Motivational talk about legacy and preparing a business for life beyond its founder. The speaker urges living with intentionality—imagining what others will say at your funeral—to guide daily choices, and emphasizes that leaders are judged by how well the people they invested in carry on after they're gone. The speaker shares candid personal anecdotes about family strain and discomfort from growth, and encourages active preparation (training, ownership transition) rather than postponing succession planning.
So I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle, victorious. All right, legacy, for some of you, I want to pitch this a certain way and this is our last thing that we'll cover. It's not so much that you're setting your company up for succession as, like, what's the purpose? I think two intensives ago, we actually did an exercise just to think about what people will say at your funeral. It's a way better way to live every day than like, what can I get out of today in advancing my business? What are these people going to say about me at my funeral? Just living your life in a legacy sort of way. And just the cool thing about it, you're not dead yet. So you can script out how you want the end to be for you and just live your life accordingly. So there's nothing real complicated about it, but you've got to have a conscious. You've got to set up your business as if you were going to pass away and leave a legacy. And that's all of this. The whole getting to ownership is about building it that way. Just a really cool thought. So our ability as leaders will not be measured by the businesses we build. We will be judged by how well the people we invested in carry on after we are gone. In the end, we will be judged according to the law of legacy. Every part of everything I've done, including what I'm in now, my business has been really uncomfortable, like, really uncomfortable. Julie is my wife. She just. The last week I've just been miserable, you know, just getting on stage in front of all of you and just trying to do my best and bring value. And I'm just so cranky at home and she's just over, over it. And she had to come to the hotel twice yesterday because I forgot some stuff at home, once with the kids. And then I called her right after she got home and I'm like, hey, honey. So it helps to have that person in your corner and playing this catch up game, which I feel like I'm in now. It is not. It's not cool, it's not fun. I've got two companies that I feel like I'm like, I've got to just really elevate my skills and leadership. It's exciting. So I do appreciate that part of it. I mean, even when there's shit going on, I'm like, oh, this is so cool. I get to be in all these stuff that's going on. I do not advise it though. Just study this stuff and make a commitment to it. Don't put it off until you need it, quote unquote, and just spend time in it. I'm not going to play that video. But if we are growing, we are always going to be outside of our comfort zone.
