Leaving a legacy behind

so

i’m going to spend my time with all of

you uh on a subject

which will help us figure out three ways

on how to leave a legacy

behind before we die

but i want to ask you all before in

order to leave a legacy

do we really need to die let me explain

myself

with a story you see there was a man who

would walk out of his house

each morning around 8 a.m towards the

pavement he would go and fill a clay pot

with water

there were no animals around when he

would do that but

then a few stray cats and dogs would

trot along

quench their thirst and move forward on

their journey

at times birds would fly stop their

flight

sip a bit of the water and fly away

people often looked at this man and with

confusion

they would wonder why he did what he did

especially because when the clay pot was

even half full he would go and fill it

up to its brim

every morning and every time before he

slept at night

in one day this man didn’t come to fill

the clay potter

and everyone wondered what exactly was

going on because it was

it was way beyond 8 00 a.m um

people went to the door knocked and

to their surprise no one answered the

door

see there were no animals around the

clay pot but people circled

around it then one by one stray cats and

dogs died going to the clay pot and

people reflexively started filling the

water themselves

everyone took turns from that day

onwards

the man was not in sight it was only a

few months after

he showed up again only to see the

neighborhood now

with multiple clear pots of water

and then there was an epiphany

for each and every person to realize

that he was no longer just

that water man so someone went and asked

him

why is it that he stopped filling the

clay pot with water

and he gently replied what is important

is not whether that

whether i fill the clay pot with water

but what is more important

is that the clay pot of water is forever

filled

he was no longer known as the water man

rather than the man that taught people

you can leave a legacy and see it grow

even before you go all he did was pass

on his life

and way of living with compassion

patience and love

so a few questions for all of us over

here today

how do we leave a legacy before we die

why does a legacy come into existence

typically

when we aren’t in existence and finally

what happens if you choose not to leave

a legacy

so let me start with the last question

first what would happen if we all just

chose not to leave a legacy

well i can give it to you in two forms

so let me cut to the chase and give you

the easier way first

if we choose not to leave a legacy i

think we’d be screwed

we’d all be in a world where tomorrow

might not be possible

but in all seriousness if we choose not

to leave a legacy i feel our days might

not have meaning

there would be no rhythm to life and

unfortunately i might see in 30 years

people

wanting to leave legacy a form of data

that they pass on or maybe just memes on

a cloud

you see the second question is more

important

and that is why does a legacy only come

into existence

when we aren’t in existence

that is a trick question we’re living in

a world where the term legacy is linked

to possessions passed on

after someone is no longer with us but

it’s often the intangible elements of

another that

stay with us for longer so i want you

all to close your eyes

for five seconds and just think of the

first person that comes to your mind

and that is still with you that has left

a mark

to make you who you are today and while

you

close your eyes and think of this person

i just want you all to know that we’re

in the age of short-term goals and rapid

thrills

in a world of swipe left and right click

can get

where does building a legacy

and then leaving a legacy fit in so now

i’d like you all to open your eyes

and buckle up in the next 10 minutes i

am going to tell you

three ways i firmly believe we can leave

a legacy before we

die and see it grow before we go

the first rule of thumb is self-love

you see as an author i’ve had the

privilege of researching probably the

hardest subject

i believe exists and that is love

each of us have been the culprit of

romanticizing love and even putting it

on a pedestal

we believe love owes us something and

owes us something at all times when in

truth

love is nothing until we believe in

self-love

now as an individual working with

startups from around the world different

parts of our

phenomenal startup country i realized

the common link between successful

founders all successful founders is that

they love not only what they do but they

love themselves

even when they don’t like a particular

journey they’re in

so i want you all to think of when you

really told yourself that you loved

yourself

now i’m not promoting vanity when i say

that i don’t expect you all to go out

there and say

hi i love myself well that might be odd

but

what you can do is let the other person

know you appreciate yourself

now why is self-love so important in

creating a legacy

it’s quite simple self-love promotes

self-love

which means if you end up loving who you

are and others can see that they too to

learn how to love themselves and that is

why love is contagious

see when i spoke to my grandfather few

months before he passed away

i asked him three most important parts

of life according to him

and he told me learning the courage to

love

being receptive to be loved and having

the patience to self love he said the

last part in the form of showing respect

not only to others but yourself but it

all pointed towards self-love

you see i write about love in all forms

prose poetry

but what i’ve realized over time is love

is nothing but energy

and we pass on energy and as you all

know energy is everything

so i’m no mathematician but the investor

in me states that love probably is the

best investment we can make for the

first rule of thumb

of leaving a legacy so begin with

yourself

as they say on flights buckle your seat

belt before you help others

and that brings me to the second rule of

thumb

so let me begin by asking you all how

many of you have ever hit

your toe against the edge of a bed and

while you answer that

how many of you have avoided hitting

your toe against the edge of a bed or

any corner

now when you hit your toe against that

edge which i’m pretty sure all of us

have

at one excruciating time the pain too is

excruciating

you see we curse the bed we curse the

corner of whatever has hurt us

but we blame everything but ourselves

what we think take along with us is not

just a swollen toe but a learning on how

to avoid this from happening in the

future

then why is it that when we don’t hit

the side of a certain

object that we don’t thank it you see

i’ll admit i’ve been

thankful zero time so when i’ve not hit

my

toe against the edge of a bed edge of

anything sharp but i

have complained and had one-sided fights

with it countless number of times when i

have stubbed my toe

it’s easy not to show appreciation it’s

an act that takes no change

from us but if we don’t show

appreciation

it doesn’t lead to change either which

brings me to the second rule of thumb

and that is

simply feeling grateful it is gratitude

so as an experiment to all of you here

close your eyes

for five seconds and think of what you

are grateful for

and as you are thinking right now how

many of you have thought of happy

memories

and that which is good about life

and why is it that we aren’t thinking of

aspects of life that didn’t go correctly

why are we not grateful for downfall

you see if it wasn’t for downfall we’d

never be able to see the upside

it’s hard to surf and still waters and

it’s impossible to do so for the long

run either

we have got to start appreciating

appreciating the downside

so to make this easier i’m going to read

out what i am grateful for and feel free

to laugh

at my expense because these are

literally real reviews

of my books back when i started as an

author

and this is what i am grateful for and

it begins with

don’t waste your time reading this book

just because of some

great reviews that might sound harsh but

just wait for the next one

i don’t understand how many high star

ratings are given to this crap

that is harsh but it goes on to saying

nothing great about this book i had

quite fun with it though

love irritating people a bad bad book

and then there were people who told me

never to write

that i might be too early to write

and i am thankful for all these people

because much like them there have been

people

who have called certain ventures

failed ventures and if it wasn’t for

them

i wouldn’t have been able to write the

books that get me to be here with all of

you today

i wouldn’t have had the opportunity of

working with over 40 ventures

in industries of the future if it wasn’t

for those that called

my failures before i could see them and

help me improve

so concentrate on thanking the downside

we never say thank you as much we end up

cursing something

just think about that you see

it’s not what they are saying it’s the

fact that someone’s taking out

energy to call you out i believe there’s

an opportunity in seeing that if you can

convert that person

that thinks negatively of you it’s not

because of the negativity but of the

constructive criticism they are giving

so the next time you stub your toe in an

instance in life

you might want to curse it but thank it

as well because the next time

you’re not going to do it either

showcasing gratitude is contagious and

if it will help you to help someone else

now the last piece to this puzzle the

quickest way

to leave a legacy is simply by

practicing forgiveness

imagine if i started this conversation

with a frown imagine

i started in a negative manner a frown

not happy you’d stop

listening imagine if i started by

blaming my surroundings

you wouldn’t care and imagine if i

carried all this baggage

just because i wanted to and i didn’t

want to let go of it

to overcome all of this is to embrace

forgiveness

now all of you know the routine you know

what i’m going to ask you to do so

please close your eyes

for five seconds and as your eyes are

closed

think of forgiveness but don’t forgive

anyone but yourself

for anything you can think of as you

open your eyes

i am going to admit that i will forgive

myself for what i may do

in the future what i may do tomorrow you

see i don’t want to utilize forgiveness

for all of us to think of it as

self-pity

or a mere excuse but forgive yourself so

that we take action

for what we do and we take

accountability and don’t blame others

imagine if i had to try and catch this

and i dropped it

would i blame my actions or i blame the

device in my hand

if i blame the device i will probably

make the mistake over and over again

but if i act up and forgive myself for

the wrong doing

i would probably succeed one way or the

other

you see there is no example beyond this

for me to relate to but to let you know

that

our first actions in life are probably

actions we will change

and always actions that we have done in

an incorrect manner if you don’t believe

me then imagine a scenario where as a

baby

when you took your first step and fell

you didn’t forgive yourself for falling

imagine if the first time you spoke to

that crush of yours back

when you were young and you said

something that made you cringe

you didn’t have the courage to forgive

yourself imagine would you go back

to them again and imagine that every

time

your surroundings are blamed for your

goals

would you pursue your goals or would you

believe

that everything is against you so i want

to forgive

400 000 words that never got published

to get me to write

for readers that help me improve each

day i want to thank

that investor who told me my idea didn’t

work that helps me build with

80 new founders where i am today

and i want to forgive the first time i

gave a talk

and i didn’t speak in the mic frozen for

10 seconds

because if i froze and didn’t forgive

myself i won’t have the privilege of

being here

with all of you today most importantly

i want you all to know what you forgive

yourself for let go of that

excess weight and take action to all of

us we’re in a world of social media

constant interactions a button away from

a like and a dislike

we should not be concerned about what

people say about us and more concerned

about what they

do with what we give them how they take

forward what you do is how you define

your life which results in your legacy

i firmly believe we need to treat the

term legacy not

as the end but the beginning of

something and the beginning of someone

else

so before i go i want to ask you all

who do you want to thank what you want

to forgive yourself for

and when do you want to start loving

yourself and then loving

others you see our legacy is here and

now

don’t let it happen later walk with it

thank you