This essay was written just after the British Open was last held at St. Andrews in Scotland.  It was Jack Nicklaus’ last appearance in this event.  It is the end of an era and much is being made of his legacy.  When asked he said he isn’t giving any thought to his legacy; that he has too much life and things to do ahead of him.  That is a shame!

When pushed on the subject, Jack could only come up with vague and general platitudes such as he wanted to leave the game of golf better off than he found it.  I have been thinking a great deal about legacy and, I must admit, I am having just as difficult time expressing what it means as does Jack Nicklaus.  In my efforts to get my mind wrapped around legacy I have spoken with a great number of people, many of whom were my clients before I sold my interest in the business to my partner.  And I have read a great deal on the subject.  I still have not isolated its essence.  Hence, this essay on the subject.  I hope it will force to the surface a workable definition of legacy.  I also hope it will get you thinking about it as well.

Webster’s defines it as 1) money or property left to someone by a will; bequest 2) anything handed down from, or as from, an ancestor.  This seems to be a woefully inadequate definition.  In recent months my wife has lost her mother and a dear client has lost his wife.  These events have caused great reflection.  The conversations concerning these loved ones have not focused on the money or property left behind but their ethic, determination, smile, favorite expressions, habits and their continuing presence in the lives of those they have left behind.

Whether you ask Jack Nicklaus, those late in their life, the children of those who have recently died or anyone, it is almost impossible for them to define legacy.  It is subject we find even more difficult to pursue the older we get.  It seems as though the difficulty we have in focusing on it and discussing it, is directly related to how close we are to actually leaving a legacy.  In other words, the older we are the harder it is to focus on, to define and to discuss it.  This difficulty is, I believe, evidence of its importance – its innate importance.

It is my view that the legacy we leave is as important as the DNA code we leave to succeeding generations – No, it is more important.  The code of integrity, the code of love and the code of ethics you leave is substantially more important than your DNA code.  What is more important: he looks just like his father or he behaves just like his father?  Certainly that depends upon how his father behaved and how successful he was in passing on the source or basis of that behavior.  All great families and even nations seem to deteriorate overtime.  Why is that?  I believe it is due to the failure to pass on wisdom from generation to generation.

I have just finished reading a wonderful book by Gerald L. Schroeder entitled The Hidden Face of God: Science Reveals The Ultimate Truth”.  The author is a trained scientist in both physics and biology.  He earned his Ph.D. at M.I.T. and has worked at the Weizmann Institute, the Hebrew University and the Volcani Research Institute in Israel.  Let me quote from this book:

 “…. the universe is in fact so very comprehensible to the human mind.  It is because we are a part of the universe that has become aware.  And in being part of it, we have come to comprehend ourselves.  Our newly found self-understanding has revealed that wisdom is contained within even the simplest of particles, and an unfathomable and even perplexing amount of wisdom is present in the complexity of life.”

 “Life, and certainly, conscious life, is no more apparent in a slurry of rocks and water, or in the primordial ball of energy produced in the creation, than are the words of Shakespeare apparent in a jumble of letters shaken in a bag.  The information stored in the genetic code common to all life, DNA, is not implied by the biological building blocks of DNA, neither in the nucleotide letters nor in the phosphor-diester bonds along which those letters are strung.  Nor is consciousness implied in the structure of the brain.  All three imply a wisdom that precedes matter and energy.”

 “The strong possibility exists that at the bottom of the pile we will discover that all the particles are varied manifestations of an underlying energy, which in turn may be the manifestation of something even more ethereal.  Call it wisdom, or an idea, information.”

 “Energy and matter, waves and particles, are all expressions of some deeper reality in which particles and fields of energy and even time blend.  If beneath all the weirdness there is logic, a thought, a preexisting law, we will have discovered the continuum that links the metaphysical with the physical.”

 “There’s anecdotal evidence that the physical is actually embedded within the metaphysical.  We all have an unexplainable nebulous desire to reach for some higher purpose, for meaning, in life even after we’ve satisfied the survival needs of food, clothing, and shelter.”

Schroeder has put words to the growing sense I have had that we must transmit the knowledge, yes the wisdom, we have gathered as we have aged.  This is part of our created purpose.  Just as Man has learned how to use the basic building blocks of nature to destroy nature we can use this knowledge to promote and enhance or to destroy.  In fact, regardless of whether we do so consciously or not, we will either enhance creation or contribute to its decay.  We will leave a legacy of some kind.  Shouldn’t we do so consciously and with intention?

Again, I believe we all have a created need to actively leave a legacy but we have no idea how to do so.  We have a great fear that we will just be viewed as a nag or a bore by our children and grandchildren.  Society has lost, if it ever had, any institutionalized way to transmit knowledge and wisdom from generation to generation.  Society has developed in ways that make the transmission of knowledge and wisdom both more difficult and easier than ever before.  At the time I wrote this I lived in Central California; a thousand miles from my nearest son and family, and my other son and family live in Ireland.  The wide dispersion that takes place today makes the transmission of knowledge and wisdom between generations more difficult.  But the relatively low cost of travel and the digital transmission of voice, word and picture makes it much, much easier than it ever has been to be in constant communication with others.  So it is no more difficult today to be the transmitter of knowledge and wisdom than has been and it is probably a lot easier.

The single most critical step in leaving a legacy is our walk.  And, for that reason, everyone who has walked this earth leaves a legacy.  But most do it with out consciously focusing on the legacy they are leaving by their walk.  If we spent more time thinking about the legacy we want to leave – especially early in life – we would have walked a different walk; or at least have been more careful with the steps we took. 

The second more critical step in leaving a legacy is our talk.  The problem most of us have is that we talk better than we walk!  We don’t consistently walk our talk.  Hence we diminish the positive impact of both.  How much more impact would our legacy have if our walk and talk were consistent?  Talk is our consciousness put into words.  Schroeder points out in his book that all matter is made up of energy and underlying energy is knowledge.  Words are how man transfers knowledge and we know that words have energy and great power.  Think of our revolution and the power of the Federalist Papers and the Declaration of Independence.  The Declaration of Independence still today empowers and energizes men all over the world.  Think of the Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech.  Words are how we capture and transfer wisdom to the generations to come.  It is how we energize and empower others.  Being able to put your legacy into words would be to give succeeding generations great power and energy; a great gift.  And this is where most of us fall short.

How can each of us accomplish this hugely important task for the benefit of the generations that will carry our DNA?  The first step is to discover what you have learned and wish to transmit as your legacy.  This discovery process will be a rewarding activity in its own right.  Some already have a clear idea of the legacy they want to leave and know how to articulate it but most of us don’t.  The following is a suggestion as to how you might go about finding the legacy you want to leave.

1. Make a list of the people who have added richness and meaning to your life.  Then ask of each:
   
   a. What have I learned from each of these people?
   b. What behaviors did I most admire about in these people?
   c. What character traits stood out in each of these people?
   
2. Make a list of the activities in your life that have given you the most pleasure and sense of fulfillment.  Then ask:
   
   a. What is about each that caused them to be a source of pleasure and fulfillment?
   b. What kinds of behavior did these activities promote in you?
   c. What character traits did these activities require of you?
   
3. Make a list of the places you have lived, visited or frequented with some regularity that you enjoyed most in your life.  Then ask:
   
   a. What kinds of activities did you engage in there?
   b. Who were you involved with at each of these places?
   c. Revisit 1 and 2 above if new names of people and new activities come to light here.

Based upon this exercise complete the following statements:

1. The chief purpose of life is:
   
   
   
2. The most important character traits in life are:
   
   
   
3. Experiencing a fulfilling life requires:
   
   

Perhaps from the beginning of time Man has used stories to communicate the meaning of life.  Whether those stories were painted on the wall of a cave, told around campfires or written down for posterity they have been a rich source of wisdom and meaning.  All of us as we age seem to become story tellers in some degree or other; especially to our children, grandchildren and close friends.  Often we tell the same stories over and over again.  Make a list of the stories you tell and then ask yourself, “Why do I tell this particular story?”  Run the contents of each story through the filter of the above questions.  Make a note of the meaning that you get from each of the stories.  You can then begin to tell them with awareness and intention.

I have recently read the autobiography of Henry Adams.  He was the great grandson of our second President and our country’s first great historian.  He was the friend of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.  He led a varied and rich life.  He called his biography “The Education of Henry Adams”.  He drew lessons from his life that he wanted to share with succeeding generations.  Those of you who have talent with the written word might want to write your biography and do it in a way that would draw out of it lessons to be learned by all of its readers.  You can do it in the third person without preaching.

Whether you use these devices or others of your own creation the end result should be to put into words the lessons you have learned from life and the wisdom you want to leave behind.  Don’t leave your wealth alone and whether you have wealth or not, your wisdom will be a rich blessing to those you leave behind and the succeeding generations.  You will leave a legacy.  Do so with intention and purpose so that the world can learn and grow.