WEEKEND THOUGHTS
Ben Mahrle
Founder of Mountain States Business Brokers & Advisors, A Division of Front Range Business Brokers
What is Your Legacy?
Too many times we equate legacy with money and wealth. But it is really much more than that. Teddy Roosevelt said, “We should never forget that it will be just as important to our descendants to be prosperous in their time as it is to us to be prosperous in our time.” And we are passing on far more than just the material possessions we leave behind. Much more.
We leave with them everything they learned from us by word and by action. In fact, actions really speak far louder for lifetimes longer than words in the legacy department. It does no good to leave untold wealth to our heirs if we have neglected to teach them how to preserve it and the responsibility to others that comes with it. In 1877 Cornelius Vanderbilt left over $200 million to his heirs. That was more than the total US Treasury at the time. At the family reunion in 1973, just 96 years later, there was not a millionaire left. Why?
Vanderbilt’s heirs were left with the results of hard work and vision but were never taught those skills. Instead, they had learned to be socialites with no appreciation for what went into creating their largess. One of his grandsons summed it up pretty well, “Inherited wealth is a real handicap to happiness. It is as certain a death to ambition as cocaine is to morality.”
May your legacy be built daily in all that you do.