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.
Steve Kravitz
We must have had different math teachers, or were raised in places where years have different durations.
Where I come from, there are 52 weeks in a year, and:
2 x 50 = 100
(or 2 x 52 = 104)
not
2 x 50 = 50
Noah
I wonder how much does Steve earns for pointing out every typo or slight mistake on the Internet?
Glad I chose consulting over that career path.
Alan Weiss
Steve, I’m sure my eduction is lacking and inferior to yours, so thanks for pointing out that there are 52 weeks in a year, which I never knew. Turns out, therefore, I’m several years older than I thought.
I obviously rounded off to 50. I made corrections in the original, because 2X50 is 100, I’m told by my German Shepherd, who can count sheep. I think the new edition will help you sleep better.
But, I’m curious: Outside of the math, do you find the content appealing??!!
Igor Skapinker
Which content?
But seriously, it is amaizing that regardless of hundreds of times that Alan pointed that out, there are people who fail to see the message because they are so focused on the typos.
Craig Martin
Having 3 teenage kids means my concept of time is totally different to the norm.
For example: If asked to tidy a room, the 2 minutes promised by them to get started is often a full 24 hour period for me.
Therefore there must be several hundred weeks in a year and not 52.
Alan Weiss
I shall answer you in a millennium.
Craig Martin
Which is 100 times faster than most call centres.
Britt King
What’s your process for getting in front of buyers while juggling current projects?
Alan Weiss
I don’t coach for free, Britt, but you’ll find easy ways to do that in my books if you’re interested.