I don’t agree with the prognosis by Dublin Chamber of Commerce guest speaker and Bloomberg CEO and President Dan Doctoroff that the Irish are pessimists but he did have some great points tonight about how to respond to crisis.

His three lessons for a business facing a crisis is that it should a) keep investing, b) maintain a strong self awareness of its strengths and c) think big.

It’s simple but true and it was excellently illustrated by reference to the experience of Polar Lake, an Irish company that survived the ultimate crisis of walking into Lehman Bros to pitch for its business on the day in 2008 that Lehmans collapsed. Three and a half years later it did a “game changing deal” with Doctoroff’s Bloomberg

These characteristics he said are what New York did post 9/11 and that as with every point of crisis, Ireland’s current days of woe “will pass”

If it worked for New York…