Legacy: As a leader, what do you want to be remembered for?

Legacy: As a leader, what do you want to be remembered for?

I read the account of Methuselah who lived for 969 years, almost 1000 years. This dude lived the life of 10+ people! But his Legacy was written in two sentences. In fact, there was nothing to be remembered about Methuselah except that he was the oldest person that ever lived, and he had sons and daughters. Sons and daughters? The Octo Mom Nadya Suleman had proved to us that that’s not a big deal. Great legacy?

According to global leadership guru, Dr. Stephen R. Covey, “the need to leave a legacy is our spiritual need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, personal congruence, and contribution.”
I teach college students Principles of Marketing. I have argued that in most ways, we are all marketers or at the minimum, salespeople, without knowing it. Everything we do, say or write, at work, home, in the community or online, is an act of selling. We are selling ourselves—making impressions of ourselves. Thus, we leave a legacy that remains when we are gone. So, it’s not how long we lived but how well.
I don’t mind a foundation in my name, an estate, university, fortune 500 company or a city named after me. However, are these best legacies to leave when we “wash the nets”? What is your best legacy as a leader? What makes a great legacy? Was William Shakespeare right when he wrote “No legacy is so rich as honesty?”

Benjamin Anyacho
www.Leadersandthinkers.org

Can we say that the AIG boss, Edward Liddy is the scapegoat of regulatory irresponsibilities and leadership?

Everyone is angry with the ailing insurer, AIG and its resent executive bonuses totaling $165 million. Are these guys out of touch with realities? I believe that those that take more risk should be rewarded more. Those that make bad choices should not be rewarded with taxpayers’ money. But are you frustrated that authorities knew of this provision for executive bonuses about a year ago? It was not concealed. Some cable news reported of this Novembers 2008. Before the last disbursement of the bailout fund, the regulatory body new of the bonuses, including the date of the payment, and could not stop it.

Liddy was brought in about six months to oversee this company that has received $182 billion in federal bailout money, said he, too, was angry about the bonuses. He was not there when the contract was made. He voluntarily pays him $1 per annum.
Can we say that the AIG boss, Edward Liddy is the scapegoat of regulatory irresponsibilities and leadership?