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