We’ve got legacy all wrong.

Welcome to issue #038 of Unsubscribe. Each week, I send two essays that help you step off the default path to build a life you love, supported by work you enjoy. If you need support on your entrepreneurial journey, join our network of over 950 entrepreneurs. You’ll instantly join our group chat, weekly live Q&As, monthly workshops, and private in-person events.

---

People think legacy is about being remembered.

Maybe it’s your name on a building, or being featured in the history books. Or perhaps it’s stories people tell about you after you're gone.

But I'm not sure this is the right way to think about legacy.

I think real legacy shows up in other people. In how they work, what they build, and the choices they make because of what you taught them.

I was having dinner with a very successful chef friend in the West Loop of Chicago recently. We got to talking about famous restaurants that still trade on their founders' names, even though the food has become mediocre. The kind of places where you leave wondering, “What’s all the fuss about?”

The food isn't terrible. It's just...fine, which is almost worse.

These restaurants still get press, and people still wait months for that hard-to-nab reservation. But the thing that made them special disappeared long ago, when nobody took what the founder created and pushed it forward.

Sure, the founder gets remembered and their restaurant remains famous, but nothing grows from it. Nothing evolves. It just sits there, slowly declining, while everyone pretends not to notice.

Compare that to chefs whose protégés now run kitchens all over the world. Their techniques and philosophy spread through a network of people who learned from them, then went on to create something interesting and unique.

Those chefs might be less famous. Hell, their original restaurants might even be closed by now. But their impact keeps expanding through the people they trained and influenced.

I see this pattern in nearly every business I’ve interacted with over the course of my life.

I've worked for executives who are obsessed with their own achievements and those who spend nearly all of their time developing their teams. Twenty years later, guess whose influence is still growing?

The professors who guard their research versus the ones who teach their students to actually think. One gets citations in fancy books, while the other creates a generation of brilliant thinkers.

We spend so much energy trying to build monuments to ourselves. Writing books nobody reads, giving speeches nobody remembers, and protecting our little kingdoms for the sake of our own ego.

Meanwhile, the people who really matter are too busy teaching someone else. They don’t even have time to care about their own reputation.

They know something the rest of us miss: When you pour yourself into developing others, you become immortal in a way that no amount of self-promotion can ever match.

Every person you genuinely help becomes a carrier of your biggest and best ideas. Every skill you teach becomes a tool someone else uses to build something you never even imagined would come to life.

The more you focus on being remembered, the faster you're forgotten.

The more you focus on developing others, the longer you last.

---

What’s your take on today’s topic? Do you agree, disagree, or is there something I missed?

---

If you enjoyed this read, the best compliment I could receive would be if you shared it.

---

Join our private network of 950+ entrepreneurs who have access to the following upcoming events and previous workshops from 6 and 7-figure entrepreneurs, CEOs, multiple New York Times Bestselling Authors, creators, makers, and more. You’ll also gain access to live weekly Q&As and invitations to members-only networking events worldwide.