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Legacy: What Will Yours Be?
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To Steve Jobs...
The beautiful white box with the colorful Apple logo sits proudly on the passenger seat of my car - safely secured with the seat belt. Upon arriving home, I carefully carry the box into my home office and place it on my barren desk. It is 1985. I recently left a secure, well-paid corporate position in a large company headquartered in San Francisco to follow my dream - consult with leaders to help them build hugely successful enterprises that are also great work places for all.
I open the box and pull out the Apple Macintosh with 128kb of memory. It is darling! I plug it in and a smiley face greets me. As a techno-phobe, it is exactly the kind of greeting I need in order to engage with my first computer. I quickly begin to use it and am filled with delight as I began to learn to change fonts and delete and make changes. No more typewriters! No more carbon paper and correction fluid! No more re-doing documents over and over again in order to get them just right.
I excitedly attach the Apple logo sticker to my office window and place another in the back window of my car. I am now a member of a very special club. The oxytocin flows freely through me. I am in love!
Little do I know that, a month later, Apple will become my first big client as I launch my consulting practice. For the next 7 years, I gave my best and learned a ton at Apple. It was a magical time. Apple changed my life. Thanks Steve.
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"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Death is very likely the single best invention of Life."
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| Leadership Opportunity | |
All leaders leave a legacy. Our legacy is what we leave behind when we move on. What do you want your legacy to be?
Some questions worth thinking about:
1 - When I leave this organization, what do I want people to say and know about me? What do I want to contribute here that will remain when I move on?
2 - What are my core values - the ones that matter most to me?
3 - If I die tomorrow, am I proud of my legacy, knowing I am living according to my core values?
4 - What do I want to continue doing in order to leave the kind of legacy I wish to leave?
5 - What do I want to stop doing that undermines that legacy?
6 - What do I want to start doing that enhances the legacy?
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Memorable Moment
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Am I living my values and leaving a legacy with which I am at peace?
It's about 9pm on a summer evening. The sky is dark grey with storm clouds as streaks of lightning pierce the darkness. The plane is moving up and down and sideways as we make our way from San Francisco to Philadelphia on a non-stop flight. The lights go dim in the passenger cabin. The tension rises. No one is talking. I'm sitting in a window seat in the 6th row. The pilot's voice breaks the silence. He tells us we've lost one engine and some electrical power and will land at O'Hare in Chicago. We are to fasten our seat belts and await instructions from the crew. I can hear passengers whispering prayers behind me. I look out the window and ask myself if there is anything I regret or anything I want to say to anyone - just in case this is my final opportunity. I tell my loved ones, in a soft voice, that I love them. I know that, although I am not actually speaking to them in person right now, they know that I love them deeply. I become amazingly calm.
I am at peace because I know I've done my very best to live my core values: Loving relationships with family and friends; Learning; Being authentic and true to myself; and Collaborating with colleagues and clients to bring out the potential of people and teams in the work place. I know that many people have touched me deeply and that I've done the same. My legacy lives through the people I've touched and theirs lives through me.
We get off the plane at O'Hare. I kneel down and touch and kiss the tarmac. I am grateful to be alive and at peace.
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Call to Action
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Are you living your life as you truly wish to live it?
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Please let me know if I can answer any questions you may have. I welcome feedback on my newsletter.
Sincerely
Pat
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