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.
Sean McPheat
Very good audio.
I once heard “You train people how to treat you but how you treat yourself”
This is very apt!
If you lie down with dogs you’ll come up smelling of fleas.
If you position yourself in a certain way you need to be consistent with that in every situation.
Even though I was on holiday in the US (I’m from the UK) I ate in the best restaurants as I do in the UK, I stayed in the best hotels etc and I was actually spotted by 2 people who are on my email tips newsletters!
Now that’s congruancy!
Happy Selling (sorry think BIG Selling!)
Sean
Sean McPheat
Allan
Very helpful podcast, thanks Alan. It sparked this question:
What are ways of sending signals to yourself, the market, clients, prospective clients that are BIG thinking signals without having to spend a lot of money for someone just initially embarking on a consulting career?
Alan Weiss
Good question, Allan. My advice is to think and act strategically, not tactically; use a telescope, not a microscope; try to address causes, not just effects; embrace the entire situation, not just a corner of it you feel comfortable with.
Broaden the subjects you write about and speak about. Travel, or at least read vociferously, and become conversant in contemporary arts and social movements.
Sean, if you lie with clean dogs you don’t get fleas.
Graham Franklin
Alan,
An excellent poscast. I am a 3 time mentoree it is not tha quanity that counts but the quality. I drive a classic Bentley and have always had clients comment positively never negatively. You always said “why should I hire you to help me succeed if you are not successful?”
many thanks for all your contributions. you deserve the $5 million bucks a year.
Bob Ligget
This is right on target! I listened to it again today and thought of those I’ve coached who need to hear this. I’m forwarding it to several, but I have a question. I’ve talked with some people who know this is right and would love to be able to think big and act accordingly, yet they feel completely unable. They’ll say “I just can’t do it” or “I can’t see myself actually doing that.” We’ll set small goals to get in gear, and as often as not they don’t follow through. We’re not therapists, but what do you say to help someone get past what seems to be a confidence or self-image problem? Or just plain fear?