4 Simple Ways To Leave A Legacy

Funerals have been a familiar setting for our family these past weeks. Grandpa passed away May 7th, then followed by my uncle last June 4th. They were both cremated. Their ashes were ceremonially slid inside a bag, then sealed in an urn.

The urn then placed in a pigeon hole at a columbarium where they rest forever. After saying our prayers, we head out, go on our own way, leaving the remains to their new home — together with few hundreds of other people’s remains.

What a great waste if you think of it..

My uncle lived for 67 years, and grandpa was 90. Imagine all those years, in the end, just turned into ashes. The only thing left behind was their legacy.

Well, one day in the future (hopefully many many more years in the future), we’ll end up just like them. Only the legacies will differ.

If we’re thinking the same thing, the next question is how can we leave our legacy? Or what legacies do we want to leave? Fortunately, the pastor who led the service before cremation gave us some tips:

Have a Son
No intention to discriminate the daughters, but obviously your son can pass your surname to the next generation.

Grandpa had a reputation of being secretive. We’re not sure about many things about him. He might be an undercover agent or something, altering a lot of things about his identity. We just learned these things after he passed away. According to a source, grandpa didn’t have any properties or bank accounts that was named after him. But hey, we have his surname.

Write a Book
Not only your surname can be passed on. Wisdom, knowledge, and your story can also go from one generation to another. — Which is far more important in my opinion.

I was blessed to have the opportunity to start and run my own business. But running it is not all about instincts. We have to read and learn passionately. Reading books written by real life entrepreneurs greatly guided me on my ventures. I prefer reading their stories than text books; paying special attention to their failures, and how did they overcome it.

If it wasn’t for those books, perhaps I’ll only be about 50% confident to do business.

Most of these authors had already passed for more than a decade. But rest assured their books will continue to inspire and educate people like me.

Don’t waste lessons you learned throughout the years, letting it last for just a lifetime. Write a book. Or start a blog. Pass it on!

Plant a Tree
You can literally plant a tree, or just produce something tangible that outlasts your life.

Some great idea includes: painting, sculptures, songs, poems, short films, a charity, a school, a park, and the list goes on..

For us Chinese, the usual is putting up a small business, or business-es, that can hopefully grow big enough to support the future generations.

Do good to Others
Act of kindness can go a long way. These two powerful videos explains it all (must watch):

You’ll never know which heart you touched is fertile enough, for your legacy to grow in their lives. Just make the effort to do good to anyone; And hopefully, they’ll pay it forward.

Our life is indeed short. Just averaging about 25,550 days. But what we do today has the potential to leave a mark forever.

Photo by Flickr/CubaGallery