Create a better legacy … a tree you will never sit under, a clock in a Texas mountain, and 15 big questions … What is your contribution to the future?
May 5, 2023
What will you be remembered for? How will you create progress in your business and society, and leave your world a better place for those who follow you?
There is a huge clock ticking deep inside a Texas mountain. It is hundreds of feet tall, and designed to tick for 10,000 years.
Every once in a while the bells chime, each time playing a melody that has never been played before, programmed not to repeat themselves over the ten millennia. It is powered the energy created through temperature fluctuations between day and night.
The clock is real, an art instillation inside a mountain in western Texas, funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and managed by the Long Now Foundation, a non-profit organisation.
Bezos contributed $42 million to the project, and hopes the clock will be the first of many millennial clocks to be built around the world over the coming years. A second location has already been purchased at the top of a mountain in the middle of a Nevada forest.
Ten thousand years is about the age of civilization, so the 10,000 Year Clock represents a future of civilization equal to its past. For Jeff Bezos it is symbolic of our need to protect and nourish our planet for the long term. He calls it his legacy, and sits alongside his $10 billion Earth Fund which he launched in 2020, as his contribution to the future.
What will you give to the future?
Legacy is one of the most motivating topics for business leaders. What will you leave behind? What is your contribution to others that follow you?
We are so wrapped up in our current world. Trying to deliver performance, trying to accelerate growth, trying to transform our business to take it to a better place, that we spare few moments to ask what would we leave behind.
Not just a memory. Not just a reputation. But a contribution to the future.
One of the most memorable books I ever read was Randy Komisar’s “The Monk and the Riddle”.
In 2003, having just taken on the role of CEO of a mid-size organisation, I wanted to give my 100 top managers some food for thought. Yes, we could develop new strategies and organisation change, but firstly I wanted them to think bigger, about the future, and what we could be, and what they themselves could be. I gave each of them a copy of the book.
It starts with a monk on a motorbike driving off into the desert, and then returning back to where he began. Asked where he has been, he answers that he has been on a journey. Sounding like a zen-like philosophy, many would give up at this point, but given that it was published by Harvard Business School, I persisted.
Komisar is a Silicon Valley technology legend and now a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He thinks you should look for more in your business career.
He reflects on the number of colleagues and friends he has known in tech start-ups who have pursued their ideas, working relentlessly, and all they think about is the exit strategy. He suggests this is not fulfilment. Yes, they might end up wealthier, but have they really achieved what they want in their lives?
“Passion and drive are not the same at all. Passion pulls you toward something you cannot resist. Drive pushes you toward something you feel compelled or obligated to do. If you know nothing about yourself, you can’t tell the difference. Once you gain a modicum of self-knowledge, you can express your passion. It’s not about jumping through someone else’s hoops. That’s drive” says Komisar.
Most people have a dream, and most often the dream is not to simply makes lots of money, but to achieve something. Achieving something is usually quantified by making a difference to the world. This might be achieved through a business route, leveraging the power of brands and consumption, finance and resources, to make a difference to the world. Or it might be in less commercial ways. However most leaders, according Komisar, defer this for a later act, to do once they’ve delivered on their initial business, once they’ve retired maybe. He calls it “the deferred life plan”. We have dreams, but we defer them for a later day.
The real passion we have for life, for achieving our life plan, shouldn’t be something we defer for another time, when we might not even be fit enough to achieve it, but be part of now. Embracing it within what we do, our job today. Leading our business to achieve both business and personal aspirations.
There is an echo of this in “The Second Mountain” by David Brook.
Brook says that every so often, we meet people who radiate energy and joy, who seem to “glow with an inner light”. Life, for these people, has often followed what we might think of as a two-mountain shape. They leave school, start a career, and they begin climbing the career mountain they thought they were meant to climb.
Their goals on this first mountain are the ones our culture endorses – to seek business success, to make your mark. But when they get to the top of that mountain, something happens. They look around and find the view unsatisfying. They realise that this wasn’t their mountain after all, and that there’s another, bigger mountain out there that really is their mountain.
And so they embark on a new journey, on their second mountain, and their life moves from self-centred to others-centred. They want the things that are truly worth wanting, not the things other people tell them to want. They embrace interdependence, not independence. The difficulty, however, is that most people only find their second mountain when they retire, and then it is often too late.
Your legacy is not what you have done, it’s what you give to the future.
How will you create a better world?
In writing my most recent book Business Recoded I explored the shifts in business, from today to tomorrow, from profit to purpose, with more meaning and impact.
This is legacy. Legacy is not creating a legend, its creating a contribution to the future.
I truly believe that business can be a platform for change in our world, but also a platform for good. And that you can achieve more in business, by doing good at the same time.
The best opportunities often arise out of seemingly unsurmountable challenges, you might call them paradoxes which seem unable to resolve contradictory goals. Apparent paradoxes, at least through our existing lens, offer business leaders new spaces to explore, new ways in which business can make a difference, by combining its huge resources for more positive impact.
Here are 15 big questions for business, and the world:
- Climate: How can economies grow, whilst also addressing climate change?
The last two decades have been the warmest on record. Whilst growth in CO2 emissions has slowed due to efficiencies and renewables, the earth is still warming. The Paris Agreement seeks a 1.5°C cap above pre-industrial levels.
- Resources: How can population growth and resources be brought into balance?
Global population will grow to 9.8 billion by 2050. If all are to be fed, then food production will have to increase by over 50%, while urban residential areas are expected to triple in size by 2030.
- Technology: How can new technologies, like AI and robotics, work for everyone?
51% of the world is now connected to the Internet. About two-thirds of the people in the world have a mobile phone. The continued development and proliferation of smart phone apps are AI systems in the palm of many hands around the world.
- Women: How can the changing status of women help improve society?
Empowerment of women has been a key driver of social change over the past century. Gender equity is guaranteed by the constitution of 84% of the world’s nations, while “the international women’s bill of rights” is agreed by almost all.
- Disease: How can the threat and impact of new diseases, like Covid-19, be reduced?
Global health continues to improve, life expectancy at birth increased globally from 46 years in 1950 to 67 years in 2010 and 71.5 years in 2015. Total deaths from infectious disease fell from 25% in 1998 to 16% in 2015.
- Energy: How can our growing energy demands by met efficiently and responsibly?
In China is the biggest producer of solar energy, and its investing huge amounts in other water and wind power too. Meanwhile, a billion people (15% of the world) do not have access to electricity.
- Water: How can everyone on the planet have sufficient clean water?
Over 90% of the world now has access to improved drinking water, up from 76% in 1990. That is an improvement for 2.3 billion people in less than 20 years. However, that still leaves almost a billion people without access.
- Conflict: How can shared values and security reduce conflicts and terrorism?
The vast majority of the world is living in peace, however, the nature of warfare and security has morphed today into transnational and local terrorism, international intervention into civil wars, cyber and information warfare.
- Crime: How can organised crime be stopped from becoming more powerful?
Organised crime accounts for over $3 trillion per year, which is twice all military annual budgets combined. It is estimated the value of black market trade in 50 categories from 91 countries is $1.8 trillion.
- Democracy: How can genuine democracy emerge from authoritarian regimes?
105 countries are experiencing a net decline in freedom, according to Freedom House think tank, while 61 are improving in net freedom, 67 countries declined in political rights and civil liberties, whilst 36 registered gains.
- Inequality: How can economies reduce the gap between rich and poor?
Extreme poverty fell from 51% in 1981 to 13% in 2012 and less than 10% today,mostly due to income growth in China and India. However the wealth gap is increasing, 1% have more than 99%, 8 billionaires have more than 3.6 billion people.
- Education: How can we better educate humanity to address global challenges?
Alphabet and others seek everyone on the planet connected to the Internet. The price of laptops and smart phones continues to fall, and IoT with data analytics gives real-time precision intelligence. However, successfully applying all these resources to develop wisdom, not just more information, is a huge challenge.
- Progress: How can tech breakthroughs accelerate to address our big challenges?
IBM’s Watson already diagnoses cancer better than doctors, Organova can 3D print human organs including new hearts, robots learn to walk faster than toddlers, and AlphaGo outsmarts the smartest humans. In 2020 China had 40% of all robots in the world, up from 27% in 2015.
- Ethics: How can ethical considerations by incorporated into global decisions?
Decisions are increasingly made by AI, who’s ethics are shaped by algorithms without conscience or control. Ethics are also influenced by manipulated information, by “fake news”, and political exaggeration, that can distort perceptions, leading us to wonder what is the truth, and who can we trust.
- Foresight: How can we make better future decisions with so much uncertainty?
Although the most significant of the world’s challenges and solutions are global in nature, global foresight and decision making systems are rarely employed, leaving the world’s best brains disconnected. Global governance systems are not keeping up with growing global interdependence.
These are not questions just for the United Nations, or governments or intellectual think tanks. These are questions for you, business leaders who have the power and platforms to make a real difference. So what could you do?
Letter to the future
What would you write in a letter to your grandchildren?
Talking to Richard Branson about his life seemed like an endless tail of intrepid adventures. We talked about his successes in music and airlines, and his passions for hot air ballooning and kitesurfing. He said he was much more interested in the future than the past, He became particularly animated when we got onto space, the potential for anyone to become an astronaut within his own lifetime. And the future potential of technologies to allow us to do amazing things, that are also better for humanity.
He told me that he wanted to write a letter to his grandchildren, Artie, Etta and Eva-Deia, about his hopes for them and their future. He recently published his letter on his blog, from which here is an extract:
“You are at the very start of life, it is an incredible gift and it is there for the taking. It will deliver highs and lows, trials and tribulations, failures and triumphs. But by living it to the full, by always trying to do the right thing and by never losing that sense of adventure which you now posses with such abundance, it will indeed be wonderful.”
“My golden rule in life is to have fun. Life is not a dress rehearsal, so don’t waste your precious time doing things that don’t light your fire. Do what you enjoy, and enjoy what you do. Trust me; great things will follow.”
“Don’t let your head always rule your heart. Life’s more fun when you say yes – so dream big and say yes to your heart’s desires. Dreaming is one of our greatest gifts – so look at the world with wide-eyed enthusiasm, and believe you are more powerful than the problems that confront you.”
“Never betray your dreams for the sake of fitting in. Instead be passionate about them. Passion will help you stay the course, and inspire others to believe in you and your dreams too.”
“Remember to treat others like you would like to be treated. Always be nice, always be caring. Give people the benefit of the doubt. And don’t hesitate to give out second chances. It’s incredible how much people lift and rise to the challenge when you believe in them and trust them.”
“Be open with everyone around you, especially your parents. They will always be there for you, willing to share in your adventures, support your decisions and love you unreservedly.”
“Above all, love and know that you are loved. Love always, Your grand-dude.”
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