The LEGACY
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.
A few days ago, I listened to someone I consider an icon that every young man should watch and pattern his life after speak about a project that burned in his heart. It had a theme — Nigeria: Out of the Box. It immediately caught my attention.
‘Out of the Box’ is an expression that describes breaking away from the norm, breaking out of all set or perceived limits. It usually initiates a process of change that is radically persistent. Are you wondering what box Nigeria is in?
Look at it this way: no one ever specified limits to the amount of achievement any individual can make. Nobody has set limits to the lifespan of any corporation. Nor, were limits set to the length of years a company’s vision can span. No divine mandate was given to any particular regime (gubernatorial or presidential) stating that the plans they have to execute must last only for the tenure during which they were in power. No law was passed stating that for Nigeria to make any progress, she must depend on other nations to support her with loans and funding or revamped raw materials which we produce.
No one has done this to Nigerians. It’s a mental rut we have found ourselves: a lot that has been handed down from one generation to the next and now nestled in our court. Fortunately the soil around this rut has not set and so we can easily lift our feet out of it before we are permanently stuck within.
I believe legacy thinking to be the only cure. Renown globally focused companies have been known to draft out visions that span the entire lifetime of the founders and extend to over a 100 years. And so when they are done here on earth, the next generation after them quite easily pick up the vision and run with it: hence the remarkable growth of so-called 3rd World Nations like (Nigeria) Korea, Japan.
Legacy thinking is doing what we do now to enable the next generation. Sowing seeds of ideas, morals, values, businesses and more which they can pick up from where we have stopped because of what we have left behind. It’s a conscious plan that involves considering the direction you would like to head a number of years from now and the position you and what you represent would be then.
A legacy basically involves building to last. It involves setting in place a vision structure that looks beyond now and considers continuity as critical to productivity. It involves projecting your core values to persist over time rather than just within a life time.
Nigeria getting out of the box does not have as much to do with the government as it has to do with the private sector. Till now, most businesses fix their eyes firstly on profit, secondly on maximum profit. Profit is good (a man must get paid for his labor). However if we focus on propagating our core values in business and as individuals, a 100 years from now, that will be the only reason people would seek the services you provide whether directly from you or indirectly from the figures that represent you.
That’s a legacy.
People talk about leaving an inheritance for their children and children’s children; what Nigeria needs as an inheritance is value. I’m talking about leaving an inheritance of a value system that will pervade the mind of the generations coming right after us, not just wealth. Value will always outlast wealth.
BE all you can be!!
A tribute, published October 22, 1931, to Thomas Alva Edison upon his death: THE passing of Thomas Alva Edison serves to direct our attention to the multitude of benefactions he bestowed upon all humanity during his many years of fruitful activity. It reminds us of the debt of gratitude we owe him as members of the human race. By his achievements, he laid the foundation for continued and greater development. His persistent efforts and indefatigable spirit multiplied many times the valuable opportunities for man, especially the young man. To each and every young man, Mr. Edison left a legacy of opportunities.
Thomas Watson (1874 - 1956)
