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.
Gareth Kane
I assume you have educated him as to the error of his ways!
Ed Kless
Alan, I wonder if it was the same guy who ripped of David Maister’s blog for years. He even had the chutzpah to leave in stuff like “in my latest book” and was, in fact, referring to David’s book!
Jenn McGroary
Amazing…
… “And people ask me where I get my material. You just can’t make this stuff up.”… How true.
In the words of Mark Twain, “Of course truth is stranger than fiction; fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities.”
You really have to wonder how these people got so far in life with so little gray matter between their ears.
Alan Weiss
And I got irate feedback when I noted that most blogs are crap. It’s like giving everyone a car and telling them they’re all good drivers without any kind of license required.
Ed Kless
Most blogs are crap, but so are (IMHO) most newspapers, TV news, business books, etc.
That is why it is so important to find and utilize the great ones!
Alan Weiss
AND, this just in, from the perpetrator, to his credit:
Hello, Alan — Please accept my apologies for not attributing the story of unethical behavior in your blog Contrarian Consulting properly to you in my blog. If I had a “proofreader” we’d be taking a trip to the metaphorical woodshed ala’ President Ronald Reagan and OMB Director David Stockman in the 1980’s.
I have removed the post from my blog and appreciate your gentle reminder about the continued importance of intellectual property rights especially in the blogosphere. It won’t happen again.
All the best,
Alan Weiss
Ed, newspapers and TV outlets are regulated. You generally need a college degree to work for a newspaper. There are editors intent on preventing poor usage or defamation. Business books have to be vetted by a publisher (except the self-published, which is no better than a blog).
Hence, the blogs are unique creatures without regulation, license, or even qualifications except a computer and a url. It’s much tougher to find great ones when there are 190 million crappy ones. That’s even worse than cable.
Ed Kless
Very true the numbers are overwhelming, so you are right it is harder to find.
Not doubt the other outlets are more regulated, again, IMHO, they still produce a ton of crap, especially considering there IS oversight as you mention.
Peter Bodifee
Alan, understand that you defend the traditional media, but college degree is no guarantee. Anyone can become a publisher with traditional media, it just takes more money and time to get something in front of the eyes of reader/viewer. A lot more, so the typical moron will not be spotted there.
I believe that this blogging will eventually get back to normal proportions. I bet that soon some smart software engineer (at Google?) will implement methods to aid finding good blogs. In the mean time the best method is manual work: following references, referals, etc. That is how I found this blog!
Alan Weiss
In other words, a strong brand will lead people to strong blogs…. Glad you’re here!
Wayne Botha
Correct, and superb writing, frequently updated offering provocative insights keeps me coming back to this wonderful blog.
Alan Weiss
Tell your friends and I’ll give them Ginzu knives….
Laurent Duperval
Alan,
You said: “… uses it on his blog WITHOUT PERMISSION OR ATTRIBUTION.”
Is use without permission but with attribution an acceptable practice, or do you need both? And I’m not talking about fair use; I’m talking about a complete cut ‘n paste.
L
Alan Weiss
Attribution is used when citing a small excerpt, for example, “Alan Weiss says in Million Dollar Consulting that only the economic buyer is important.” Permission must be obtained, despite attribution, for longer excerpts or articles, for example: The following article appeared on Alan Weiss’s blog Contrarian Consulting. Reprinted with permission.