Well I’m just back from Denver, Colorado, where I’ve been
speaking at what is clearly going to become an annual conference, and it’s run
by The Purposeful Planning Institute.
It’s actually a very lovely, rendezvous they call it, where advisors to
high net worth families meet to discuss
ways in which they can better serve their clients and move in the direction of
more purposeful lives. So as you can
imagine that gets my vote. And actually,
it started, the first rendezvous was last year, and in the run up to that, a
year before that even, I was asked if I would come on the steering
committee. Well those of you who know me
well, will know that a committee animal I am not really. But in this particular case it seemed such an
important initiative rather than just having advisors talk about tax plans and
so forth, that I actually really did want to be involved and I was, helped make
the first conference happen, and indeed spoke last year in Denver at the
conference. The result being that people
were really very moved, because I was working with somebody and did a
demonstration, and that’s something that these kind of people don’t see very
often, if at all.
So this year I was back and my theme was ‘how will you
change the world?’ and talking about legacy.
Well a lot of people think that legacy, oh yes, that’s what dead people
leave isn’t it? and you need lots of money to do it. And what I was saying was that nothing could
be further from the truth. Really, each
of us leaves a legacy, and it’s to do with the influence and the actions that
we engage in. the influence we have with
others, for good or ill, we have on a daily basis. You don’t have to wait until you’re dead good
lord! You can influence people moment by
moment and there are so many examples of this all around us, indeed very often,
I was telling them that when I’m working with clients, I’ll frequently give
negative examples of influence, because then people can immediately appreciate
how powerful influence is.
Recently in the US a guy called Jerry Sandusky was indicted
for multiple counts of child molestation and sexual abuse. And he was a coach on a very prestigious
football team. The guy doesn’t have much
money, but had the amazing ability to wreck a lot of people’s lives. Now, that’s a legacy, it just happens to be
profoundly negative. And once people
recognise that, gosh, yeah, I probably impacting people, it means that however
much money you have is almost irrelevant.
You will be having an effect on people, for good or ill. So the question then becomes, what sort of
influence do you want to have? And that
there’s no point in just saying oh little old me, what can I do? You know, if I was a billionaire I would make
the world a better place, well that’s nice, but actually you’re doing things
right now, the question is are they what you would choose? Is the influence you’re having the one you
would want to be associated with?
So my basic suggestion to people was we create our legacy on
a daily basis, and you cannot not leave a legacy on a daily basis. I wonder, what will yours be today? What was yours yesterday? The last weekend? Now, we’re not used to thinking like that,
but when we do one of the things that happens is people realise that they had
much more power and impact than they thought.
And this is true regardless of their income or their net worth. ‘Cause it ain’t about money. It’s about you. And this year was a very lovely year, because
I actually did a demonstration with the creator of The Purposeful Planning
Institute and in the process, he was making connections with why he has the
baggage he has, and how those had been with him pretty much all his life
really, and it just strengthens people and their resolve and their clarity
about what really matters and what do I want to be doing going forward in my
life?
So a very, very fulfilling weekend and I’ll tell you more
next time.
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