It’s a safe bet that people will say some really nice things about you at your funeral. Even if they feel compelled to honesty and are forced to really dig for something nice, people will typically find a way to butter up your corpse.
But then what? What will they say when you’ve been gone for five years?
What will you have said or done that will cause people five years away from your living influence to speak of you and what will they say?
I don’t have a top 10 list of tricks you can implement to build community, create timeless content, and other outcomes promised by social media hucksters to lube up your wallet. I do have a few thoughts though.
Five years after my funeral, I hope:
- That past employees will say I knew when to step away from work and revel in the joy of play.
- That my family and friends will say I was a communicator and each have a box of letters from me to prove it.
- That at least one stranger will remember an act of kindness that I did on a whim and gain another smile from that moment.
- That I will be remembered as the guy who gave everything away and bounced back from failures faster than anybody else.
- This one isn’t a memory but the lack of one: I hope that I am never remembered for making a choice based solely on the money involved.
What do you hope people will say about you five years after your funeral?
Give it some thought. Perhaps even make a list of your own. I think having a fixed point or two in the distance can do a lot to make navigating the troubled waters of our digital world a bit simpler.
Thanks for reading!
