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.
Noah
How amazingly backwards.
Guilty until proven innocent, right?
Hope the trip is fantastic.
Alan Weiss
How incredibly stupid is this management? A dumb protocol and rude people. To Citibank, we’re all just numbers.
Piotr Krzyzek
I’ve had similar experiences with ‘lower level’ companies. Citibank/Chase/BOA (the worst) all do the same horrible things. Every single time I’m forced to walk into a BOA branch office I shudder with fear of the horrors in store for me.
It seems to me that unless you’re a contract for them and have ‘executive level’ access, it’s best to assume they’ll treat you like ‘just another annoyance’.
Once I was even told, and I quote, “If you want us to help you, you shouldn’t have lost your card.” Seriously? It’s my fault of course somehow!
It’s far and few in-between where I experience proper care from a company. Hilton, Comcast Exec/Business class services and my local pet food provider seem to be the only ones who care!
themanwithsalthair
They should get a call centre in India. I never cease to be impressed by the impeccable manners of their staff and English spoken to a much higher standard than their UK equivalents!
Alan Weiss
I find call centers in India to be completely useless and futile, hard to understand and really just reading me scripts. We should “onshore” all of these back to the US. Most Americans hate them.
Chris Blackman
Overseas call centres, wherever they are based…
99% of them give the rest a bad name.
Alan Weiss
!!!
Jason
Alan, I’ve had the same issue with other providers, even traveling domestically. It’s ridiculous! I learned the hard way you can’t travel with only one credit card. Once, on a business trip, I was stranded without a working credit card. They had shut down my account because my travel pattern for that particular day seemed outside the predicted behavior of my account, according to their analytics tool.
Alan Weiss
You are only liable for the first $50, so they are just focused on protecting themselves at any slight hint of risk.
Diane Barnes, RN
Twice, I have had my Bank of America card frozen for “suspicious activity.” I’m a night owl, and I guess charges on my card at 3AM raised a red flag for them. So I had to contact them and verify the charges which immediately unfroze the account. They did this to protect me from fraud, just like Citibank was trying to protect you.
The thing with the phone number would be annoying, but after all, they have you listed as being in the US. Having to repeat information to every person you speak to is bothersome, but hardly limited to Citibank.
Of course, none of this excuses them being rude to you.
With credit card companies working harder to eliminate fraud, we’ll all be dealing with this issue more often–one more aggravating fact of life.
Alan Weiss
Diane, you remind me of someone who get’s a lousy table in a restaurant and says, “Well, at least they let me in.” You must be kidding. They’re not protecting you or me, they’re protecting themselves. This is a global economy. People travel. This was a Visa BUSINESS CARD. We’ll all numbers and calculations to Citibank, and I’m not taking it. When I return, I’m cutting up my card and sending it to the CEO and suggesting that he might want to get a customer retention unit. You ought to stand up for yourself.
I’m an Amex Centurion member, and if I buy a Ferrari with it in Katmandu they’ll simply say, “Membership has its privileges.” Citibank says, “Don’t spend $5.00 without clearing it with us, we don’t trust you.”
They need me, I don’t need them.
Jared Lazaro
| “They need me, I don’t need them.”
This is a salient detail that is neglected or ignored in a variety of businesses, usually to their peril. The businesses I love to frequent understand that principle, either implicitly or explicitly.
Alan Weiss
I’m sitting in the Ritz-Carlton in Naples where they act as though they’re gratified we chose them and want to do everything possible to make me happy. We arrived on two USAir flights that were so well done that I gave recognition cards to the first class flight attendants.
Citi feels customers are an expense, not an asset. I used to find this when I first consulted in the 1970s, but I thought it was pretty much gone today. I would guess that’s why the two top guys at Citi are now gone, because that’s the sick culture they built. Every single Citi person I talked to on the phone was either rude or reading a script and totally unhelpful.
Too many other companies want my business. I would urge everyone not to go near Citibank for any reason at all.
Bruce
Citi is a waste. They just screwed over the Costco account big time by taking the business away from AmEx. They never answer the phone, have no e-mail contacts, even if you want to report a stolen or lost card (I never received mine!) they never answer. One person spent over 5 hours on hold…
Harwell Thrasher
I’ve had similar problems with a Citibank card used in the U.S. After not using the card for a while, I made two consecutive charges for online purchases. The second one was rejected, and I used another card instead. Almost immediately after using the card a second time, I started getting urgent phone calls from Citibank telling me to call their fraud department immediately. Then when I called I went through their verification questions to prove it was me, making me feel like I was going through the inquisition. When they finally decided the purchase was legitimate, they told me I could use the card now, but I told them I had already switched to another card. Then I asked them why they were putting me through all this, and they said, “because you don’t use the card very often.” I answered them, “And why do you think that is?”
Alan Weiss
This is one of the worst companies in consumer credit. Their people on the phones are dreadful—rude and bored. I’d rather be dealing with an outsourced group in the jungles of Laos. You are liable for only $50 on a stolen card, so they are just protecting themselves at any sniff of fraudulent use, despite the embarrassment or inconvenience to the customer.
I just sent my cut-up card back to their CEO. NEVER USE CITIBANK. They and Bank of Montreal are the two biggest financial losers in North America. They make Bernie Madoff look legitimate.
Bobby
well …I totally agree and recommened everyone not to bank with Citibank. About two weeks ago, I opened a savings account with Citibank and deposited a check into the new account. They said check will clear and all the money will be available within 4-7 business days. Its been almost two weeks and still no money. The check that I deposited was from Chase, and they are saying that check cleared in 2 days so where did the money go. Spoke to Citibank Branch manager and she is saying that fraud department put a hold on that check. I asked her what is the hold for, money should be in my account since Chase cleared the check. Her answer was to come back and speak to the Assistant Branch Manager of that location. Really now? They are giving me run around for my own money. All she had to do was call the fraud department to tell them that Chase cleared the check since I personally got a Chase Representative on the phone and he told us on the speakerphone that my check was already cleared. On top of this, their account manager and Branch manager ganged up on me like I committed a crime since I’m asking for my own money. I would never ever recommend anyone to bank with Citibank. They are fraud, nothing else, nothing more.
Bobby
Alan Weiss
I’ve ended my relationship with them, they are the pits. Some vice president sent me a dreary letter full of platitudes but no apologies or offers to remain. They are simply scared and defensive, and feel customers are not to be trusted. They are run by their fraud “protection” operation instead of customer retention. Whatever you do, do not do business with Citibank. They don’t care about you.
Sizi Chowdhuri
Rather a late comment, but since your post came up on a Google search, I feel I should add my experience with Citibank. I’ve been a customer for over a decade, and while I haven’t had an issue with a credit card as I don’t use my Citibank one very much, I have had to interface with their customer support over telephone (from Europe to the US), or used their tellers at their branches, and I have always had very good people serve me. I just wanted to give a shout-out to those hard-working, customer-oriented people that they do have working for them.
Alan Weiss
Every organization has some fine people. Citibank not only doesn’t have enough of them, their POLICIES suck eggs. They are paranoid about stolen cards to the extent that inconveniencing their best customers is an acceptable behavior for them. That’s why I ended my accounts and advise everyone to find other sources of credit which will not deny routine overseas purchases or larger purchases within a mile of your home! Citibank is run by uncaring leaders who are impossible to reach and only worry about the current quarter’s profits.
max
This is what happens when you hire BLM ppl for the job.
Jack Wu
It is nightmare when costco switch to use citibank. I got bite by them.
First I spend 3 hours in different days try to setup online bank and then suddenly found a past due on July 20, The card was start to use on June 20, how come it has past due? I never had past due before.
After one hour talking with rep, holding and holding and holding, said they can not fix it. Then I want to increase credit limit, cause it is too small mount of credit that I can not use it fully, I had 12000 credit with AMEX, now citi gives me only 5000, which is not enough. The rep hold me again, after waiting and return back with deny. almost 1 hour talk to rep get nothing just can not fix it or deny. You can get nothing done with rep.
Bad things not stop there yet. I was unhappy than I ask to close the account. This time they did it very fast, in just 10 seconds, I was told the account is closed. Then I found my costco reward is gone, When I ask where is the reward, they told me they take the reward. The reward was accumulated from AMEX, it is belong to me on COSTCO member, they steal that money away. No wondering they close the account so fast, cause they can steal the money.
beep
got a rude bank teller manager after 10 years of being their customer.. a large account.. meant nothing to them. I told them i got the run around by their 1-800 number and they ‘promised’ to mail me a form and it never came. . So i had to schlepp down to a branch and they all looked at me like i was speaking Greek. I told him ‘hey its your bank, i dont know what form i need.. the online form’.. and she rolled her eyes at me. I said ‘i got all this money in your bank and you give me dirty looks?’ and they finally got me the form i said you know what ‘dont bother, im moving to another bank tomorrow’ 4 employees in there with 2 customers to deal with. Anyway I made a little bit of a scene i guess, just amazed at how irrelevant i was to their day.
Crystal G Tyler
I opened an citibank account 4 months ago they locked .y avcou t and won’t unlock and won’t give me my money due to a phone number they have not on my account and it doesn’t work any more they tell eme until I call them with that working number i can not get my money or my account its been 4 months and still going anybody can help me
Alan Weiss
This is typical for Citibank, a company of bureaucrats who hate customers. Try writing to the CEO, you can find her on Google, Jane Fraser.