Legacy

Those who betray their own friends leave a legacy of abuse to their children. - Job 17:5 (The Message)

Something happened, something changed the way life is viewed and the way time is figured and the way we feel about what is important and how success is defined. I’m not sure when this change took place.  But somewhere in the not too distant past there was a shift and that shift has caused tremendous upheaval in our society. What I am writing about here is our sense of the value of the long term, our understanding of success, the idea of legacy as a motivator for how one lives in the present.

 I know there are negatives to a focus upon legacy but there are some really helpful things about it as well especially if the legacy in question isn’t about one person’s egocentric stamp on the world. I can be nostalgic I know that. I also know that the past can teach us things to help us in the present and future. The most helpful way to be nostalgic is to take something that is good from the past, clean it off, modify it a bit and set it loose in new situations and circumstances. I think this is what we need to do with the concept of legacy.

Today when we talk about leaving a legacy it has connotations of wealth and property. We see a legacy as that thing that someone else leaves you in a will. Or we mean it as the child following the parent in attending a particular college or university, membership in a group, or other situation where your familial relationship with a past member allows you entrance and access. The other way to talk about legacy is in reference to the way someone will be remembered, the thing that will carry forward into history that was their major accomplishment or failure.

But legacy used to mean something more than it does now. A parent worked the land, developed a farm or ranch with the intend of not only leaving the property to their children but a better life for them and for the community. There was the sense that the legacy you left was a better world. People who started businesses not only wanted to succeed in the present but they also wanted to leave something vital for their families and for the families that depended upon them for their livelihood. To leave a legacy meant to have done something meaningful that changed the world for the better. A classic example would be Andrew Carnegie – I know that he was no saint but by the time of his death he had given away 90% of his wealth ($350 million then or about $4.76 billion today) and part of what those donations bought were public libraries across the country. He left a legacy that made the world better. I think Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and even Phil Knight are trying to do the same with their fortunes. But too often today people seem only interested in making money for themselves and their immediate family and friends with no real desire to improve the common good.

Success was defined both personally and communally. If you succeeded as an individual you also helped your community and the world succeed. You saw the need to improve things now for the long term. Simon Benson, the lumber baron of Portland, gave money to build a High School that would educate young men and give them training so that he could have a trained and educated workforce for his businesses. Sure his motivation was personal and centered on the bottom line but he saw the way forward as improving the lives of others in order to get what he needed.

The debate today about the minimum wage is a debate about how we define success, how we view the long term vitality of our communities, and how we understand the concept of legacy. If the prime motivation is the bottom line this quarter then a low minimum wage makes sense – lower employee costs mean more income in the quarter. But if you look out even 2 years you will see low productivity, high employee turnover and lack of employee desire to innovate and improve the company and the bottom line and the costs associated. It is being shown over and over and over again that investing in living wages, providing benefits, making sure that employees are adequately trained, and doing other things to enhance the work environment and experience increases profits and company vitality over time. One quarter may not look good but the longer term picture shows that the investments are worth it. The legacy a company leaves with living wages and an improved work environment is a successful business providing jobs, a community that has a healthy middle class, and a world that improves as others see the value of improving the common good.

I think it is time investors started working long term. It shouldn’t be about this quarter or this year. It should be about the way a company makes its mark on the world and the legacy it is leaving and the profit is generates. A company with a long term view and a sense of legacy will perform and often perform well. But, you have to be in it for the long term and you have to see the success of your investing as not only what you make but also what the legacy of the companies you invest in are. Success is improving the common good and making the world a better place. If you have a pension plan, a 401K, invest in stocks, bonds, or leave you money in savings you are investing. What legacy are you leaving from the places where you put your money?

Something to think about…

Dear God, thank you for those who have the gift of being entrepreneurs, thank you for those who are willing to give away what they earn in ways that better lives and improve the common good. Help me to invest myself and my resources in such a way that I leave a legacy of a better world. Amen.