What is your legacy?

Sep 20, 2024 2:45 pm

Happy Friday!

For those of you who don't know, before I became a consultant, I was a job hopper. The longest I spent at any job was two years, and I'd say excluding those two times, my average time at a company was around 8-10 months.

My reasons for moving on varied sometimes the company was downsizing or recently required and about to downsize. Other times I saw a better opportunity or a lack of growth. A few times it was because I couldn't stand the place.

Hearing about my job hopping tends to provoke reactions ranging from folks saying they wish they had that courage to disbelief that my career isn't in shambles.

Still, a question always lingers in the back of my mind.

What will my legacy be for my time there or for my client?

You might also think of this question as "What will people think of me when I'm gone?"

This little question is one I come back to somewhat regularly. It prompts me to think of who I am compared to who I wish I was. It makes me look at the situation I'm in and consider where I'm excelling and where I'm neglecting things. I think back to conversations where I could have been more impactful. I see the opportunities I took skillfully and the ones I let slip by.

At the end of the day, I want my clients and the people I work with to say that things are better because of the time I spend with them. They may say it wasn't always easy, and that sometimes it was really challenging, but that they would never give up what they got from our time together.

My legacy won't be a PowerPoint deck.

Can I live up to my idea of what I want my legacy to be? Some days, I can. Some days, I don't. I can quietly celebrate the days I live up to the idea of who I can be. On the days I can't remember, I get another day to try again. I apologize to my clients when I make a mistake or miss something, then try again.

It is surprisingly freeing to live like this. I'm not pretending—I'm trying. I find the people around me enjoy the honesty in seeing and hearing me work through things. I like to think it helps them to find the courage to try themselves.

So, what is your legacy?

Oh, and below is a video from one of my more recent beekeeping adventures. There's a lot of footage of queen bees.