Be forgotten to be remembered

Today’s article is about legacy. What is a legacy? I briefly touched on this in my article about leadership, in which I said that legacy works when we are forgotten.

You may donate money to a church or an organisation as part of your will after you die, and say, ‘that is my legacy’. That is bought legacy. But true legacy begins with what we do every day and how we interact with those around us. As the tv host Oprah Winfrey learnt when she opened a school in Africa for girls, legacy is something you will never know.

Your legacy is every life you have touched in your journey on this earth. Someone who has been part of an organisation for two months can have a bigger legacy than someone who has been the organisation for two years. Legacy is not something you can plan.

The part of Winston Churchills legacy we all know about, began with the D-Day landings. Where he led Britain and her allies to victory over Germany. Yet you talk to some people they tell you about his bad relationship with India. You see, it was the victory of war that laid down the foundations of Britain’s later relationship with India.

So regardless of his own personal beliefs and the papers he signed, it was the victory and the peace that has lasted more than 50 years that was the catalyst for change in the way the British Government treated India. So, generations later, Churchill touched the lives of those living in India in as much of a positive way as he did of those who live in his native country.

We all have a gift in life, it is our purpose to discover that gift. Then it is our mission to share that gift with the world. No matter how big or small, because legacy is about leaving someone with a gift once you are gone.

Now I said in my leadership article that legacy works best when we are forgotten. But we still have statues of Churchill, we can still read about his work. We still see Oprah on TV or can read her publications. But it is not person who is the legacy, it is their work.

We are on the threshold of a generation where we could lose remembrance as more and more veterans of the World Wars die. And it becomes harder for young people to connect with the names that are read out on armistice Sunday. That is why it is so important that we keep alive the legacy of those who gave their lives for our today, because people won’t remember who Churchill was or the names those on the front line during the campaigns, but they will remember how we achieved the lasting peace that began in 1945.

After 25 years Oprah gave up her TV show, but her legacy will live on in the conversations that are had by viewers on the various topics the show covered. And those conversations will continue for generations to come, but there will come a time when people won’t know what the Oprah Winfrey show was, or who Oprah was. But they will remember the topics, the conversations, and the impact it had on their ancestors.

And so, you see the sign of a good leader is that they keep pushing their team forward. A good leader will inspire their team, both individually and collectively and this is the reason why a leader can lead from anywhere, not just from the top or on the field. Churchill’s team was the armed forces and the allies, but his legacy lives on as the longest peace time in Europe, and the foundations that were laid in the overturning of the activities he endorsed in India while in office. Oprah’s team were those who contributed to the shows, her viewers and all those who continue to listen to her message. But it will be the impact of her message not the name that will stay with people for generations to come.

So what could be the legacy of young people today, the way they use the various social media platforms to interact with the world, not just those near but as far as the platform is available. So, this is why we need to be careful in what share online, what we might find funny might traumatise another. Yet what we might find uncomfortable sharing might just help one person in your audience.

So, in short, true legacy is about impact. It doesn’t have to be big or for a big audience, you don’t need a TV station, be connected to social media or the power of Government. You may only feel you have impacted a hand full of peoples through your life. But you don’t know the conversations that are had in your absence, you don’t know how long your message will stay alive once you are gone and forgotten, nor do you know what foundations it may have laid for a better future for someone you never knew, all because legacy is the gift not the person.