How To Create A Legacy You Are Proud Of: Making An Impact Beyond Your Own Life

DEVELOPING THE “MIDAS TOUCH”

A few years ago, I read a book on Greek mythology. One of the stories that has stuck with me is that of King Midas. He was the king of ancient Phrygia. One day he gave assistance to an old friend of Dionysus, the god of revelry, and as a reward, Midas was granted one wish. He asked Dionysus to make everything he touched turn to gold. When his wish was granted, he touched a tree—and it turned to gold. He touched a horse—and it became solid gold. In a matter of minutes, he was becoming the richest man in the world.

His trouble started when he got hungry. He sat down at a banquet table, and the meat he reached for turned to solid gold as soon as he touched it. The same happened to the wine he tried to drink. But the worst thing happened when his daughter hugged him. She instantly became a golden statue. In the end, Midas begged Dionysus to take his golden power away from him. Dionysus sent Midas to the source of the river Pactolus, where he was to bathe in order to be restored to normal. He went, taking his daughter with him, and ultimately both were changed back to their previous state. Only after Midas lost his golden ability was he happy again.

REAL GOLD

Today, when someone is told that he has the “Midas touch,” it’s usually meant as a compliment. It’s an indication he has a great knack for making money. But a single-minded fixation on wealth is just as damaging to a person today as it was during the time of the ancient Greeks. American publisher and businessman B. C. Forbes, who founded Forbes magazine, commented:

Are your desires purely selfish? Do your tastes run to a grand home, cars, fine clothes, an abundance of amusements, and so forth? If so, look around you at people who have such things in superabundance. Are they any happier, do you think, than you are? Are they any better morally? Are they any stronger physically? Are they better liked by their friends than you are by your friends? . . . Andrew Carnegie said, “Millionaires rarely smile.” This is substantially true.

Real wealth isn’t found in what we acquire. As nineteenth-century slavery abolitionist and clergyman Henry Ward Beecher asserted, “In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.”

NOT FOOL’S GOLD

I believe there is a wealth that is greater than money, and it comes from how you interact with others. People who practice the Golden Rule treat others with dignity and respect and can be content in the knowledge that they are living an ethical life. However, it’s possible to take this Golden Rule to another level. You can develop a “Midas touch” with people by taking your focus off yourself and what you can gain, and instead focusing on adding value to others.

Giving truly is the highest level of living. It makes the world a better place. And it also makes for better business. H. E. Steiner asserted, “We shall have better business when everyone realizes that while it pays to invest money in their industries and develop natural resources, it pays still higher dividends to improve mankind and develop human resources.” If you desire more than just a full bank account and you desire to build real riches—by investing in people—then strive to live out the following practices:

1. Treat People Better Than They Treat You

It’s easy to love people who love you. And showing kindness to people who treat you well is little more than common courtesy. But how do you respond to poor treatment by others? Do you return disrespect with disrespect? Do you meet aggression with aggression? It doesn’t take much for unkindness to escalate into greater conflict. Take a look at some of these seemingly petty disagreements that grew into full-blown war:

• A dispute between the cities of Modena and Bologna over a well bucket about seven hundred years ago began a war that devastated Europe.
• A Chinese emperor once went to war over the breaking of a teapot.
• Sweden and Poland flew at each other’s throats in 1654 because the king of Sweden discovered that his name in an official dispatch was followed by only two et ceteras, while the king of Poland had three.
• The spilling of a glass of water on the Marquis de Torey led to war between France and England.
• By throwing a pebble at the Duc de Guise, a small boy caused the massacre of Vassy and the Thirty Years’ War.

It takes a person of strong character to treat others better than they treat you! As civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.” If everyone treated others as one would want to be treated by them, the world would be a better place. But think about what kind of world it would be if everyone strove to treat others better than they are treated.

I try to treat everyone I meet with respect. I desire to be a giver in every relationship. I can honestly say that I have no enemies. If I have an issue with somebody, I address it as soon as I can; then I move on. And I hold no grudges. They only get heavier the longer you carry them.

Try taking the high road with people, even when they don’t treat you with the respect you feel you deserve. Try to be kind instead of treating people in kind. You’ll find that it’s very freeing.

2. Walk the Second Mile

There are a lot of people in this world who aren’t doing their fair share of the work. People who do the bare minimum never achieve much in life—for themselves or for others. Television host Oprah Winfrey says, “Doing my best at this present moment puts me in the best place for the next moment.” I agree with that wholeheartedly. That’s true not only in your work, but also when it comes to personal relationships. That’s why I suggest that a person walk the second mile. I’ll describe what I mean by explaining where the expression comes from.

Two millennia ago in the Roman Empire, a Roman officer could compel anyone to carry a load one mile. It was the officer’s right, and a person refused at his peril. So to walk the first mile was to do what was required. I’m recommending you not only do that, but strive to go above and beyond that. See the extra mile as an opportunity to make a positive impact on the lives of others, to add value to people.

A person with an extra-mile attitude is someone who:

• Cares more than others think is wise.
• Risks more than others think is safe.
• Dreams more than others think is practical.
• Expects more than others think is possible.
• Works more than others think is necessary.

As Zig Ziglar said, “There’s no traffic jam on the extra mile.” If you always do more than is expected, not only will you rise up above the crowd, you will help others to rise up with you.

3. Help People Who Can’t Help You

We live in a competitive culture. Businesses are positioned to crush their competitors. Sports teams look for any weakness in their competition so they can exploit it in order to win. Even reality TV shows pit people against each other to see who will become the ultimate survivor. Often we define our success by how much better we are than the next person. And when we do help others, we insist that it be a win for us as well. Let’s face it: We don’t often think like writer John Bunyan, who said, “You have not lived today successfully unless you’ve done something for someone who can never repay you.” Yet if we want to live at the highest level, that’s what we must do.

If you want to help people, then embrace the motto of nineteenth-century evangelist D. L. Moody, who advised:

Do all the good you can

To all the people you can

In all the ways you can

For as long as you can.

And when you can do that for people who can’t do anything for you in return, then you’re really developing the Midas touch, because you are adding value to the lives of others.

4. Do Right When It’s Natural to Do Wrong

I think you have ever heard about the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. For more than three decades, the relationship between the two governments was characterized by mistrust and hostility. When Ronald Reagan became president of the United States, he determined that he wanted to change the interaction between the two superpowers. His first step was to write a personal letter to Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet premier, asking that they try to “find lasting peace.” To say that Reagan’s overture got a cold reception would be putting it mildly.

It would have been natural for Ronald Reagan to give up trying to improve Soviet relations. He wouldn’t have been the first president to do so. But he persevered. And eventually the ice melted and the Iron Curtain fell. Reagan’s speech writer, Peggy Noonan, summed it up this way: “When you’re strong, you can be ‘weak.’ When you know you are strong, you can trust yourself to make the first move, the first appeal, a request or a plea. . . . But when you fear you are weak or fear the world thinks you are weak, you are more inclined to make a great show of being ‘strong,’ and never write a personal letter asking for peace.”

It’s not easy to do right when doing wrong is easier. It takes strong character. But the rewards can be remarkable, as they were for president Ronald Reagan. That doesn’t mean there is always a reward, because there isn’t. But if you do wrong instead of right, there cannot be a good reward.

5. Keep Your Promises Even When It Hurts

There is a study that was conducted by Dr. Pat Lynch and later published in the Journal of Business Ethics. Lynch asked more than seven hundred businesspeople and graduate business students to rank their values in the workplace. Included in addition to promise keeping were items such as competency, work ethic, seniority, and overcoming adversity. Lynch found that keeping promises was at the bottom of people’s lists. That held true in the survey regardless of gender, supervisory experience, or religious background.

The irony is that promise keeping is the cornerstone of all relationships, and it is absolutely essential for success in business. In selling your products and services, integrity means everything. About 80 percent of your business comes from the same people every year, so selling is about the strength of the relationships. At the end of the day, the honest broker really does win.

Where do you draw the line when it comes to keeping a promise? You probably have no trouble keeping one when it’s convenient. How about when it isn’t? What about when keeping it will really hurt? That’s what Sir Walter Scott did. A biographer, critic, historian, and poet, Scott is considered the father of the historical novel, and he is credited with influencing novelists Leo Tolstoy, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, and others.

Scott was born in 1771 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He began his professional life as a lawyer following an apprenticeship under his father, but he soon turned to writing and quickly became the most popular novelist of his day. In 1808, he became a partner in a publishing company, which yielded him greater revenue than simply placing his works with another publisher. In 1826, his publishing company found itself in financial trouble when it was caught up in another business’s bankruptcy. The debt was enormous: £114,000. Scott probably could have avoided the responsibility for paying the debt by declaring bankruptcy, but he didn’t. Instead, he agreed to pay it all off.

Over the next six years, Scott, an already prolific author, wrote mountains of pages to earn money. He sold copyrights. He did whatever he could. In the end, he raised £70,000—before he died. Some believe he wrote himself to death. But his will gave instructions concerning how additional works could be sold, and the entire debt was paid. Not only did he not allow pain to stop him from keeping a promise, he would not allow even death to do it.

You don’t meet many people like Scott today. Most of us prefer to do what’s easy instead of what’s right. But if we really want to live a successful life, then we would do well to follow his example.

THE GOLD STANDARD

Where are you currently focusing your attention? Are you trying to build a successful life? What opportunities are you currently pursuing? If you were to seize them, what rewards would they bring? Wealth? Promotion? Recognition? Awards? Let’s put them in perspective. Take this quiz:

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Ballon d’Or winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss universe contest.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel prize.
5. Name the last five Oscar Award winners for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade’s UEFA Champions League winners.

How well did you do? How many names did you know? Half? Seventy-five percent? These people and teams—the best in the world at what they do—have accomplished much. They have proved that they have the magic touch in their area of expertise, and they have achieved great recognition. But what kind of impact have they made? More specifically, how much impact have they had on you? (Obviously not much if you can’t even remember most of their names.)

Now, I want you to take another quiz:

1. Name three teachers who inspired you to achieve in school.
2. Name three friends who helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who taught you something worthwhile.
4. Name three people who made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Name five people with whom you enjoy spending time.
6. Name five heroes whose stories have inspired you.

You may not have scored 100 percent on the second quiz either, but I’m sure your score was better than on the first one. Why? Because these are the people who had the Midas touch in your life! Adding value to you was important for them. They focused on others—not just on getting ahead financially. If you want to do something that will make an impact beyond your own life, then treat people better than they treat you, walk the extra mile, help people who cannot help you, do right when it’s natural to do wrong, and keep your promises even when it hurts.