The Ripple Effect of Sacred Work: How Helping One Person Impacts Many

Recently, I was asked to give a keynote and workshop on building legacy. The client was the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) chapter of Guatemala. As a former member of YPO, I was excited to give back to an organization that has given me so much.

YPO is an organization originally created to help young business professionals who found themselves thrust into leadership positions in family businesses.

After World War II, many family-run businesses tapped their next of kin to run businesses they had little experience leading.

Today, YPO is a worldwide organization of business executives that includes entrepreneurs, financiers, Inc. 500 and Fortune 2000 leaders, and, of course, family-run businesses.

A YPO chapter consists of small, noncompetitive groups called forums (between 6 and 12 people) that meet approximately 10 times per year. Each year, a chapter's leadership chair, working with its learning officer, sets a theme for their forums to explore and learn about.

Guatemala's chapter theme this year is "Building Your Legacy." They had booked me over a year ago to be one of the kickoff speakers for their educational year of legacy.

In the year leading up to this speech, I found myself taking notes about what legacy means to me and how to build it. As part of my keynote development, I spent a lot of time reflecting on the topic. I often find that the most helpful place for me to start when developing an entirely new speech is conducting a deep dive into my personal experiences and how they might be helpful to others.

My approach to developing this speech, which I called UNSTOPPABLE TRAINING: Activating Your Legacy, was no different.

The Connection Between Legacy and Sacred Work

The first topic I grappled with was understanding what legacy is. After some research and a few different AI prompts, I came across an answer that really resonated with me:

"Reputation is what people think of you. Legacy is what people carry forward because of you."

And:

"Your legacy isn't what people say about you when you're gone. It's what people do because of you."

This became my call to action.

Like most speech development, the more I get involved with a topic, the more the universe seems to serve ideas up to me. Or perhaps better stated, the more I become aware of how different topics in my daily life can be beneficial.

The topic that made me think about legacy most came from my good friend's dream about sacred work, which I shared in my recent article, Sacred Work: Find and Share Your God-Given Talent.

I reason that if legacy is what people carry forward because of you, then what they are carrying forward is your most valuable, impactful, and best work. In other words, your sacred work.

I consider your sacred work to be that which is of your highest talent, your greatest gift that you can give to others. It takes time, energy, and courage to develop your talent into something that others will deem so valuable that they find it worth sharing.

The process of sharing what you have given to others is what builds your legacy.

The Three Levels of Legacy

I think of legacy building in three levels. In much the same way I describe leadership, I describe the legacy creation process.

Here's how I depicted the Legacy Levels to my new YPO Guatemala friends:

• You: Develop your sacred work and share your greatest gifts with others.
• Directs: The people who benefit personally from your work and the talents you share.
• Indirects: The people who benefit when others carry your gifts forward and share them with someone else.

Like leadership, legacy ALWAYS begins with you and the actions you repeatedly commit to taking while serving others.

Legacy first gets developed as you define your highest-use work (aka your sacred work). We hone our sacred work each time we decide to help someone else with our gift.

The people we serve directly are the people I call "Directs." Directs have many categories, starting with our spouse, kids, friends, work colleagues, volunteers, teammates, strangers, etc.

When Directs share what you have given them, something they "carry forward because of you," they are sharing it with people I call "Indirects."

These people only know of you because a Direct has shared your "gift" because it was helpful to them. This process of sharing is how I think legacy gets built.

There are times when your legacy can be built by going directly to the Indirects via a book, speech, podcast, TED Talk, news article, etc.

In my earlier article, Building Your Legacy: The Goal That Outlives You, I explored how our beliefs, behaviors, and service shape the legacy we build through our daily actions. The Legacy Levels take that idea one step further by showing how those actions can influence people beyond those we serve directly.

How Helping One Person Can Impact Many

As I pondered elements of legacy building, one quotation I found anecdotal was attributed to President Lyndon B. Johnson:

"Every hand I shake is worth 250 votes."

Whether that is actually accurate, I'm sure, is up for debate, but that's not the point of sharing the quotation.

It's the theme that I want you to embrace. Think of legacy building like President Johnson's handshaking formula:

Every person you help with your gift might be able to help X number of other people.

Defining the "X" is not really important. It's understanding that the better you learn how to help one person, the more you just might be helping that person help many others.

This transitive property of "helping one person is actually helping many" is how I think when I take the stage or conduct a coaching session. When I approach serving with that mindset, it makes me dig deeper to bring the best of myself to each engagement.

Think about the people you've helped recently. What have you given them that they might now be sharing with someone else?

Your Sacred Work Builds Your Legacy

Until I was asked to give a three-hour keynote and workshop on legacy building, I honestly never thought much about my legacy.

I am not doing the work I do because I want to leave a certain legacy. I actually think if you spend too much time worried about what your legacy will be, then it won't be that lasting.

Instead, spend your time focused on how to give the best of yourself to others, and your legacy will naturally develop through those you have served.

Which brings me full circle back to our sacred work.

When we fully commit to using our talents in service to others, our legacy naturally gets built. I think the most powerful legacy we can all strive to have is a legacy built upon being helpful to others.

Imagine what would happen if everyone in your team, organization, and community shared that mindset?

Now imagine that ripple effect happening not just through one person, but through an entire team committed to helping others.

I can tell you what the result is: an Unstoppable Team.

That's not a utopian ideal. I've seen it happen many times. Unstoppable Teams can be built, and you can be the builder.

Leadership, like Legacy, starts with you.

CHARLIE MIKE.

Alden