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 Burke
I’m of the libertarian philosophy, free market capitalist, etc. Perhaps if our government hadn’t squandered $5-8 Trillion of our tax dollars on useless wars in the middle east, overthrowing foreign governments, 700+ bases worldwide, welfare, among others, then the democratic party would have a valid argument for healthcare for all, etc. Most (not all) of the immigration problem in this country stems from the failed “war on drugs”. The United States is the worlds largest recreational consumer of narcotics, which fuels the growth of drug cartels through out Latin America, which then fuels corruption and violence. The average person there wants to get the hell out of dodge and seek a better life. End prohibition of drugs, which ends organized crime, legalize it, regulate it, tax it, help those addicted, etc. A utopia is not possible, but with some of the above implemented, I think this country would be much better off. Until a politician speaks of peace, end the useless wars, bring home the troops, end prohibition, shrink government, and take the balance to invest in infrastructure, I will remain a political atheist. With regards to education costs, it’s only because the federal government guarantees the loans. Kids that do not come from a background where the parents can write a check for any amount can borrow to infinity, and the government guarantees it. This allows universities to charge anything they want, build stadiums, pay football coaches 7 figure salaries, etc. Remove government from the equation, or only allow students to borrow up to 10k, which means fewer kids will be able to afford college, which means the universities will be forced to lower tuition costs so more kids can attend. I only wish a well thought out dialogue would discussed amongst our political candidates, instead of more of a game show resemblance. Cheers
Alan Weiss
I hope being a “political atheist” doesn’t mean you don’t vote and just sit back and carp. Nice to see someone with all the answers! But the issue, pragmatically, is how do you improve the situation we face, not what wold have been your idealized past. We do have to defend our economic interests globally, provide for people who honestly need the help, and deliver the mail.