Will Your Legacy Have An Asterisk Beside It?
They are developing Legacies for everyone now - just take a look at some of the new reality shows on Fox and other stations. Hoarders - you can go down in history as being one of the greatest Dirty Pigs that ever graced the earth. The Biggest Losers - you go through life looking like the Goodyear Blimp and then one day somebody offers you a spot on a show where you can bear your soul and your body to millions of viewers routing for you to loose that 500 pounds. American Idol - an old guy gets on the show last week and sings a song called "Pants on the Ground." Suddenly he's as Quasi Celebrity. If it wasn't for that show he'd be singing that song in the shower by himself for the rest of his life. Hell's Kitchen - where cooks with vulgar vocabularies - sitting around smoking and drinking and stabbing each other in the back in front of the camera. If you really want to reveal you true character and you can fry and egg this is a show to go on to ensure your place in the annuls of history.
The idea of leaving a mark in the world has changed. It used to be cool to write a book - become a war hero - or become famous by sheer talent. That's all changed now. Just forget to put money in the meter in Philadelphia and you'll wind up on Parking Wars. Andy Warhol was right. Everybody will get their fifteen minutes of fame and with all these new shows on the air they will get a lot more than fifteen minutes.
In driving around with Buyers and talking with Associates lately the topic of "legacy" came up. What will you leave behind after you are gone? Do you care? Do you ever think about it? Does your reputation, your contribution, your work, the "residue" of your life mean anything to you?
Will Your Legacy Have An Asterisk Beside It?
Three celebrity news stories made me think of possible asterisks.
- Conan O'Brien - will he be known as a young guy with a Tonight Show gig for awhile who moved on to greener pasture or a FAILURE in staying with the show such a short period of time?
- Tiger Woods - greatest golfer ever or philanderer with women outside marriage or maybe both?
- Mark McGwire - St. Louis Cardinals baseball homerun super slugger or it didn't count cause he used steroids?
We all are flawed human beings and a composite of our best and our worst. But thinking before we go down a path can help us with a legacy we choose rather than by drifting into one with an asterisk beside it. Most people are so focused on "success" under the age of 35 they don't think about "significance" till the second half of life, so asking them about legacy, you usually get a deer in the headlights look back.
But if it does mean anything to you whether you call it success OR significance know what that is in as carefully a constructed life mission statement that could be validated at your funeral when others are "celebrating" your life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson had a short and sweet view of success from way back when that could fit any of us if this is what you want people to think of your life after you are long gone and turned to dust. It said,
"To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;To leave the world a bit better, whether by
a healthy child, a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;To know even one life has breathed
easier because you have lived;This is to have succeeded."
So what say you? Are you cool with the legacy you are developing and leaving behind?
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