You maniacs!  You blew it up!  — George Taylor

A little over ten years ago, I had the pleasure of working at PointRoll, a cutting-edge internet advertising company headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.  PointRoll relied on creativity mixed with good-humored irreverence to market its online advertising tools to publishers and advertising agencies across the country.  And the company leveraged vibrant colors and quirky designs to differentiate its brand among the other bland manufacturing companies in its pseudo-industrial park.  It was a company making a statement.

I had not been back to Conshohocken in over a decade.  But last week, I found myself in the area and took a long jog past the old complex.  It was a jarring sight to behold.  All the bright red, blue and orange colors had been painted over.  The welcome sign was whitewashed and sanitized.  The spot in the courtyard, near the railroad tracks, where countless programmers had flicked cigarettes, was power-washed and clean.  The humanity!

It was eerily similar to the ultimate scene in the original “Planet of the Apes” movie.  Instead of the Statue of Liberty ruins, there was a destroyed poster of our old “Fatboy” mascot.  I felt like Charlton Heston, overacting and pounding the sand.  At first, I didn’t recognize the building.  But it was the ruins of the same place.  And yet nothing was the same.

Everything I had known was gone.  And it really got me thinking.  What is our legacy?  Did that time in my life mean anything?  Did we make a difference?  If the company is gone, what did we leave behind?

These are big questions to ponder in our work lives.  And even bigger questions to ponder in our personal lives.

Transition is Natural

As entrepreneurs, we may build a large and successful company.  As managers, we may lead a dynamic team.  As employees, we may work with an incredible group of colleagues.  As players, we may compete on a dynasty.  As coaches, we may build a solid program of success.

But we all make a change at some point.  We sell the business.  We move on to lead another team.  We leave a company and our colleagues behind.  We graduate from a great team or leave a successful program.  What happens when we go?

Transition is a natural part of life.  We may expect everything to crumble when we leave.  But more often than not, life carries on. Even if there is success after we leave, it doesn’t erase all the good we accomplished while we were there.

Our legacy is not in the buildings.  Or the stock price.  Or the revenues.  Or the wins and losses. We may move on, but our interactions and relationships will live on forever.  We will be judged by our contributions in the moment.  We will be judged by how we handled ourselves in times of adversity.  We will be judged by our level of commitment and passion.  We will be judged by how often we put the needs of others above our own.  We will be judged by how many times we helped someone else succeed.  That is our legacy.  And regardless of what happens after, our legacy can never be taken away.

Family, Friends, and Relationships

The same is true in our personal lives.  We may be fortunate enough to raise our families in a nice home.  We may see our children transition from cute babies into young adults.  We may build a nest egg and watch our savings and security grow.  Time goes marching on and hopefully we continue to grow in the process.

But life transitions as we grow older.  We may sell our house.  Our children may leave and launch into the real world.  We may dip into our savings at retirement.  It is not about the physical structure, or the amount of wealth, or the passage of time.  It is about what we have done with the time that was given to us.

Did we create a loving environment full of memories and traditions? We can sell a house, but we will always have a home.   Did we give our children the support and framework they need to stand on their own in the real world?  They can leave the nest but they will always be a part of us.  Did we focus on money as a means of security rather than an accumulation of possessions?  Security will set us free.

PointRoll is no longer a viable company and the old headquarters looks like the ruins from the “Planet of the Apes”.  But the relationships and the memories will live on forever.  And so it is for all of us.

Our legacy is not the physical items we leave behind.  Our legacy lies in our family, our friends and the number of quality relationships we were able to build along the way.

And regardless of time and circumstances, no one can blow that up.