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.
Pat Tith
I took the plunge in September and just loving every aspect of this beautiful machine. My PowerBook G4 was fine but it was clear its time had past!!
Regards
Pat
Alan Weiss
Magic.
Ian Brodie
Yay! I bought a Macbook Pro a few weeks ago. It’s my first Mac since I was junior consultant 16 years ago. I’ve been on PCs for the last 13 years.
I’ve had a few teething problems in my transition from the PC (not the least of which is that Adobe won’t let me switch my software across to the Mac without a $300 upgrade!).
But generally my experience has been very positive.
Have you been a Mac user for long Alan?
Ian
Alan Weiss
Forever. I have a big desktop tower with a cinema screen, this is my fifth lap top, and my third iPhone.
Ben Smith
Alan, your a Mac user! I knew it! 😉
You have way too much “outside-the-box” thinking to be a PC user. Or let me put it this way… you come across as someone who wouldn’t put up with the problems that plague the average PC user.
Glad I’m in good company.
Alan Weiss
Amen, bro.
Richard Martin
Hi Alan,
You referred to firewire transfer. Does that mean you transfered all your files and applications to the new computer?
Rich
Alan Weiss
Yes, everything on my old lap top was transferred to my new lap top. That does not include my desk top computer. Everything was even arranged in the same places, same icons.
Ben Smith
Richard,
Apple has simplified the “upgrade” process with OSX. Whenever you buy a new Mac, you are given the option to transfer files from your old Mac during the initial setup. This creates an exact copy of your old system on the new system. The transition is seamless… not installation of software, searching for software licenses, or transitioning email accounts, files etc. If you’ve ever upgraded a PC, and I assume you have, you know the drill, and it’s painful to say the least.
Alan, I don’t want to turn your blog comments into a PC/Mac bashing technical forum… But it is interesting how many of the little things a Mac user takes for granted, everybody else has been trained to accept as “business as usual”.
My take is this… A computer is a tool, just like any other tool in your toolbox. If every time you take out that tool, you have to fight with it “reboot, anti-virus, etc…”, it’s not a very useful tool.
Richard Martin
Thanks Ben. I’m already a Mac user, but have never upgraded from one Mac to another. You’re right about the small details, as captured brilliantly in the I’m a Mac, I’m a PC commercials. I just finished reading Inside Steve’s Brain, by Leander Kahney. It shows just how pervasive and detailed the product focus is at Apple.
Regards,
Rich Martin
Alan Weiss
Ben, feel free, that’s why we have commentary here.
I’ve never used a PC in my life, except when I’ve been on client property and been requested to do so. The difference between the two universes is then quite clear.
PhilipD
This must be the ‘grand narrative’ of all returning mac users. I’m back with a new macbook proafter 14 years of PC hell imposed by previous employers. Saying it is another universe is not hype. Everything just works and beautifully. I’ll single out just one feature. Search for a word to find a file in your entire computer and backup disks on the Mac and you find it literally in seconds. Do it on a PC and Bill Gates would run out of money first.