Life is about taking chances and embracing risk.
If you want to get closer to your goal, at some point life will require both of you.
There is nothing worse than the feeling of having “missed it”, through sitting on the fence too long or making the wrong choice because we were always taught to play it safe. A so-called “wise choice” might lead to a life built around comfort rather than the life we actually wanted.
Building a life around comfort alone ends with disappointment and a deep sense of dissatisfaction because the pursuit of pleasure is purely temporal – it won’t lead to a great legacy for future generations!
Missed opportunities and making the right legacy plan
I often see peers from my generation looking back in mid-life at missed chances, having to re-address their lives as they have ended up with something that doesn’t feel right. Their life is somehow “off”. The consequences of choices made in their 20s have played out in their 30s and then their 40s and early 50s seem a long way out of kilter.
Recently, on The Purpose People Podcast, we were discussing how the Baby Boomer generation built a dream for themselves but in so doing, some frustrated the “legacy” plan. Life for them has been busy and productive but maybe not as purposeful as it could have been.
Millennials have strugged with their legacy plan too, albeit in a different way. Their quest for comfort might have looked a bit different though. For them, a journey of self-preservation where all blame shifted and was placed firmly at the feet of previous generations ultimately became frustrating. A business headed up by a CEO working to protect themselves above anything else, bricking themselves in so that risk is the last thing on their radar, won’t scale beyond the needs of the founder.
Gen Z dreams of changing the world.
As a father to two Gen Z children and one Gen Alpha, I recognise that, for them, the world is in a place where courage and truth are required to reboot the right narratives. Opportunities exist and history tells us there is always a way through. There have always been crises and situations to work through. There is always something intimidating on the horizon that needs to be overcome. This world needs champions of change, brave souls who are willing to follow their own vision.
More of the same
From education to construction, and sport to film making, AI is the buzz word in every seminar, expo and networking invite. However, using AI isn’t true change, it’s simply reproducing what we have always done, only faster.
How about using AI to help us to learn lessons from the past, and then we’ll have more of a platform to dream and ensure each person finds purpose. For some, that might be fixing what other platforms have gotten wrong, for others it’s finding solutions to unanswered problems, and for yet others it’s pioneering new ideas to propel us into an even brighter future. As flight transformed the way we explore the world, and electricity brought light into dark places, there are still inventions and discoveries to be made!
This summer’s blockbusters are almost upon us, (Superman, Jurassic Park, Fantastic 4 and F1), in which teamwork, opportunity and hope are central themes. The lesson is that there will always be opportunities to remove the villains in our life and help others by embracing our own superpowers, our circle and even our rivals, to become the best version of ourselves.
Taking the leap
When we look at the odds stacked against us, it helps to have a deep seated conviction that the risk, AKA the opportunity that is presenting itself, is worth taking. Knowing that we are in a generational moment to change the course of history is a good start.
I often talk about the choices that I have made to change the course of the generations in my family, and when the last remaining relative from my Mum’s side died unexpectedly a few weeks ago, I realised again how fast life changes. My uncle broke familial expectations and became successful, but the violence and sadness from his childhood always haunted him. Now, one generation further on, when I have been aware of abusive behaviour taking place i toxic organisations, I can’t accept it as a fact of life and turn a blind eye to it, and I have been obliged to change course (although not direction).
The power of building for impact
You see, building a business is part of reshaping society for the better. Work isn’t intrinsically bad, it’s good when it’s intrinsically impactful. Regardless of whether you are an employee or an employer, you can be motivated by the beneficial impacts of your efforts. If your motivation goes no deeper than your own comfort, it will leave you wanting more and might even stop your children from becoming heroes. Business is an incredible vehicle for change and there are so many sectors that can be transformed when we keep a legacy plan in mind.
Are we ready to take that chance, take responsibility and not leave it to someone else? Who is ready to lift their hand to say, let’s make progress and work towards perfection, even if it still seems a way off?
If that’s you, you are among the ones that I love working with. So, you know what to do, let’s team up and write another summer blockbuster!!!