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.
Roberta Matuson
Sounds like you should hightail it out of there Alan!
Roberta
Jeffrey Summers
Tech/IT people are the worst when it comes to service.
Alan Weiss
Both in help and in grammar.
Greg
I disagree with the general comment regarding IT. I have been in IT for over 33 years. I currently do level 3 support for a regional bank. I have collected quite a stack of letters from grateful clients. I do everything I can to be sure my client understands me. I don’t talk down to them. My goal is to always do more than is required. I take pride in what I do. I don’t fix. I educate(there’s more going on than different browsers). I raised my own standards. I may be a one of a kind, but I doubt it.
Alan Weiss
You may not be one of a kind, but you are a clear minority. MOST IT and technical people I deal with use jargon, believe the customer just doesn’t know how to use the technology and is stupid, and are focused on the program, not the customer. Hightail’s inability (and uninterest) is making sure they are Safari compatible is an example of IT arrogance and not realizing what customers need and how to provide it. I’m glad you’re an exception, but even talking here about “level three” is a phrase that I and most people don’t understand.
Mike Brogan
Hightail website says
“We’ve changed our name but you can still rely on us to securely access, send and share your files and folders from anywhere. Everything you had on YouSendIt is exactly where you left it—the only thing that’s changed is our fresh new look. To get to work, simply close this window and sign in with your usual account details.”
Clearly, nobody told Lornel about this.
David Coddington
Mike I like the new interface but my recipients who are computer savvy call me up asking how they can download the file as the program asks them for a password! Not clear where the link to access the file is
Alan Weiss
Clearly, you’re not listening. The “remember me” feature doesn’t work any more, and it worked every time on YouSendIt. You’ve done something to screw it up and you’re asking me to change my browser. I could more easily change my provider—you.
Kevin Wunderly
I love these companies that tell us to only use one type of browser for their service — especially when Safari is the native browser for Macs and the one that almost every average Mac owner uses when surfing the internet.
These guys are morons and it wouldn’t surprise me if they disappear within the next 6 months.
By the way, I have Chrome installed on my Mac and I find it incredibly unstable. I only have it because my Gmail works better with it.
Craig Martin
Because THEIR site is incompatible with an authentic web browser, the problem is at YOUR end?
Sa’ wha’?
And Chrome ‘easier’ to use?
Easier than what?
A rubber screwdriver? A zero gravity jigsaw?
As far as I’m aware a browser works as thus:
Search bar
Type
Hit enter
Hey presto!
I also can’t help but feel that Mister Lornel was being slightly rude and implying that Alan was ‘out of fashion’ by not using Chrome, which, incidentally, is not that good in my opinion. (Chrome, not Alan’s fashion)
Still, I loved the little joke at the end.
Customer support!
Genius, absolute genius.
Kevin is right. 6 months tops.
Alan Weiss
They’re like a restaurant that says you can have whatever you like but we don’t serve chicken, meat, fish, or salad.
Alan Weiss
I have Chrome and Firefox for the rare occasions I need them. Safari offer little trouble for me, except these idiot sites whose owners and employees can’t even use English correctly, much less courtesy. It’s like my going to Bentley and saying, “The radio isn’t working,” and they say, “Carry a portable with you.”
Richard
I used YOUSENDIT to send and receive files from all over the world for a number of years. I found it fast, easy, reliable, consistant, and troublefree. Since they changed the name the service is complicated, confusing, problematic, quirky, and a PIA!
Now I read that they are going to charge 60% more for the same services $15.95 vs $9.05 a month ) and it isn’t the same quality. Time to find another company to use.
Alan Weiss
Amazing how many businesses need a good consultant!
jeremyf
Unfortunately the customer service representative did not do a good job explaining the situation to Alan, most likely because he did not understand the problem himself. Tech support CSRs usually read from a script and have minimal troubleshooting skills or access to the people who have those skills. For the most part, they answer a phone or respond to an email, generate a trouble ticket, and transfer the problem to someone who knows what is going on.
This company obviously did not adequately test the changes they made to their system on all mainstream browsers prior to rolling it out or they would have seen this bug.
This doesn’t excuse the user data migration problem or the fact that the individual cannot user correct grammar. CSRs and customer facing tech support need to remember that they are the face of the company to users and that first impressions are lasting impressions. Be professional, courteous, and concerned with the successful implementation of your products and/or services or your business will fail, or at the very least not be as successful as it could be.
Alan Weiss
I think we can agree that the result is a black eye.
EricS
Same problem, and guess what browser I’m using?
Chrome.
Thanks, Hightail!
Alan Weiss
It doesn’t work on Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. Even this morning, it can’t remember customers and prior users, despite “remember me.” It’s a technological blunder that they completely missed and are in no hurry to solve. If someone can suggest a competitor, I’ll try them today.
Tim
I’ve been using YOUSENDIT for years. It wasn’t the fanciest of filesharing services, but it did what I needed very well and reliably. Since the switchover to hightail, it’s been a nightmare. My files upload fine, but the recipient usually has issues downloading. This is a big problem since I might not know that there is a problem for a day or two and significant time is lost. The irony in the whole thing is that I’ve been forced to share with DropBox or other services instead of YouSendIt/HighTail.
I don’t understand why a company would just suddenly pull the plug on one thing and move to another? Shouldn’t they have kept YouSendIt running, and offered a beta/testing version of HighTail? This is a mess, their website doesn’t even function properly as of this morning. I’m not renewing my service.
Alan Weiss
Over the past two days, three files never reached the recipients. I’m looking for alternatives. The people who took this over haven’t a clue. No doubt they’re in love with technology but hate customers. Their profitability will soon reflect that.
Jair Azona
Alan,
we have been looking into hightail and a few others for file sharing. We have tested out a few in our environment and sharefile seemed to work flawlessly.
Alan Weiss
If you read the comments here and use my experience, “flawlessly” isn’t the adjective that fits them.
Alan Seiden
Upon rereading Jair’s comment, I now think Jair’s “flawless” comment referred not to Hightail’s file sharing service, but to a different one, sharefile.com.
Jair
Alans.. you are both correct. Sharefile works well in our environment (we have ran into a timeout issue with a 15 gig file but Sharefile support fixed our issue quickly). With Hightail we had issues sending even small basic PDF file (20k). We tried to Demo “Box.com” but all they would allow us is a Powerpoint presentation. With the issues with Hightail we weren’t going to spend money without proof of concept.(kick the tires)
Michael Moran
I’m having a lot of problems since they switched over. Has anyone found a service that works the way that yousendit used to? I.e. where the recipient will receive a link to the download and there is a window that tells you how long the upload is taking? I’ve been looking, but haven’t found one yet.
Alan Seiden
Hightail’s desktop application seems to work more quickly and reliably than the browser interface. I used “Hightail Express,” available on this page: http://www.hightail.com/applications. The image link for this application was on the middle right when I downloaded it.
Getting back to Alan’s original point, I’ve found in my IT consulting career that end-users are often expert in the software they use. The wise firm will accord appropriate respect to user feedback even if not expressed in precise IT terms.
Alan Weiss
Update: Hightail was unable to successfully transmit a short movie file yesterday on three tries. The screen indicator showed it was done, but the screen froze.
Bob Chisholm
Hi Alan,
This is a desperate attempt to see if you can advise me on how to reach someone at Hightail.
I recently signed up to Hightail, the lite version first and changed quickly to the premium version when I realized that the lite version would not handle the file sizes I wanted to use. Hightail managed to take my money but they now do not recognize my password and without it I cannot log in to change it or contact anyone. There website is not user friendly but in any event I cannot see anyway to contact them to sort out my password problem. I live in the Uk so telephoning them is not an option.
alan WEISS
I know no one there, sorry. Here’s their sales number, why not start there?
1 (866) 558-7363
wesley lowe
Bring Yousendit back! Hightail should do just that….hightail it to hell out of here. it is truly crap.
I used Yousendit for over 2 years and loved the simplcity of it….beautiful…worked everytime and I could easily see what file were sent and it remembered my clients email addresses. Hightail is difficult to navigate and simply won’t upload files….I waited over 25 minutes to upload a 24 meg file…..is that supposed to be an improvement over yousendit? Bring back yousendit as it was….no stupid changes…..just as it was.
Marc M.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Bring back the yousendit we all knew and loved. I hate this piece of crap.
Alan Weiss
YouSendIt (but not easily)
Alan Weiss
You can’t “steal it” since it’s mine and that article is copyrighted. Please put in some work and create your own!