Categories: Articles

Legacy Thinking

It’s easy to post to Twitter or update your Facebook status. Not much to think about, right?

Just because something is easy, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about it. In my last Blog post, Liar’s Remorse, I wrote about having one, cohesive reputation (and the struggles/challenges that come with it). I’m often asked why I don’t post more personal information in the digital channels about my life (marriage? children? etc…?). The truth is that my work and my business are intensely personal. I spend the majority of my waking days working, growing Twist Image, trying to build my ever-changing vision of how I define "success." I use these digital spaces to focus on that area of my life (and, believe me, I take it very personally). In the creation of content (Blogs, Podcasts, articles, videos and beyond), along with having a vision (much like the editor at a magazine) of how I see/feel the content flowing, I often not only think about who will read, but – more importantly – how it will be perceived long after I am dead.

Legacy thinking.

Personally, I don’t tweet "in the now" (I don’t Blog or write in that vein either). Before anything gets published I ask two questions:

Will this content stand the test of time?
Will my children (and their children) be proud of their father (grandfather) when looking at this?

Time is the true test of great content (and reputation).

This is why I don’t (or try not to) use bad language, attack individuals, beat brands up and more. It’s not the reputation I want… it’s not the legacy I want to leave. This is particularly true of my Podcast. Think about it this way: in 40 years any one of your future family members will be able to go back in time and chronologically see everything (Mark Zuckerburg is on to something with the Facebook timeline) in sequential order… Blogs post, podcasts, tweets, updates and more. It won’t just be a shoebox of pictures and memories… we’re talking about a rich trove of content in text, images, audio and video. Everything. These future generations will, literally, be able to know you – how you were feeling at a moment in time – and parlay that against major moments in our history (think: 9/11, the Arab Spring, Occupy Wallstreet, and beyond). Wow… it kind of blows your mind when you really start to think about it.

Legacies mean something.

How often do you think about how your cumulative online persona is this reflection of your true character? We’re going to be the first generation to have this kind of documented, individual history that is online for the world to see. Most of the great leaders in our history don’t have this kind of raw documentation available for the masses to view and review. I don’t know about you, but I take that very seriously. That doesn’t mean that I’m busy trying to manipulate things to create a manifestation of the reputation that I want (that would be somewhat inauthentic). It does mean that I respect the publishing medium. I respect the value of your time (right here, right now) and would like those who may be reading this decades or centuries from now to have an understanding of what was happening in the marketing industry and what this change means.

Imagine.

Imagine if we had these kind of tools in biblical times? Imagine the kind of discourse we would have had around emerging religion and conquerors. Imagine if we had these kind of tools as the industrial revolution took hold? Imagine the kind of discourse we would have around the power of communications and media. Imagine that we – each and every one of us – has this power right now. We do. It’s in the palm of your hands (literally, because now you can create, publish and stream from a smartphone). The true power comes from understanding the legacy this leaves. Odds are, it will stack up to more credible and important content that evolves and finds its voice over time.

The easy thing to do is to dismiss the legacy (and power) and simply turn it into an engine of mindless spam. The hard thing to do is to create content that creates a legacy.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.