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.
Ash
Thanks for this post. This is the very reason why some blogs (or websites) are highly valued and some aren’t. The sites that provide ongoing value by pointing people in the right direction like you did here are the ones that really succeed.
This is great resource. Surowiecki is an interesting author who does lot of research which I like. His book Wisdom of Crowds is a good one. David Ogilvy often touted the same thing about advertising in down times is his various books. I will take a cue from this post and work harder on providing my clients with such valuable resources. Thanks.
Tom Schaber
Alan this is a comment on an article that you wtote for Rain Today on prospects who want a consultant to lower their prices. I have run across this so often and since I consult with companies that have broken sales organizations I always ask, “Why would you want to hire a consultant to fix your sales organization when the consultant is willing to lower their fees”? Very similar to what you wrote.
And if I am talking with someone with a sense of humor I’ll toss in a little wit about why gray hair and experience is worth the fee. Have to be selective with that though.
Thanks again.
TS
Alan Weiss
Great points.
John Felkins
Post must have caught on to this blog “post”. You might get a real kick out of these. The Speech on Progress is classic!
http://thepalaceoflight.com/