Give thanks for Valley’s bounce back
Ireally can’t do a column this time of year without mentioning Thanksgiving. For me, Thanksgiving is when try to slow down and realize how thankful I am for what I have. You know, it’s when we can take the time to realize what we didn’t appreciate until we lost it or almost lost it.
We remember how blessed we are and maybe have come to take it for granted. We recognize the struggles we’ve been through and are thankful we came out the other end, when we were sure we wouldn’t.
I recently interviewed Air Products CEO Seifi Ghasemi at the Chamber’s annual meeting. Seifi is an amazing leader who has brought Air Products to new heights. He also happens to be a really good man. What many don’t know is that Seifi has been through an incredible journey to reach his level of success. Seifi worked tirelessly to obtain The American Dream.
You see, being born and raised in Iran, Seifi had to leave the country he loved. Like many at the time of the revolution in Iran, he had to leave behind all he toiled for and start from scratch. He got out with just barely a little more than the most precious thing he owned, his life. Maybe better said, he got out “with the opportunity for new life,” and what a life he’s made of it.
His story reminds me of how often it’s the toughest times that really shape us. It’s the loss of something precious that often brings us to our knees, making us feel as though we can’t endure another day or take another step.
It’s those times when we feel we have nothing to look forward to in life except another day of struggle.
But it’s when we drag ourselves up, brush ourselves off and somehow take on that impossible challenge that we discover new life within us. You know, you’ve been there. Maybe it’s financial struggles, loss of a job, divorce, illness or perhaps addiction, which has recently touched so many. Whatever the challenge, it hurts to our very core and it for sure leaves a lasting impression upon us.
But similar to watching the fighter who’s down on the mat, seconds away from being counted out, what do we see? We see him or her struggle to get up and start the comeback. Just when you think it can’t happen, you muster up the inner strength, combined with a dose of divine intervention, and you accomplish the impossible.
It’s not until we scratch and scrape our way back that we realize how sweet the smell of success really is. Success tastes so much better once we have contrasted it with the bitterness of failure.
That’s the Lehigh Valley and its people. We’ve lost entire industries, but we fought back. We lost many laborintensive textile mills, but we more than made up for those jobs in other areas. We saw the demise of Bethlehem Steel, but that didn’t stop us. Oh, it rocked us, but it couldn’t keep us down. We were shocked when Mack Trucks moved south, but relieved when those jobs and more came back to the Valley.
We watched the exodus from our downtowns, but look at them now. All our magnificent department stores dis-
We’ve lost entire industries, but we fought back.
appeared from our once vital main streets, but we still came back.
Over the last five years, the Lehigh Valley has witnessed a staggering 5 percent GDP growth. Our GDP is now hovering around $40 billion, which is more than some entire states! Globally, the Lehigh Valley ranks second in industrial growth!
We have nearly 2,000 industrial buildings — and guess what — we also have over 119 million rentable square feet, primed and ready for manufacturers and distribution centers. And let me tell you, those available square feet are flying off the shelves faster than a new 70-inch TV on Black Friday. So many sectors, from medical services to manufacturing to real estate to logistics to — you name it — are flourishing, proving yet again that the Lehigh Valley has a tenacity to continue to come back after suffering severe blows.
Yeah, we’ve been through a lot, but we came out on the other side with more than we ever envisioned. Not only did we see the immense growth of commerce, but it came with an improved quality of life that we once dreamed of.
What do we see now? Entertainment centers, an abundance of retail, a major act in concert almost every week and a large list of diverse restaurants, way more than we seem to have time to visit. And don’t forget first class professional hockey and baseball are now played in venues I have to pinch myself to believe I’m sitting in.
We’ve been down, but like the gladiator in all of us, we crawled to our feet and step-by-step fought back. And now, we smell that sweet smell of success. It smells all the better having been through what we’ve endured. We are tough, we are hard-working and we are good people. And, we are not done shaping this great Valley.
So when the chips are down, I’ll take every one of you on my side. You CEOs, you faith community, you hard-working Lehigh Valley neighbors and you families who fought hard and didn’t give up. You are creating the family and community legacy that you dreamed someday you’d build.
So to me, Thanksgiving means just that. Give thanks. Sure, life is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, but all and all, we’re a pretty blessed bunch.
Let’s try to remember that this is the time to, in the most humble of ways, give praise and thanks.