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.
Garry Beavis
Coming soon on pay TV, “Pimp My Briefcase”.
This could be the start of the “Alan Weiss” business accessories fashion line?
Alan Weiss
There’s an idea! There’s an Eddie Bauer Jeep or something, could be an Alan Weiss Bentley, right?
Garry Beavis
Why not!
Mark Richman
That’s great if you have $1,200+ to plunk down on a briefcase. Any recommendations for, say, under $500?
Alan Weiss
Yes: Hides in Shape on Madison Avenue in New York, been there for 25 years, have purchased a dozen cases there: http://www.hidesinshape.com/
Jeffrey Summers
You could license the “Alan Weiss Moped” and I’d probably buy one.
Alan Weiss
It’s leather from a young, female tyrannosaurus, so there’ll be a wait, in any case.
Phil Symchych
Alan,
That’s a gorgeous briefcase.
I broke my rivets on the handle of my other brief case from all the weight (and guilt).
Their patented design and quality looks remarkable.
I promise that I won’t get the same one as you (my wife won’t let me).
Phil
Philippe Back
Great. You go tme jealous 🙂
Jokes aside, $1200 on a briefcase is a non issue:
A- it is a cost of doing business
B- it makes one feel great
C- you give yourself the gift as a treat for a job well done
As of the size, I have a very nice briefcase which I tend to keep small (smaller than this one) so that I am not looking like a coolie on a Tibet trip.
Included:
– Filofax A5
– Small 12″ laptop
– Some papers related to the project|client
– Pens
– Mouse
– Small headphones and mike
– 4 whiteboard pens (since most of the time, the ones in rooms are crappy).
More often than not, this is way enough.
As a general rule, buying quality goods beats cheap good in a lot of aspects. Including self worth.