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.
Dennis
Alan,
Thanks but not thanks.
You have had plenty of this before, but I cannot resist. Let me start with the good stuff:
I really like your work & I admire you as a marketer. I reckon you are up there in terms of nailing positioning, communications, value propositions – every aspect of marketing that matters. In fact I just bought 4th edition of MDC.
So, I am a fan (but not a slave)so I have to at least try and shift your thinking, if in my (not so humble) opinion you are fundamentally wrong.
Twitter is not a game-changer. The Social Media Mavens are often so far up their own arses it is funny if it weren’t so sad. I agree largely with you on LinkedIn’s value. Facebook may still turn out to be useful for some businesses.
I am in B2B as you are so Twitter has less value than for some other organisations and its value (so far) is mostly as relating to internet-proudcts and services.
But that does not mean it isn’t a powerful tool.
The problem is, if you don’t follow anyone, you will never ‘get’ it. (I hate the term follower because that is just not what leaders do, but that is another matter.)
Breaking the 1000 barrier is not an achievement in the Twitterverse. (I only have about 400 because I hand-pick who I a follow and allow to follow me for the most part.)
However, there are a few features that redefines how one can market and operate with this technology.
It is a substitute search engine which doe sa much better job than Google/Bing of giving you FRESH information – the curecy of any good consultant.
It allows you to create people filters of content (which as you rightly point out ismostly inane)- which turns the contetn into something meaningful. E.g. don’t you think that thoughtsd/ideas/ leads/links from your MDC graduates would be a worth filter of all the crap floatring around?
You get a quicker feel of the pulse on tht inernet (which is rapidly becoming the pulse of the world) by being able to watch and interpret a live strem of comemntary. You van ‘get’ the ebb and flow of major events and news and, heaven forbid insights that could lead to business. Just this week I doscoverd Google Fast Flip. Have you seen it yet?
I also learned what happens when you actually google ‘search’ in google – and it is hillarious. That did make me money, but it made me richer.
I am pretty sure you will find some use that justifies time spent on it. (I agree that many people spend too much time on trivia, but that does not mean that you can’t watch a game of football every now and then?)
I have actually made a few friends and I am currently in the process of developing a few alliance partnerships that was originally triggered by a tweet.
Butterflies falpping their wings and all that…
I hold no grudges, so I will follwo you if you follow me back 😉
Dennis
Sorry about the typos – it is a really small box to read 😉
Alan Weiss
I’m not following you, especially with posts like that! I doubt you’ve read my work on this blog on social platforms, which I think are all over-hyped and basically silly. I’m not advocating Twitter for anyone, but I do post twice a day items of value within 140 characters. Most of Twitter is inane sayings or links.
I spend ten minutes a day on it. I apparently stuck a nerve with you to generate such an emotional response. I don’t need to “justify” ten minutes of experimentation, and basically you’re right: I know a whole lot more about marketing than you do!
Dennis
Gee – that’s harsh. Not sure what you mean by ‘posts like that’. I am not/was not angling to be followed. Surely one can disagree with you without being ridiculed?
* I have read most of your posts over the last year or so.
* I think you are right about much of the SM platforms and said so.
All I tried to do was illustrate how it might add some value if you were smart about how it is used.
Just because it does not work for you, or you can’t see how it might work for someone, does not mean it does not work.
I gave you an example of hopw it might work for me – all things equal. (That is a small sample, but – who knows.)
* You do know more than me about marketing (my own doctorate in CMaerketing aside – and I am not being facetious).
* But you don’t know much about me…
Nice chatting anyway.
Lynda
I love twitter too! It has been very helpful to my business and to the business of my clients. You have to use it right.
Unfortunately, and trust me Alan, you are not alone, you have isolated yourself as a “guru” when you don’t follow anyone back. Social media is a two way street. Those who fail to grasp that won’t last long.
This may work for you, there will be people who want to hear from the “Gods on high”, but not for me. I read your blog because when moved I can comment. Shut me out of twittering you, and I have no interest.
Alan Weiss
Lynda, you are making value judgments, implying that I have to follow your rules on a medium that has no rules. I won’t last long??!! At what? I’ve published 7 new books in 15 months, more than a lot of people READ in 15 months. I own my niche in the market. Do you? Do your friends?
You’re not a prospect of mine. I don’t really care whether you follow me or not. (Yet, here you sit, on my blog!)
The great craziness in the social media world ain’t us “gods on high” (note you should us a small “g” for that), but the self-appointed “experts” who tell the rest of us what to do and not do, as if Twitter or anything else is a private tree house they’ve founded and demand we act in a certain way.
I’m praised every day as a guy who provides value in my Tweets and who doesn’t merely print links or inane historical or Biblical quotes. Per your imperatives above, I don’t trust you, it’s not unfortunate, and let’s see who’s here longer. You think it’s a popularity contest, following your rules. I think it’s about branding and marketing, and I make my own rules.
If you read this carefully, you could really learn something here. I’ve taken the time to try to educate you. Good luck.
Lynda
Apparently I am a prospect, because you keep wanting me to buy your books. Or is it just one book buyer doesn’t matter in the scheme of things. I have always had respect for you and your knowledge (again, why I visit your blog). You say you own your market and just put out 7 new books. I am the one who is buying those books.
You have also sent me many an email asking me to purchase, for large sums of money, a seminar or consulting opportunity with you. I certainly had wanted to in the past, the timing hadn’t been right. We even discussed once, via email and blog, possible timing issues.
I’m not a self-appointed expert, however, I do listen to my clients and prospects and those on Twitter to try and stay tuned to what they are saying. If I should have worded my post better, I apologize. These are not “my” rules, these are what the people who are actually on twitter are starting to say on a daily basis. I don’t think it is a popularity contest at all. A few good followers are always better than 1,000’s of bad ones. Of course it is about branding and marketing.
This isn’t a macho spitting contest. Wow, you make millions and sell lots of books. Did it make you feel good to put me down and bring yourself up by comparing the two of us. If so, good job!
I didn’t mean your entire business would crumble, I meant that eventually people will stop listening to those who only want to talk and not converse (on TWITTER! you made a mighty leap that I meant your entire business). I never said that what you are saying is not of value.
I read your post carefully. I have now been educated. Thank you for taking the time. I was honoured. I doubt the lessons I just learned were the one’s you set out to teach me, but it was educational nevertheless. And thanks for correcting my spelling!
Alan Weiss
Lynda, thanks for hanging in there! Twitter or any social platform is to be used as users wish. You assume there are “succeed/fail” guidelines, which I don’t, because we all have our own purposes.
I’ve said to major clients who tell me, “We don’t hire consultants!” this: “That’s what some of my best clients today once told me!” With me, you get honest feedback and access to me, personally.
You’ll hang around! Thanks for the debate. Twitter and all the rest will change dramatically. The current popularity is ephemeral, and the business model doesn’t work.
Lynda
I agree with you Alan, it’s up to the users to decide how they want to use Twitter and would go so far as to say that a business model for Twitter has been successfully made (on a small scale because it is too new to have years of data). I personally have gotten thousands of dollars worth of business from Twitter, by building up relationships and meeting new people who would not have been in my sights before. I have duplicated this with my clients with varied success (due to the personal nature, not every client will take to it, some enjoy it and flourish.
I’ve enjoyed our sharing ideas. Of course I will hang around. You offer me great value (as by the way.. do your books which I recommend and promote on my site). I will just hang around here, where I can talk when it moves me.
Gretchen
I use twitter quite a bit and have loved it since I joined a few months ago. I use it to keep up with what others in my field are doing; being that it is a continuously changing field in terms of technology. Twitter helps facilitate my involvement in a profession that is basically a collective (I’m in geospatial technology). I get answers to technical questions, I enjoy giving tips on cartography technique (I’m the author of a book on the subject), and I get to know people that I then meet up with in real life and thereby enrich my social and professional networks.
However, in your business, Alan, you are a thought leader. That’s why it isn’t a big deal to you to “listen in” on what others are tweeting about. I get that.
Alan Weiss
Way to go, Lynda. Twitter is not profitable, of course, that’s the bad business model I alluded to, and why it can’t last the way it is. Too many people on Twitter merely make money by hawking how to make money on Twitter, though that’s rather incestuous!
Gretchen, thanks for grokking. I believe Twitter is a fine place to share, but there is no requirement to reciprocate. I can give, I don’t have to receive.
Lynda
Ahhhh.. Twitter itself isn’t profitable. Got it now. Well, indeed that is a problem. But looking at the recent history of new technologies, some made it and some didn’t.
Twitter will evolve or die, like the rest.
I think the wonders of Twitter haven’t even been closely examined because of it’s great appeal to the young. With more users than the population of the entire U.S. of A. that is quite an audience. As we saw from Iran a month ago, 140 characters can go a long way in telling a story.
I agree with you on the hawking side of it. One of the reasons I went into the Ethical marketing field. I strongly follow Keith Ferrazzi that building relationships is the only way to build business. Too many people telling you how to make 1 million in minutes without telling you about their tons of staff behind them. Running a business is hard work (been doing it for 15 years) and not for the faint-hearted.
Ian Brodie
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about twitter (or any technology or channel) it’s that there’s never just one way to use it.
What’s an interactive channel for one could be a one-way street for another. Who’s to say what will work long-term? Only those who experiment – and 10 mins a day sounds like a fair investment.
That being said, I’m taking bets on who the first person you’ll end up following is 😉
Ian
Dennis
Alan,
This is now an interesting conversation. For the record: I wrote a blog about ‘Why social media will never become mainstream.’ (I won’t linkbait here…). I think that makes me closer to your POV than those of SM experts (if they exist).
BUT one obeservation and one question still burn:
* Just because twitter is not profitable (yet) does not mean the tool is broken. And the business model, I would argue, is fine – would you be complaining if you were a shareholder? AND isn’t building businesses, finding suckers to invest and flipping it a valid business model? [:-)]
* The question (seriously): How do you learn? I don’t mean from whom – but how? Other than the specific ambit of your own experiences, how do you learn?
AND PS: One day I also hope to attend a workshop.
AND PPS: I started many years ago a blog http://drcontrarian.blogspot.com/ – before I knew of you , but I stopped writing because I thought that being contrarian was not not necessarily the right positioning for the business, although it is my personal inclination.
Alan Weiss
Lynda, I think you need to read some of my books!
Ian, agree!
I might follow Michelle Pfeiffer, but no one else! Unless Sandy Koufax begins to Tweet!
Alan Weiss
Twitter isn’t a tool. It’s a communication platform. There are no shareholders and, yes, I would be complaining with no profit and not plans to create any.
You learn by exposing yourself to information and experiences, internalizing and combining it, and then using it as knowledge. Some people process information a lot better than others.
Tim Wilson
Alan,
As I read these posts for some reason I’m getting the feeling that as you respond there is a twinkle in your eye and big smale on your face as you stir the social media pot again.
Long live the king.
Alan Weiss
Yeah, this is better than working. People take themselves far too seriously.