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.
Alan
There are over 1 million practicing lawyers in this country and more annually, as they graduate from law school (most of which are loaded with student loan debt). Law schools will take students money (either loans or the parents) but they won’t guarantee a solid career, which means they are incredibly litigious, and are desperate for a pay day. Truth be told, there are too many lawyers in this country. In my consulting practice, I have A LOT of insurance, both for personal liability, and business. I’m in my 30’s, single, no kids, relatively affluent although I live in a rich area so that is all relative, so I don’t feel all that well off. What kind of insurance, trusts, asset protection (either nationally or internationally) would you recommend to really protect oneself in such a litigious country we live in today. I have a friend whose Canadian, lives in Acapulco, who set up an offshore asset protection trust in the Cook Islands. I have a long career ahead of me, and I know I will be a lot better off in the future than I am today, but I do think about the reality of what’s happening. I do love this country, and the opportunities here, but we do need to protect our ASSets.
Alan Weiss
You don’t say what you do for a profession. My advice is to have the right kind and maximum insurance, and don’t break the law. Also, have a good relationship with appropriate lawyers for your estate, business, and contracts. You’re making more of this than you need to, and off-shore assets are an overreaction and a potential problem with the IRS.