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.
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Buki Mosaku
Awesome and true!
Bill
The message was good but…..What does the Bentley have to do with this? To me…. anyone who has to show a Bentley or some display of wealth to get a point across has a possible insecurity “look at me!” “look what listening to me will do for you!’ . or if it’s in the video to show what success looks like then you could be making the audience who is here to learn how to be successful (like me) feel less confident and powerful. If you want people to look at (see) the Bentley you are leading them away from your message, and away from what they should strive for…. you said it… don’t chase the money right?
Alan Weiss
This is my life style. You seem to be threatened by the car. And you’re afraid to leave your full name. If you are somehow offended, then go elsewhere, I dob’t care, I’m not here to please you or live by your metrics. I’m here to help people become successful and enjoy their lives. You’re in no position to offer me unsolicited feedback. You have a poverty mentality and I try to teach abundance mentality. If you can’t get by something that I have and you don’t, then go away. Buying what you want whenever you want isn’t chasing money, it’s being successful. I’d tell you to stop chasing scarcity like it’s a holy grail. You don’t end poverty by creating more of it. If you watch subsequent episodes, you’ll see the car becomes a Rolls Royce, so that should really drive you crazy.