This post is part of a blog series on Brazen being sponsored by Entrustet. They asked Brazen members to answer the question: What do you want your legacy to be?
I plan on living forever, and so far, so good.
That line was always one of my favorites and I have no idea where I heard it or who said it first, it could have even been me, who knows (if you do know, speak up). It's true though - the idea of living forever, being immortal - it's the stuff that movies and books are made of. However, as much as we all like to pretend we're infallible, one of these days our stories do come to an end. The interesting thing is that our digital footprint will live on long after we do, and that's not really something previous generations have had to think about. So when it comes down to it, what do you want your legacy to be?
Everything we do nowadays from tweets to blog posts is said to remain on the internet forever. If we're intelligent and thought provoking some of our material will last longer than others. If we've been fortunate to go viral with a video or some other kind of media, there's potential for that to continue on forever and ever. Hopefully it educates, or makes someone laugh. If it doesn't, and it's negative, that's something you'll have to take into account when thinking about your legacy.
What Does the Current View of Yourself Look Like?
Obviously your legacy means nothing if the whole version of your current self isn't at its online best. Take a second to set up Google Alerts for your name every day so you can see where you exist currently on the internet. Modifying your footprint daily will help you to demonstrate to the public the image of yourself you want portrayed.
If you have a fairly common name, and want to distinguish your good work from those other bums who shares your name, I wholeheartedly recommend utilizing a service like Brand Yourself. It's not only good for when you want to job search, but it can help you to cultivate the legacy you're leaving behind in your wake. Identify the pattern of what you have already put online.
How Do You Want to be Remembered?
Once your modern self is being promoted in the best way, now you can start to think about what your legacy will be. What do you want left behind about yourself? I know that everything in my whole life exists on my external hard drive as far as all of my memories from college, living in New York, and living abroad. I also know that my email account will be an accurate portrayal of my life, and that I have more than one. Let's not even think about all of your financial dealings and important paperwork. Create a list of websites and their logins/passwords and give it to the person who is in charge of your life should something happen to you. My mother is my designated Power of Attorney so I keep this updated and send her a reviewed form every so often. Also put on there which online sites you may want deleted
We live in an age where having a Will probably doesn't mean much. I don't have many material items to leave behind for family members to fight over, and at the time of this writing I have not yet become a millionaire (there's still time). My entire legacy will be online and the things I have done and written. If by chance I am being searched for in the distant future, I hope that the pictures and videos and speaking engagements all demonstrate that I enjoyed life and wanted to help those around me. I also hope that my start up company Eat Your Serial is wildly successful and that it continues long after I'm around by entertaining the masses and finding great new authors for generations to come. Time will tell.
Some profiles take care of your legacy. Facebook "memorializes" your page by closing log in attempts, making your wall available for friends and family members to post if they wish, and by taking your name out of public search results. Whatever you had on your profile as your favorite music, or your inspirational quotes will stay there forever.
So at this current moment in life - What do you think your legacy will be? And more importantly - what do you want it to be?