A business leader explains legacy as two wakes: the metrics you hit and the people you change. Start with the end in mind, then lead so people remember how you made them better.
I promise you, this is so far from anything that you've ever been to. And now, I love this word. Your leadership legacy. Please write that down. Your leadership legacy. I believe with all my heart, every one of us, as we're speeding through this, our journey called real estate, right? And growing our businesses. Think of a speedboat. I love this analogy. Think of a speed that's going through a crystal clear lake and there's a big wake, right, that this boat is leaving on. One side of the wake is your performance wake, okay? The other side of the wake is your relationship wake. Every one of us has one, right? How the company's doing, right? Gci, profit, all that stuff that's on the performance side. But every one of us has got the relationship wake up. Your leadership legacy is going to be fulfilled on both sides. Yes, but I would argue on the culture side, I would argue on the relationship side, the impact that you make on the people that join you for your journey. Because everybody comes and goes, right? Some people are on the team for a few months, a few years, a decade, whatever. Everybody's on that journey. But what kind of influence, what kind of impact are you having as a leader and in terms of leaving your legacy? Because everything, as John Maxwell says, everything rises and falls on leadership. Leadership. So thus, everything rises and falls on you, on us, on me. And your team is counting on you. Think about your team. Think about the moms or the dads or the people on your team. Personalize it in a deep way to inspire and to motivate you to. To be a greater leader. Always begin with the end in mind. Think about what's most important to you. How many people were touched yesterday by what Dave shared? Dave had that moment, right? He had that moment of, hey, what's most important to me? For him, it was on a plane ride back from Haiti. For you, it's going to be different, right? But he got there in terms of what's most important to me, and then he set up a system, right? He set up a process to make the most important thing happen. And that is what your leadership legacy is going to be all about. Let me finish with this last story. And then, Lars, we're going to come up, we're going to do a great exercise on leadership. Some of you know me a little better know I've got a father who just celebrated his 90th birthday. And what makes it even more special is he's a World War II veteran. He was a Marine, and he fought in the Pacific in World War II. And as you all know, World War II veterans are dying quickly. And it's a real special story in the sense that wherever my dad goes, he wears his little World War II cap, he's in good health, and if he goes into a chick fil a or restaurant, I am going to cry. I can't believe it. People are buying him lunch, dinner, coffee, you name it. And it's really inspiring to see. I shared with Matt earlier at church, we're greeters and we've got three generations that greet people at church. My dad, myself, and I've got my kids out there. We're all greeting people and it's this legacy, right, that we're trying to leave. So my final thought to you would be, as you go through your journey with your company and growing and 10x ing and all this stuff, what are people at my dad's 90th birthday, we just celebrated a couple of months ago, and people were lined up to talk to him and they were thanking him for different things. And so that's my analogy for you guys. What are people going to line up for at your office or wherever when you're kind of done with this thing and it's over for you, wherever you're at, what are they going to email, text you about and thank you for that is going to be your leadership legacy. What are they really going to thank you for? You guys have been awesome. Thank you so much for your time this morning.
