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.
Rene' Vidal
Alan,
Is not the government system flawed? For example, there’s got be a reason a smart man like Bloomberg, who doesn’t suffer fools lightly, doesn’t run for Pres. I feel like we’re stuck with both schlock and red tape. I agree with comedian George Lopez: “If Sarah Palin gets elected, I’m moving to Canada.” He wasn’t joking.
Alan Weiss
Lopez is joking, he’s not going anywhere. Alec Baldwin said he’d leave the country if Bush were elected, and he’s still here. Big mouth actors are as bad as big mouth politicians.
This government’s “system” is the finest in the history of the world, and is still a work in progress 250 years after its creation, which is why Lopez and Baldwin aren’t about to leave this country. But the problem is that the behaviors and traits you need to get elected are vastly different from those you need when you’re in office, which is why Obama has been such a huge disappointment to nearly anyone who can see and hear.
Rene' Vidal
I don’t disagree that our government is the finest, yet we should always be careful with whom we’re comparing ourselves to. My point is this: there’s a lot of smart, successful Wall Street executives, who don’t shy away from government roles in Fed Res. and Treasury (it’s in their best interests), yet run the other way when it comes to the Presidency. It doesn’t reflect well on Washington, regardless of how good we are. I want a smart, proven CEO with a track record of getting things done to lead the country!
Alan Weiss
Like it or not, political savvy and instincts are key, not merely business skills. You can’t run the US the way you can GE, which is a benevolent dictatorship. None of our greatest Presidents could be mistaken for business executives.
Rene' Vidal
Very true. In accordance with your comments,
UC-Berkeley study: “The business world focuses too much on high profile leaders who land on the cover of magazines, and not enough on CEO’s who generate long-term value for shareholders.” (Smart Money “10 Things CEOs Won’t Tell You.”)
Key word: Rigger.
Alan Weiss
And the media focuses too much on celebrities who have a limited talent but unlimited opinions. When Sean Penn and Bono are telling us how we should act and vote, that’s a problem.