What's your legacy?

Bill Walsh died today. For those of you who don't know who he is, he coached the San Fransisco 49rs to several Super Bowls and then went and coached at Stanford. He was labeled a genius by many in the pro football world as his way of coaching forever changed the game of football. But that's not all he was known for. He also gave black coaches a way into the NFL when no one else was giving them a chance and several of them became head coaches themselves. Many people have said that his encouragement, his insights and his abilities helped them to become more than they thought they could be.

That's the kind of legacy I'd like to leave. I'd like the people at my memorial to be able to say that they are better because of something I did or said to them. I'd like them to say that their life's are better, their families are better, their jobs are better because they were able to look at what I've done or said and bring that into their life and made it better.

I guess it's like the movie "Pay It Forward". If someone takes something that I've done, internalizes it and pays it forward, and it continues from there, then this world will be a better place. There's a commercial on tv right now, and I can't remember who it's for, but in every scene, people are helping other people and other people are noticing and then the next scene that person is helping someone and someone notices and the next scene that person is helping someone and so on. What a great way to be. We get so caught up in our micro-worlds that we miss what's going on around us. I took my mother-in-law to the doctor's today and while I was waiting, a sales rep came in. She had a comment for everyone and I caught myself thinking what a schmoozer she was and how fake her compliments sounded etc. Then I noticed what it was doing to the nurses and the doctors and I saw how it really lifted their moments. They began talking about what they were wearing, and their hair styles or whatever the sales rep had commented on and for that short period, they were feeling really good about themselves. In turn, they were a little more courteous to the patients and I'm sure that carried over as well. How hard was that to do? Not hard at all. Yeah, to an outsider it sounded disingenuous, but to the recipient, it was a positive boost at just the right time.

How encouraging is that? It doesn't take much. Even a smile can lift someones mood. That's the legacy we start to leave, right now.