Legacy: Your Story
Legacy is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a gift by will, especially of money or other personal property” and “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.” There are essentially three types of legacy: memory (your story), resources (your stuff), and identity (who you are).
We all leave a legacy. We can be intentional about it, building the kind of legacy we want to leave, or we leave whatever legacy happens by chance – good or bad. The fact that you are reading these words indicates you are a woman on a mission. You work hard each day to build a business, a non-profit, a reputation, a client base, or otherwise on an upward trajectory in life. You don’t want to sit and watch life pass you by. You are a woman who dares. You have dared to step out and build a business even though it seemed to be an impossible or unreachable goal.
Daring to Leave a Legacy
We stand on the shoulders of women who dared, changed the world, and left a trailblazing legacy. Women such as Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Earhart, Bessie Coleman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Fannie Lou Hamer, Diane Nash, Sandra Day O’Conner, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Aimee Simple McPherson, and Sally Ride are just a few of the many women who dared and changed the world.
Pause and think about these women who suffered, sacrificed, blazed trails, ignored society’s stigma that women were inferior, forged career paths previously reserved for men only, and forged the paths on which we now walk. These women were not simply on a mission for themselves, they were trailblazers for us all. They left a legacy for us.
Not included in this list are our own grandmothers, mothers, aunts, sisters, teachers, professors, neighbors, and other women within our own communities who left us with their legacies. What did they “transmit” to you? Is it your work ethic, faith, determination, perseverance, love for others, skill, or trade?
How will you preserve your legacy?
In my work as an Estate Planning attorney and a writing coach, I primarily address two of the three types of legacy: resources (“stuff”) and memory (“story”). Though I am not directly addressing identity, the third type of legacy, working through these other two helps bring into focus your identity. For example, as you think about your story, you may understand better your own identity. Who do you say you are? What does it mean to be you?
The preservation of your legacy depends on the type of legacy. To preserve your resources, or your “stuff”, you need to do a formal estate plan that includes a last will and testament, power of attorney, advanced directive for health care, and possibly a trust. To preserve your memory - your story - you can write a book.
How Will You Preserve Your Memory?
Your wisdom and knowledge will die with you unless you preserve it. How will the memory of you be preserved by others?
Live your life on mission, on purpose. This was my motto several years ago as I set out to help victims of human trafficking. It’s continued to be my motto as I’ve written and published a book, taught small groups, and helped clients with their estate plans.
It doesn’t matter your mission in life – whether it’s to help people reach their health goals, financial goals, or if it’s to walk other people’s dogs – you have a message to share. If you are on a mission to be the best dog walker in town, why is that your mission? What is your motivation?
Your Book is Your Business Card
Your calling in life is more than just what you do for a living. For example, are you called to help businesses grow? Is that your passion? Your job – what you do for a living – may be as a social media coordinator, but your passion is to see a small business grow and thrive. Your legacy is in using your talents and abilities in social media marketing to help that business grow. You can preserve your legacy by writing a short book about your “why”, about why you do what you do, what makes you passionate about this, and how you can add value. What is your story?
My writing and publishing mentor, Michelle Prince, was the first to introduce me to the concept that “your book is your business card.” That was a novel and fascinating idea to me. How many of you keep a business card given by someone else for more than a few days? More than a week? Business cards are easily thrown away, but many people won’t throw away a book. It doesn’t have to be 300-page book, but a short 10,000-word book that introduces people to you.
A book can tell your “why”. It can explain why you want to help in a particular area and can explain why you want to help that client or customer. Why do you do what you do? A business card can’t do that. It can’t express your passion for helping others and why you are passionate about what you do.
Be the Expert
As you network and meet potential customers/clients, give them a book rather than a business card. Your book can show your authentic self. Customers and clients are drawn to authenticity. Certainly, knowledge and experience is important, but the mere fact you’ve written a book indicates you’ve got that. Most people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Who wants to be known as an expert? Writing a book makes you an expert. You gain instant credibility with others when you are a published author. This can open doors for you that might otherwise not open and provide opportunities that might not otherwise be available to you. Writing and publishing your own book can help you build your platform. My mentor is also my publisher, and she can help with that book as your business card.
“You Can Have Everything in life . . .”
Help others. Writing a book allows you to help more people. A small book may not bring someone through your office door, but maybe, with whatever need you solve, the book alone helps someone who reads it. It is my passion to see women leave their legacies of resources and memory in a manner fitting to the way they led their lives, intentionally and missionally. To quote Zig Ziglar, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
What Is YOUR book as your business card?
What is the “why” you need to share with others? I’ll be glad to help you with your business card book! Connect with me for more information or follow me on Facebook.
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