Your Legacy is Now
Life is not a search for meaning from others, it’s about the creation of meaning for yourself.
For over 30 years Alan Weiss has consulted, coached, and advised everyone from Fortune 500 executives, state governors, non-profit directors, and entrepreneurs to athletes, entertainers, and beauty pageant contestants. That’s quite an assortment of people, and they run into the thousands. Most of them have had what we euphemistically call “means,” and some of them have had a lot more than that. Others have been aspiring and with more ends in sight than means on hand.
Alan Weiss states:
I’ve dealt with esteem (low), narcissism (high), family problems, leadership dysfunctions, insecurities, addictions, and ethical quandaries. And I’ve talked about them through the coronavirus crisis. But don’t get the wrong idea. About 95% of these people have been well-meaning, honest (to the best of their knowledge), and interested in becoming a better person and better professional. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be talking to me.
I found the equivalent of the “runner’s wall” in their journeys, where they must break through the pain and the obstacles and then can keep going with renewed energy and spirit. But runners know how far they must go after the breakthrough, be it another half lap or another five miles. There is a finish line.
I’ve found that people in all positions, even after the “breakthrough,” don’t know where they are in the race, let alone where the finish line is.
They do not know what meaning is for them. They may have money in the bank, good relationships, the admiration of others, and the love of their dogs. But they have no metrics for “What now?” They believe that at the end of life there is a tallying, some metaphysical accountant who totals up their contributions, deducts their bad acts, and creates the (hopefully positive) difference.
That difference, they believe, is their “legacy.”
But the thought that legacy arrives at the end of life is as ridiculous as someone who decides to sell a business and tries to increase its valuation the day prior. Legacy is now. Legacy is daily. Every day we create the next page in our lives, but the question becomes who is writing it and what’s being written. Is someone else creating our legacy? Or are we, ourselves, simply writing the same page repeatedly?
Or do we leave it blank?
Our organic, living legacy is marred and squeezed by huge normative pressures. There is a “threshold” point, at which one’s beliefs and values are overridden by immense peer pressure. Our metrics are forced to change.
In an age of social media, biased press, and bullying, we’ve come to a point where our legacy, ironically, is almost out of our hands.
Yet our “meaning”—our creation of meaning and not a search for some illusive alchemy—creates worth and impact for us and all those with whom we interact.
Bjorn H Lindback
Great example on how small things makes all the difference needed. Here as related to customer retention. I bet many policy holders will talk positively about this to other customers and prospects, and hence this move will also add to customer acquisition.
I admire “thinking” companies that connect both heart and mind, left and right brain in this way shown.
As I do some advisory work with Customer Strategies (i.e. Attraction, Acquisition, Retention, Penetration, Migration, and Attrition) I will use this as a good example.
Thanks, Alan.
Bjorn H Lindback
Guy Hoffman
As an insurance industry professional, I’m not sure that people outside of the industry will recognize just how unprecedented this really is. The fact that they honored the lower premium may or may not have been their choice. Insurance regulations make the tax code look like Dr. Seuss’s work. But the attitude conveyed in the post, the fact that they were pro-active, the tone of the letter, the recognition that you are a customer and that the mistake was not yours, well that in my opinion is sadly unprecedented. There are many great companies and many great people in this business, unfortunately we don’t hear about them enough. Thank you Amica.
Alan Weiss
It’s good to hear these.
The gas company here sent me a $5,000 bill for one month, out of the blue. I pointed this out to them, and they said, “We’ll send a crew.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because there’s obviously something wrong with your meter!”
Pat Ferdinandi
We had a similar experience with … PSE&G (our gas & electric company). They realized for months they did not charge us for electricity properly. The added amount was to be around $4,000. The bill said we had to pay it within 30 days. … that is until we opened the next letter from PSE&G which explained it was their error and they would eat the $4,000 but understand that our next bill will include the monthly electric charge.
Not that we would have had a choice…it was very nice of PSE&G to forfeit the $4k.
Alan Weiss
Guy, excellent points. I wish Citizen’s Bank here would act the same way. Instead, they try to squeeze every penny they can from customers, rather than build relationships even with excellent customers. The best and the worst right here in Providence.
Alan Weiss
Glad you can use it, Bjorn!