I'm reading about the tragic collapse of the building in Surfside, FL and wondering why. It appears that the condo owners kept bickering and fighting over the years delaying a decision, while the building kept exponentially degrading so the cost of repairs skyrocketed and nothing got fixed.

We'll eventually learn what technically happened as other buildings in the area will be scrutnized and I'm sure some will close.

Hopefully we can learn from this tragedy. Maybe the lesson is to look beyond disagreements and understand what is really at stake. The board at Surfside certainly didn't. They allowed the disagreements to prevent them from making a very critical decision.

Ben Franklin said, "You may delay, but time will not."