To what end?

Impact to me is best when seen with my own eyes and touched by my own hands. Putting my shoulder into pieces of timber at a community garden helps me be a part of it, quite literally.

It makes me appreciate that I dedicated my career to a company gifted at quantifying value created and my volunteer time to a nonprofit where I could meet those whose lives it saved. It guides my life now as I engage in work that yields fruit I can see. Why do I seek such specificity in outcomes? Because I am a part of a society that is defining our future and our lasting legacy, whether it knows it or not, and I take that responsibility seriously.

Consider that the Giza Plateau was built 4500 years ago across the reigns of five pharaohs. They ruled over an estimated 1.6 million people of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, and their memory is preserved in our consciousness in part by their buildings and monuments. Evidence suggests that a workforce of about twenty thousand laborers was necessary to build a single pyramid at Giza. One inscription found contains details of the physical construction (ex. quarrying and placing stone blocks), including the organization of the 4000 skilled craftsmen required.

If we apply these ratios roughly to a singular endeavor today in the United States, pop. approx. 350M, it would require a total of 4.375M people including 875K skilled laborers. Of course, this herculean effort isn’t necessary today for projects of similar impact, but if legacy is the byproduct of organized human resources then our current times will be seen through the lens of entities like Amazon (1.5M employees), Walmart (2M), and the US federal government (3M).

Ask anyone around you what comes to mind when you say “ancient Egyptians” and you’ll most likely get the same handful of responses, among them pyramids and pharaohs. Maybe more sophisticated answers would include builders and astronomers. What will come to mind when asking of the “Americans of the 21st century” four thousand years in the future? Highly governed and economically optimized consumers?

- Take time to think of the impact your work is enabling beyond corporate goals and departmental outcomes. Go layers deeper than the initial thoughts that come to mind. Whatever you abstract this to, ask yourself if you are truly and consciously committed to those things as your lasting legacy.

- Share those conclusions with your personal board of directors or loved ones who know the “real” you for accountability and to seek honest reactions.