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.
Cary King
In the past 2 years we’ve offered three types of contracting to our clients: fixed-price with a guarantee; combo,T&M for analysis and fixed-price implementation; and, T&M.
Not once has any company taken us up on the either the fixed-price or combo offer.
We work with the biggest companies in the world – auto manufacturers, worldwide insurance, banks, utilities.
We do IT service and asset management consulting. The work we do helps them cut costs and can’t be considered to give a competitive advantage otherwise. Therefore, it is to the company’s advantage to adopt (to the extent possible) the industry standards for the processes we implement.
Each time we get refused, I ask why they don’t want something other than a T&M contract. Each time, the answer is the same – that’s their policy.
It will be a while, I think, before the purchasing and contract people in companies adjust to a new “paradigm.” (sorry, couldn’t resist…)
Ilya Bogorad
My observation is that lots of buyers have trouble with arithmetics. In fact, multiplication seems to be especially hard to master.
I recently finished a subcontracted gig, which, unfortunately, necessitated a per diem quote on my side.
The only thing the buyer ever paid attention to is the per diem rate, not the overall cost of the project. As a result of such (wide-spread) behavior, there is an incentive for a proponent to quote a lower rate and get the business but then take all the time in the world to finish(or not) the job.
Philip Lye
I eventually was fed up with charging an hourly rate and now only offer services on a fixed price whether its for a simple solution or a major project.
Initially I received a lot of objections but stuck to my guns and now all my exisiting clients are comfortable with it and those that don’t moved on.
New clients have a choice fixed price or fixed price and if they are not happy I politely suggest there may be other providers that meet their needs.
Lead by example and don’t fear breaking free!