Tom Zigler talks family legacy.

T?????I had the opportunity to sit down with my friend Tom Zigler, whose new book 10 Leadership Virtues for Disruptive Times, has just been released.?I invited Tom on my podcast, Loral’s Real Money Talks, to discuss the topic of Legacy, what it means to him, and what legacy his father Zig Zigler left him.

?????When asked what legacy is, Tom had this to say, “We want to create a financial security net for them, but legacy is really how they make the choices and decisions once they’ve been given the gift.?We’ve got to do both if we’re gonna prepare those we love for things that coming along. ?To me, legacy is when you prepare someone to handle the furnace, because life is gonna come at you.?Legacy is when you prepare someone to make good choices when the times are tough.

????Tom will be joining me at the GenW, which is short for Generation Wealth Builders, event coming up, where we will be doing some values work.?I asked Tom to speak more on family missions, family intention and how they begin.

????There’s a real simple question that I like to ask people and that’s what do you want other people to say behind your back about you??You just identifying what it is you want to be known for.?I call those things “the fruit of the tree.”?So, if we have a tree and we’re saying that tree represent me and my family.?The pieces of the fruit represent my reputation, what I’m known for.?It can also represent a vacation home, a lifestyle that I want to live or the ability to go out and do what I want to do.?In order to live or the ability to go out and do what I want to do.?In order to have all those things, there’s a saying, “A tree’s fruitfulness depends on its rootfulness.”

????When we talk about legacy there are seven roots in our tree.?Mental is the way we think.?Spiritual is our principles and rules.?Physical is how we take care of our body.?How we prepare our family.?Financial is that we have to be stewards of what God has given us.?And we’ve got to share that information and the decisions that we make with our family.?Personal is how we create energy in our own life.?The last is career.?

????We need to create habits that nourish those roots.?The question I ask people is this, “Are you going to leave a legacy by design or by chance?”

???Legacy is properly applied knowledge with the right motivation, the right character, the right integrity, that sets us up for the long term.

???If you’re talking about family legacy, the best place to begin is the family dinner table.?You have intentional conversations on a regular basis.?You get the kids involved, you get everybody involved and you say what’s the fruit we want on our tree?

????The worst thing is when an inheritance comes along, and no one knows what to expect.?That should be out on the table early on.

????My dad said this, “The number one reason people do not achieve their goals, is they trade what they want most for what they want now.”

????In legacy we got to really make it clear what we want most, so we don’t start trading what we want most for what we want now.

????In closing, I asked Tom to tell the listeners what legacy his dad left behind, not only to his family but to those who followed his teachings and read his books.

????We estimated that my dad, Zig Zigler impacted about 250 million people.?He wrote 45 books, and there was a thirty-year span where he spoke thirty times a year to at least 12,000 people each time.

????People loved him and they would be inspired by his message.?The thing that really changed him is when they stood in line to get an autograph, and they might wait two or three hours.

???When he passed away, we had I think it was 12,000 comments on FaceBook.?The common theme was this, “Zig Zigler inspired me when I heard him speak.?But when I stood in line, and I finally met him, even though it was only for a minute, it was like I was the only one in the room.”?And that to me is a legacy.

????None of us can be Zig Zigler onstage, because there’s only one, but all of us can be Zig Zigler one-on-one.?So maybe the most powerful legacy is just the people you’re around, they know you’re the most important people to you.

???When you care about somebody and you want the best for them, that is a game changer because today it’s all surface.?We need to develop that deeper relationship.?Legacy is about relationship.?It’s about how well we know someone and wanting the best for them.

????Legacy was very intentional in our family.?He took my sisters and me, as we were growing up, we traveled with him when he worked.?Because he wanted us to see how business was done.

???You’ve already started creating a legacy, but the good news is you can make it really intentional for the rest of your time here on this Earth.?And the impact will ripple through eternity.

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For more of an in-depth conversation Tom Zigler and much much more, please go to www.genwconference.com .