated in 99.

It's 2001,

So two years.

We didn't really have a chance.

Just like you starting out,

You are at the disposal of the company that you work for.

And in New York,

They really take advantage of you.

You know,

You just have to put in the hours.

And it was the only time that we could meet.

Wow.

I just think about that cup of coffee and that meeting and how it kind of saved your life.

Yes.

Kept you safe.

And I can't imagine that day.

I can't imagine how surreal everything must have seemed,

How shocking.

Like you said,

You already knew about the previous attempt with the vans.

Yes.

I mean,

I remember reading about that in the news.

I remember reading about that.

But just to have it happen in front of you,

And it just.

.

.

Things like that,

I think,

For a while,

They just don't seem real.

It just doesn't.

.

.

And,

Again,

You were saying the smoke,

It looked up so high,

It just looked like a little bit of smoke.

But then,

I mean,

You started walking away with everyone else,

I assume.

I stood around for a little bit.

I watched,

Because the crowd ran away,

And then everybody stopped.

Because if you look at the footage,

When the plane flies from the south,

The smoke goes out,

The fireball goes out,

And it goes back in.

And then there is quiet.

There is nothing going on,

Because it was one impact.

I stood around.

I had nightmares,

Because paper and people fly differently.

That was really sad to see that.

For a long time,

I was saying,

Look,

If I was in that building,

I wouldn't jump.

Because if you jump,

It's 100% that you die.

I would have been waiting that somebody would come in and save me.

So the desperation that was inside is just unimaginable.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Do you ever look back at that day and consider or think that some greater force was at work that saved you?

Of course.

Of course.

And,

You know,

Not just me,

Because if you.

.

.

I don't know if people are putting their stories together,

But right after,

I've heard so many stories that.

.

.

Well,

The biggest story is Howard Lutnick.

He is right now in our government.

He was the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald.

It's the company that lost the most people.

I think they lost about 600 people.

On that day,

His son started school,

And he took his son to school.

So he wasn't at work.

And then he promised all the employees,

The families that survived,

That he's going to take care of them.

And he was taking care of them.

And he had to rehire people right after that.

And he did that.

But the guy who was the best man at my wedding,

He had big positions overnight.

And I thought he would be at work.

But his friend showed up in the new car that he just bought.

And he said,

Hey,

Man,

Let's drive into Manhattan in my new car.

Even though it's crazy traffic,

They drove.

They couldn't find parking.

When they found parking,

They were late.

Most people who I knew,

People were just late.

Kirsten,

It's not possible for so many people to be late on that one specific day.

And I'm 100% positive.

Losing 3,

000 people is really sad.

There's no words to express the feelings about what happened.

And if you think about the fact that 100,

000 people worked there plus,

You think about percentages,

It was already getting close to 9 o'clock.

Everybody's at work at 9 o'clock in New York City because work starts at 8.

30,

9 o'clock.

No,

9 o'clock is late.

Everybody's in.

So we had so many people that were late,

And everyone had their own reason,

Right?

They were all different reasons.

It had to be some divine interception to clear out the space,

You know,

To keep those people saying,

Look,

It's not your time.

You're going to be late.

This guy's going to show up in his new car.

You're going to be with your friend,

And on and on and on and on.

So I'm 100% positive that there was a divine intervention,

Even on a tragic day like that,

That the whole world still remembers.

We're almost 25 years later.

And a lot of people just were somewhere else,

You know?

Yeah,

I cannot believe it's been almost 25 years,

Frankly.

I think to myself,

Where has the time gone,

First of all?

But it was such an inception point in America's history and so horrifying.

I wanted to just remark that thank you for that answer.

And I think about,

You know,

You getting the $15,

000 when you needed it.

I think about you getting,

You know,

Opening the mail and getting $5,

000 from someone that saw the need.

You know,

You didn't say anything,

But he was keen enough.

He felt it.

Yeah,

Absolutely.

And,

You know,

Are you someone who believes in synchronicity?

How do you explain these events?

Lately,

I've been thinking a lot about promises that we make and break or keep.

I don't think people really think about the consequences of breaking a promise.

Like,

Let's say you and I make this time and one of us doesn't show up.

But the other person spent time preparing.

So they said,

No,

Somebody may have asked you for help.

And you said,

Look,

I have a podcast.

Somebody asked me to join.

You know,

I said,

We really need you to go and do something right now.

I said,

Look,

I have one more call.

I cannot do it.

I promise you I will be there tomorrow.

So people are getting used to breaking the promises that they make.

But if we all break promises,

Then our life will become practically impossible the way we live right now.

If you hire me and you promise to pay me on the 15th,

On the 1st and the 15th of every month,

And I promise that I'm going to pay my car loan,

My home loan,

My kids' school,

And a lot of obligations.

And if the employer doesn't follow,

Then the employee is breaking all the promises down the road.

That the chain is endless.

And I gave you two examples that it was money showing up.

One more story.

I think it was the winter of 2013 or 2014.

I lived up in the mountains at 9,

000 feet on Lake Dillon.

And my office was in Denver.

So that day,

We had this Canadian Express that rolled in.

And when Canadian Express rolls in,

It's like minus 40,

And that's when the lake freezes.

It's super cold.

It's super cold in the mountains.

And I had to drive to Denver and had to come back home.

And at that time,

I had friends from Japan.

They were training in Copper Mountain.

They were freestyle skiers training in Copper Mountain.

They came before,

And we became really good friends.

And that year,

It was a father,

And his son was an athlete.

And then they had a few more people.

But that year,

They brought their mom.

And that day was the only day that I could see them.

If I don't go on that day,

I don't see them until the next year.

And if they don't come next year,

I don't know when I see them.

And I came home driving through the cold weather and sitting with clients.

And I'm laying on my couch,

And I'm thinking,

I'm so tired.

I have to go see them,

But I really don't have the energy to drive another 30 minutes to pick them up,

To drive them to the restaurant,

To drive them back,

To come home.

I think that day,

I put on more than 300 miles of driving around.

And I was really exhausted,

And I said,

I promised them that I will take them out.

And this is one day.

I have to go.

So I forced myself.

It's super cold.

I'm driving.

We go out.

We have dinner.

And we're driving back.

And the corner of my eye sees a kid outside.

And I asked them,

Did you guys see a kid in the snowbank?

They're like,

No,

It's impossible.

Look,

It's the middle of the night.

What kid?

And I was like,

I saw something.

So I turned around.

I have goosebumps.

I turned around,

And I go,

And I see this little kid.

He's standing in the snowbank.

He cannot yell.

He cannot move.

We pull up.

The mom of my friend runs out.

She throws a jacket on him.

She puts him inside of the car.

We turn on the heat.

She's rubbing him.

He is freezing.

He cannot talk.

He's frozen.

What happened was that he was at the party.

The kids were bullying him.

He got really mad,

And he walked out.

No jacket,

Nothing.

It was a 10-year-old kid who walked out.

He came to the road.

He was so cold that he couldn't move.

And he just stopped.

He just stopped in the snowbank on the side of the road.

So not only Iris.

I know that if we showed up 20 minutes later,

He would have been dead.

It's that one promise that I made that I'm going to go see my friends and follow through.

And somebody from above put me in that position,

In that situation,

Outside of so many people who have been around there,

To go take my friends out.

And on the way back,

Just in the corner of my eye,

In the middle of the road,

See a kid standing in the snowbank.

And my subconscious mind said,

Stop.

Stop.

And I did stop.

And they said,

No,

It's impossible.

We don't need to go back.

It cannot happen.

I went and turned around all the way.

And we saved a little kid.

Or I saved a little kid.

I just know,

So I'm going to leave out the word hope,

But I just know that you all really love this conversation and meeting Lubin.

There's going to be a link in the episode show notes to that incredible Instagram video of the first ever gentleman who took the leap,

Shall we say,

In the program that Lubin has cultivated and curated for those who are suffering the after effects of war.

And,

You know,

Those wounds aren't only,

As you know,

Physical.

They're also psychological.

And I can only imagine that what Lubin is bringing to these gentlemen,

To these human beings,

Is changing their lives for the better and helping them assimilate more readily into society.

Honestly,

I just sat back during this interview and let Lubin talk because he has something to say,

And guess what?

He says it,

And then he takes action,

And he gets it done.

This world really likes to use us,

To capitalize on us,

To capitalize on human bodies,

On animal bodies,

And then throw us away.

But there are people out there in the world who are ready to help those that capitalism has forgotten,

To help those that war has forgotten,

To help those that society has forgotten,

And he is one of those people.

I just cannot say enough about what an enchanting and powerful human being he is,

And I'm just endlessly grateful.

I will never be grateful enough,

To be honest,

That he's in the world.

And I guess that's part of the premise of this podcast that despite the bad news that we see and hear every day,

I want to remind you that there are good people out there.

There are kind people out there.

There are grace-filled people out there of every stripe,

Color,

And kind who want to make this world a more beautiful place.

So yeah,

That's part of the mission of this podcast,

And maybe even the mission of my life.

Thank you for listening,

And here's my one request.

Be like Lubim.

Honestly,

I know that we're all walking through our lives and seeing where the need is.

We are seeing those who need help.

We are seeing animals that need help.

We are seeing land that needs help.

We are seeing places in the world that need help.

And I guess I'm asking you to figure out a way to take action on that,

To stand and hold true for those who don't have a voice.

I mean,

Honestly,

I keep talking about building up an army,

Right?

And I don't mean an army that's going to destroy things,

But an army that's going to help people,

That's going to see the need and step forward,

That's going to say,

Hey,

I have an idea.

Hey,

I have something here that can help.

Hey,

I know someone who can help.

And guess what?

I mean,

The more that we step forward in our communities,

That we step up in the world,

We're going to really become a force to be reckoned with.

So I guess I'm talking about creating an army of peacemakers,

Of beauty creators,

Of those who refuse to back down when they see injustice.

Because frankly,

In a country and a world like ours,

No one should be going hungry.

No one should be without an education.

And as well,

You know,

I am someone who believes that the land and the animals upon it and the air around us,

You know,

They all deserve an equal voice in how we shape and mold this world.

So I'm asking you to be like Lubim and go out there and show up for those without a voice.

You'll have my undying gratitude and you will have Lubim's undying gratitude.

And guess what?

You're going to have the world and the earth's undying gratitude as well.

Alright,

I'll see you next week for the very next episode.

And until then,

Lots of love to you,

Lots of happiness,

And hopefully conversations with strangers who ultimately become your friends.