What Do You Want People to Remember You For?

By Joseph Jackson

Recently I read an article by Peter Drucker. He’s a well-known expert on business management. He said that when he was 13 his teacher asked the class, “What do you want to be remembered for?” No one could answer. The teacher then said, “I didn’t expect you to be able to answer it. But if you still can’t answer it by the time you’re 50, you will have wasted your life.”
 
Peter said that, when you ask yourself this question, it “induces you to renew yourself, because it pushes you to see yourself as a different person – the person you can become.” I believe that asking yourself this question often, and giving it a truthful answer, will make your whole future clear to you.
 
The answer tells you what you want to accomplish in your life, or where you want to go in terms of personal growth. It gives you the goal that you hold most dear in your heart. When you know what that most intimate goal is you’ll find the task of laying out your life’s plan is easy.
 
For instance, my granddaughter once told me that she wants to be a lawyer who specializes in helping the poor. That is a very noble goal. For her to create a plan that guides her toward reaching that goal, she needs to turn that goal into a detailed statement. Nothing long or elaborate, but something specific. A one-liner so to speak. One that says exactly how she wants to help people and what type of people she wants to help.
 
Does she want to protect mistreated children, or orphans (maybe work to find them homes), battered wives, the homeless? Once she has the specific written into her goal’s journal, then she’ll begin to lay out the steps she needs to take to get her to her desired result.
 
It begins with her present school curriculum. English is a very important subject for her because she’ll have to know how to write proposals and petitions. (Documents that are required in the courts to get legal actions started.)She’ll study communication and the art of giving speeches, she’ll learn courtroom procedure, and she’ll get her degree in general law. Then she’ll take courses for her specific specialty.
 
It all starts with that one sentence that says: This is what I want people to remember me for. It’s your mission in life. It doesn’t make any difference what that mission is as long as people remember you as someone who made a valuable difference in their lives. You might build houses (provide a means of shelter), you might write software programs (allow computer workers to do their job faster), or study ocean life (teach the world about their fellow living creatures).
 
I wish for you that people remember you as one who made a valuable difference. You see, the purpose you choose is hopefully a positive one, but if you choose a negative one people get hurt. A bank robber may steal from the rich and give to the poor. But the rich are the people who use their wealth to create jobs so the poor can earn a living. To steal from the rich is to defeat their noble effort of providing jobs. To give to the poor gives them the idea that they don’t need to put forth any effort to live. That prevents them from growing and making their own worthwhile impact on others.
 
To decide on a life mission that takes away from your fellow human beings means you intend to hurt people. That is not noble. It takes a mission of nobility to create value. Sophisticated people can’t afford to be ignoble. A noble mission does not take away from or hurt other people. A noble mission is one that is always helpful and valuable to others. So what do you want your mission to be?
 
“What do you want to be remembered for?”