The Law of Legacy: A leader’s lasting value is measured by succession. My life sentence is, “I want to add value to leaders who will multiply value to others.” Most people simply accept their lives – they don’t lead them. Someday people will summarize your life in a single sentence. My advice: pick it now! A legacy is created only when a person puts his organization into the position to do great things without him.

Anyone who has been a student of Lawrence Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development will recognize that this law is out of the reach of the majority. There are six defined stages and the fourth one, the Social System or Law-and-Order stage, where morality is seen by persons in this stage as a matter of playing ones part in the social system, of doing ones duty, of obeying the rules. Kohlberg’s view is that most adults are fixated at this stage. I would agree completely and that being said, it would be incumbent upon other leaders within an organization to establish succession directives with articulated deliverables. This advice plays well within any personal or corporate business continuity or disaster recovery plan. While the majority exist within the Stage One through Stage Four region, with direction, those if us who dwell in the Stage Five or Stage Six spots will be happy (I mean that!) to mentor others who desire to aspire.

“We have made at least a start in discovering the meaning in human like when we plant shade trees under which we know full well we will never sit.” – Elton Trueblood.

“A life isn’t significant except for its impact on other lives,” – Jackie Robinson.