The legacy of your leadership
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What kind of leader would you be if you knew everyone you influenced would eventually lead in that same way?
Last week I bought The Lessons of History, my first book by the Pulitzer prize winning couple Will and Ariel Durant. They ask a fascinating question: Do civilizations die?
Their argument is that civilizations don’t ever completely die. For instance, the ancient Greek civilization isn’t completely dead. Its frame is gone and its habitat has changed and spread but it survives in the memory of the people.
Homer is a great example. No, not that Homer. The legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Did you know he has more readers now than in his own day and land?
Will and Ariel explain that the Greek poets and philosophers are in virtually every single library and college in the world. Today alone a hundred thousand philosophy students will be discovering Plato.
Bit of an odd segway, but I’ve realized how often these days I lean on the principles my early mentors taught me. In that way, their leadership lives on in much the same way as the influence of Homer and Plato.
No pressure, but think about how your leadership style and values can reproduce and live on in those that follow you. It certainly made we wonder what I want my legacy to be!
“This selective survival of creative minds is the most real and beneficent of immortalities.” - Will and Ariel Durant