We used to understand this better, or at least it seemed that we did.
People used to sacrifice themselves for society, for the family or for what we used to describe as ‘the greater good’.
Nowadays… not so much, or even not at all.
Legacies are built over time; they're multi-generational. They come from people who understand that the only reason that they're here in any sort of positive position is because of the people who came before them, and they understand that their responsibility, their dedication to stewardship are about creating a better opportunity for the person who comes after.
This is how things improve, this is how societies are built, this is how we create legacy.
In modern terms, it's called servant leadership, epitomised beautifully by Simon Sinek in his book Leaders Eat Last, but we've created a society which is not multi-generational anymore, but mono-generational, where people don't really care what their parents did and don't really care or are not bothered about what happens to the children, apart from just the most important thing that they have the nicest car to drive or the best holidays to go on now. When in fact, none of that stuff is of any relevance whatsoever to multi-generational legacy growth.
It always fascinated me that there used to be an equation for how much you could afford to pay for a car; it was assumed to be no more than 20% of your annual income, which would mean that if you were earning £70,000 a year, you could have a car that costs £14,000. That would have been enough to save other money for your legacy for building for the future, for saving, investing and growing. Now, people who earn £70,000 would like to have a car worth £100,000. That's the opposite of legacy.
Very few people seem to understand this now, but the way that interest compounds and the wealth grows (even for the people at the bottom end of the pyramid) is something that we don't teach or talk about or understand.
Gratification now, over gratification now, is liable to lead to a lot of unhappiness and suffering later.
Creating a buffer, the ability to pivot, to move in times of difficulty, for not just you, but the people who come after you. That's how greatness happens, that's how societies are built.
We need to explain this better to our children.
Blog Post Number - 4466