What's legacy and what does it mean to us?

Amazing persons with different backgrounds who have made significant achievements in the worlds of business, sports, education, hiking and other endeavors share their views on legacy and what it means to them.  Reflecting on the importance and meaning of one's legacy can be an enriching exercise and often a first step to determining how to unleash our willingness to seek our bigger purpose.  Enjoy.

"At one point, our company had gotten stuck.  We were focusing mainly on financial metrics, missing our passion for customers and we needed help finding our bigger purpose.  What made us different from our competitors?  How could we make our customers' lives significantly more meaningful?  How would we make this a better world?  We needed to find our true corporate legacy."  Former chief executive officer.

"Legacy to me is more about sharing what you have learned, not just what you have earned, and bequeathing values over valuables, as material wealth is only a small fraction of your legacy.   Legacy is when you are genuinely grounded in offering yourself and making a meaningful, lasting and energizing contribution to humanity by serving a cause greater than your own."   Business school dean.

"Legacy means making the institution (workplace, alma mater, family, etc.) and your community a better place than it was when you arrived.  It means putting the interests of the institutions and the people you encounter each day ahead of your own."   Senior partner in large global consulting firm.

"Legacy?  At the end of the day, it's all about the people.  If your organization or work is not focusing on making lives better, whether customers, shareholders or employees, your aren't seeing the bigger picture and missing the whole point."   Retired corporate president.

"Legacy is something left behind that is positive, meaningful and makes a difference, whether tangible or intangible."   Entrepreneur, philanthropist and chief executive officer.

"Legacy is the testimony we leave behind about the things we value.  It’s the what people will most remember about us when we are gone.  So invest wisely in your legacy and make it a grand, glorious statement."  Marketing manager and Appalachian Trail thru-hiker.

"I tried to be a role model at work and leave behind actions, attitudes and character that my successors could admire. I was happy for the success of the people who worked with me and followed me.  That was my legacy at work. "  Retired senior corporate attorney.

"About legacy, this quote by Charles Spurgeon gets closest for me: Carve your name on hearts and not on marble."  Senior university official.

"I hope my personal legacy will be living up to what my mom and dad laid out for me as goals and expectations."  Senior advisor and retired corporate officer. 

"To me legacy can be constituted by sentimental and moral values ​​such as honesty, respect and loyalty that can leave one person to another. It is known as a family legacy that goes beyond economic patrimony."   Immigrant entrepreneur and chief executive officer.

"Legacy is something that’s carried on as a tradition within the dynamics of a family."  Teacher and long distance hiker.

"As a business leader, my job is to give our customers a first class experience, while providing our employees a fertile environment so we can grow together.  That's my work legacy."   Corporate director.

"Legacy is the mark somebody leaves on the world.  Kindness is the legacy I want to leave.  So maybe legacy isn’t so much a mark left on the world but a mark left on the people who knew you."   University student and Appalachian Trail through-hiker.

"Legacy means something I leave behind.  It resonates to me in a personal way because one of my professional goals is to leave the organization with a legacy of leaders  that I have personally impacted in a positive way in their leadership journey."   Senior corporate officer.

"Many people believe legacy is something material you leave for others: it could be an inheritance to family, a gift to an alma mater or an endowment to an organization.  While that is a correct technical interpretation, I believe it is much more of what you leave of yourself with others."   Retired senior corporate officer.

"For me legacy goes well beyond, and actually may not even include financial legacy.  Our core purpose is to impact the lives of those we serve.  In the end, no matter whether it is my family, my clients, my community, or my firm, I hope the impact and legacy I leave can be summed up in one simple statement:

 Well done my good and faithful servant.

 I don’t think there can be a better legacy than that."   President/founder of an investment firm.

"Your legacy is the imprint of yourself that you leave on your family, friends and coworkers."  Rising star executive in a global corporation.

"There are many universities.  Our purpose and legacy is to reach for the sky, make ours the best university on this planet and change the world in a meaningful way."   University alumni leader.

"Legacy is the testimony we leave behind about the things we value.  It’s what people will most remember about us when we are gone.  So invest wisely in your legacy and make it a grand, glorious statement." Marketing manager and Appalachian Trail thru-hiker.

"In its simplest terms, legacy to me means the collective things you did over your lifetime."   Retired chief executive officer and corporate director.

"First, legacy is what you do in your lifetime that is left behind, both positive or negative, for which you are remembered and perhaps judged by the rest of humanity...  a known legacy.

Second, and perhaps more important to me, is the positive legacy you leave behind for which you may never be remembered, but has changed lives, helped society and humankind: a selfless legacy not born out of pride."   Senior global corporate executive.

"My legacy is multi faceted: a legacy as a father, son, brother, colleague, husband and casual acquaintance.  In all cases I hope that people think of me as a fiercely loyal person who had a strong faith in God.  A person who approached life with empathy, humor and forgiveness.  A person you could trust with your greatest secrets and insecurities.  A person you could count on during life’s challenges for prayer and support.  A person who was competitive and fair."   Retired senior advertising executive.

"When I think of legacy, I think about how I will be remembered, whether that’s after leaving a job or after I pass away.  It’s about finding my purpose and living my life to the best of my ability.  It's sharing with others the lessons learned:  the good, the bad and the ugly,  so that others may benefit somehow."   Yoga instructor, blogger and rising corporate star.

"I have two souls. One hopefully goes to heaven with me when I die.  The second one is left here on earth for others.   My second soul is my legacy."   Retired senior partner in a global investment firm.

"Legacy is making an impact that lasts longer than the impact-maker.  The impact can be big or small.   Your legacy is that gift which you give to society and  the ripple that lasts long after you are gone."   Senior human resources executive.

"Legacy is our life’s work.  It’s what we will all be remembered for after we are all gone."   Senior partner at a global consulting firm.

"I look at legacy as our personal touchpoint, how our presence made the lives of others better because we were there.  it’s the hope to be remembered for leading a good life with kindness, grace and a generosity of spirit."   Retired corporate executive and director.

"To me legacy is simple.: what you leave behind or what you have instilled in those that follow you."   Senior corporate executive.

"Legacy is the cumulative impact of the things we do while alive.  It's what leaves a history of the life we led, and it provides inspiration for our survivors and future generations to lead a purposeful life."  Entrepreneur and executive coach.

"Legacy is what one leaves the world that wasn’t there before, both in a positive and negative way: it's your contribution to mankind.  The traits, habits and ideas that you have left on the people you have encountered in your life."   Entrepreneur and chief executive officer.

"Ralph Waldo Emerson once said : To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - that is to have succeeded”.  Having made a positive impact on the world in some small way or leaving it a bit better place than you found it could certainly be considered one’s legacy."   Senior corporate executive.

"I am inspired by donors who provide support to faculty and students who they do not know and may never meet.  Knowing that someone establishes an endowment and 100 years from now, when we are all gone, their gift is still helping people and supporting the greatest gift, a quality education, is a truly inspiring legacy."   University senior official.

"Legacy is how one is remembered, what we leave behind:  children, contributions to society, lives changed, time and monetary donations, environmental improvements are a few examples."   Retired senior corporate executive.

"As a lawyer, I think of legacy in the legal context of a gift or bequest from the older generation to the younger generation, or to a charity.  But I also think of it as the gift of wisdom and knowledge about life that we give to our children, friends and colleagues who live on after we are gone."   Retired senior corporate attorney.

"I think of legacy from the perspective of what one leaves behind for others that may transcend time.  Some think of legacy in terms of a gift or a tangible bequest.  Personally, I think of legacy as a gift, but not in terms of money or property.  I hope my legacy in business and as a leader will be different than my legacy as a wife, a mother or as a friend.  The gifts I might leave as a business leader would be around people, culture and inclusion. As a mother around unconditional love, acceptance, family traditions. As a wife around love, loyalty and commitment. As a friend around sharing, caring and longevity."   Corporate chairman of the board.

"Legacy means to me a lasting memory.  A person's accomplishments, beliefs or what that person represented can be a lasting legacy."   Retired NBA/NCAA player and foundation director.

"Your legacy is that homemade gift, whether intentional or not, that you craft slowly over a lifetime, and you share and leave with others after you are gone.   It can be a positive gift  that provides inspiration, hope, smiles and gratitude; or it can be more like a shadow causing  concern and strife."    Senior marketing executive.

"I have always believed that my legacy will lie in the seeds of compassion, shared empowerment and high integrity that I have managed to plant and nurture in people around me."   Senior corporate executive.

"Legacy means that, at least in some form, your essence endures in someone or something else, that your influence continues unabated. Tangible or ephemeral, your legacy tells future generations what mattered to you and what should matter to them, so they can pass those lessons on to others forever."  Senior NHL executive and senior corporate executive in collaboration.

"From the temporal perspective, I think our legacy is the impact we leave on others, primarily our family.   A legacy is the sum of the positive and negative attributes and characteristics that we try to instill in others.  From an eternal perspective, the legacy is more around whether or not we pointed others to Jesus."   Senior corporate executive.

"Legacy to me means what I have done yesterday, what I do today and will do tomorrow and next days.  It's what will have an impression on others after, perhaps long after, I am gone."   Retired senior partner in global consulting  firm.

"Someone’s legacy is their footprint of their time on earth.  It's the long lasting statement about their life."    President of global corporation.

"At the end of your time in a role or a place, leaving it (the organization) a better place, and those around you in a better place, than when you were there.  The yardstick for measuring our success as partners is both simple and profound:  to pass on a legacy and leave the firm a better place than when you were admitted to the partnership."   Senior partner of a global consulting firm.

"Sometimes, leaders need to stop and smell the coffee.  As a team, find the bigger purpose or your company will turn to mediocrity.  Life is too short.  Find your legacy!"    Corporate director.