After attending a friend's funeral, the speaker reflects on what actually lasts after we die. He talks with his siblings about legacy beyond money: emotional intelligence, books, ideas that shape future generations. What do you want to leave behind?
Peace, fam. Just want to touch base with you real quick. Uh, you know, yesterday I had to attend a funeral service for, uh, one of my longtime friends out of my neighborhood. And you know, every time I go to funerals, you know, I'm someone that spends that time deeply reflecting not only of the life, uh, of the person that we are in attendance for, but I always think about my life. Uh, number one, what my funeral would look like, where, you know, who would show up and how would people, uh, you know, feel about, you know, my life as I lived it. But most importantly, you know, what legacy will I have left behind? And so I got in a conversation with my sister, you know, Zaza, my brother Dune, and we were talking about, you know, that like how important it is that after you have left this earth, transcended on, what will you leave behind? And a lot of times people think it's monetary. They think about, you know, generational wealth and the physical things that you would leave behind. But what else could you leave behind to let them know, the world know you were here? 100 years from now, will people know you were here? And how will you have an impact because you existed? And that's something I always heavily think about and is the reason why I've taken the position with emotional intelligence. It's the reason why I authored a few books, because one thing I know is that long after I'm gone, people will have an opportunity to know that I existed, what I stood for, and the movement I created, because the book will always be available. You know, some of the books you read, you read right now, was authored back in the '30s and the '20s, you know, before you were born, in the '40s and the '50s, and they still have relevant content for today. I think that's really why I put my thoughts into a book so that, you know, 75 years from now, 100 years from now, a small child could pick up that book, a young man, a young woman could pick up the book and maybe going through something emotionally and understand how we handled ourselves in today's times. So my question to you is, when you think about, you know, life after death literally, or you think about passing on, what will you leave behind? I always ask myself, is the life that I'm living today, when I'm— when it's no longer— when my heart beats no more, will I have really served a purpose? Will I have made an impact? Will other people's lives be better because I existed? What's some of the thoughts you have when you attend a loved one's funeral? I know the obvious, you know, we're sad about the loss, but does it make you reflect back on your life and what you stand for? Let me know in the comments.
I was literally kicked off a Southwest flight before for being disrespectful.
