Wm. Audie Sherrod,
Author of Challenge Accepted
September 19, 2024
Legacy should come with a caution tag, a bright red flashing light, or danger warning. If it did, it would have needed to be posted 30 or more years prior, because that is when the real danger, bleeding, and producing of sweat and tears was happening. Today, it is abundantly clear to me that the down-and-dirty hard work of legacy leaving happens well before the victory parties are thrown, and many people may never truly understand or embrace the sacrifices that took place to bring the legacy to life. Essentially legacy is not an end, but rather it is a labor-of-love process taking place over years or decades. Likewise, some of the most important components of the legacy only begin to pay dividends years after the building process has risen to stardom. It is, however, in the second phase of legacy living that the true benefits are realized. I have found that although it may appear that the legacy builder is now positioned to relax and enjoy his new station in life, the legacy mechanisms used to achieve victory have now become part of the culture and indeed the DNA of the family or the organization—that is a good thing. Consider the analogy “the proof is in the pudding,” meaning once you see that the actions taken to build the legacy have worked and that they are now being applied in the second and third family generations or in consecutive company culture iterations, you will recognize these as the true signs of success.
The decisions you make today, your experiences, your successes, and indeed your failures are all part of shaping your values and your character, but more importantly they are what will pave the way for others who follow you.
This is true for you and me in our roles, as parents, coaches, teachers, business leaders, among others. It is also true for companies and organizations of every size. Each of us are building stones for someone else’s tomorrow. “What We Do Matters and Who We are Matters Even More.” This is the crystalizing statement for legacy building, I could not have said better myself…oh, I did! An important goal of my writing in Challenge Accepted has been, and continues to be, to share life-enriching stories of successful leaders, real people who add historical understanding and context. Their lessons of experience pave the way for others who identify, inspire, and lead the Level 5 people and men and women of valor of tomorrow.
Level 5 people are the result of being raised to be a man or women of valor. Being taught that prayer, honesty, discipline, and hard work pave the way to success in God’s eyes and doesn’t look too bad on a resume either. A man of valor acts with wisdom, boldness, and courage to do what is good, true, and right. Level 5 people are honest and humble and regularly demonstrate characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit.
My goal is for people to understand that legacy does not just happen and it takes hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance, often under extreme pressure. You are sure to get tired, discouraged, let down, put out and fed up. That’s the part of legacy that seems to fade away into the background and many forget or may never see. All they see is, oh, look, “an overnight success,” that just popped up, not realizing it was in fact fifty years of heartache and back breaking, hard work in the making.
This legacy lesson is true for families, individual leaders, parents, business owners and many more. As I now observe my own grown children as they are training up their children and the leaders in their organizations, I see the continuation, sharing, and application of principles, values and character traits I learned from the mentors in my life that I passed on, that are being passed on yet again. That is Legacy Living. Today on the backside, I see the benefits of decisions and sacrifices I made being reaped by others today.
When I first began my career, my occupation required me to work shift work. Arriving thirty minutes early for a shift briefing was considered good practice and on-time. Shifts were from 12:00am to 8:00am, evening shift from 4:00pm to Midnight, or dayshift 8:00am to 4:00pm. One might work all three shifts in the course of a week, seemingly meeting yourself coming and going. This meant I missed a lot of time with my children, wife, and family. Early in my career I set a personal goal to put in the hard work and sacrifice required to become known as a great worker. I wanted to promote my way beyond shift work, in order to be more present and engaged in the lives of my children and spend quality time with my wife. As a husband-and-wife team we made decisions prioritizing family over wealth and valuing shared time and experiences more than material possessions. Let me be clear, like most things that are worthwhile, it was hard, but it can be done. “Choose your hard.”
Allow me to repeat for effect, the decisions we made were difficult. It often meant delayed gratification, going without, buying used or not at all. Saying no to things we secretly desired. We took special care of what we had and found ways to reuse and repurpose virtually everything. What others discarded, we kept. Living frugally because you are building for tomorrow can be a strategic choice while for some it can be thrust upon them. One of the difficult choices our family made was for my wife, Shelly, to shift her career path to give undivided focus to her role as a wife and mother, the role she felt was the priority with which God had blessed her. Today she divides her time between being the Owner and President of Summit 27, a full-time, devoted grandmother of four, and a sought-after collaborator by many pressing causes and organizations. While our home today may be smaller, our car may be older, and we may eat a few more tomato and cheese sandwiches without meat to save a dollar, our hearts are full, and we could not be happier. Our schedules are full of opportunities to invest in the lives of new friends and colleagues helping them grow as leaders and legacy influencers. Today we realize what may have been painful yesterday, (hence the bleeding part of the title of this article), are now the treasured battle scars and trophies of a life being well-lived. They become results—a swan song of our vibrant legacy. We modeled the way of putting family first and placing strong character and core values above possessions. Today these principles are being passed on—taught and caught by a whole new generation of legacy builders. That is our blessing, and we are not done yet.
Select organizations and purpose-driven companies also have been found to operate on similar principles of people first, honesty always, people before profits, and being values driven. Leaders who sacrifice during the formative years of building an organization or company by being true to principle and character, outline a strategy of success with which workers and customers connect. It is these foundational principles that are essential to building a next level legacy that will thrive not just survive. But is does not just happen to companies either. Building a legacy for tomorrow comes with a price tag. It requires sacrifice and a little bit of pain today, but it’s worth it to reap the rewards tomorrow. That’s Legacy Leaving, That’s Legacy Leadership, That’s Legacy Living, That’s Legacy Building.
“Today is Your Someday”
You can read more about Level 5 leaders, men and women of valor, and leaving a legacy in the book Challenge Accepted.
Wm. “Audie” Sherrod is a nomadic adventurer & Author of “Challenge Accepted - What You Do Matters and Who You Are Matters Even More,” CEO at Summit 27, speaker, and a former member of the United States Senior Executive Service (SES).
To purchase the book or to inquire about brand / culture development, training, or book a speaking engagement, reach out via the webpage: www.summittwentyseven.com
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