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.
Susan Karada
“Russia already has a bully for its president. We don’t need another one here” – Never assume the other person is damaged just because they don’t agree with you.
“…we all know the brilliant rate of success of economists and economic predictions and advice. I think it’s overing somewhere below five percent.” – Don’t assume they’re inferior because they don’t subscribe to your particular standards.
There’s a name for that practice ….
PS: I have NOT unsubscribed 🙂
Regards, Susan
Bob
This is hilarious. Half of your posts are you assume people are inferior because they don’t subscribe to your particular standards. Or maybe “Dumb-Ass Stupid Management” is a term of respect…
Alan Weiss
I think you miss the point. I point out deficits that don’t stand up to standards of normalcy in customer service and performance. In the case of our Australian friend’s comments, it’s the typical yelping: My way wasn’t accepted so the world is going to end. We’re doomed.
Thanks for reading the blog. You must be reading it for a reason.
Nick Phillips
“…it’s never wise to allow the bullies to take over the political stage. We’ve learned that time and time again.” Alan Weiss’s Monday Morning Memo® – 8/10/15
Nick Phillips
“Candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders scare me only because they attract so many people who actually believe they’re intelligent and capable of leading this country. Trump is simply a bully with a pulpit” – Alan Weiss’s The Controversial Column: November 3, 2015…
What about never assuming the other person is damaged just because they don’t agree with you, and don’t assume they’re inferior because they don’t subscribe to your particular standards.
Indeed, why can’t we all just get along? Excellent question!