What Will Define You: Your Business? Your Contributions? Your Character?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 12:00pm by David Askaripour in Life

Here’s a question to ponder: Beneath everything that you do — business, art, science, helping others, whatever — what truly defines you? What sort of impact will be left on this Earth after you die?

Now I don’t think that there is a definitive answer to this question. In fact, I don’t think anyone should outright come up with a single, all-encompassing definition, because we’re all so multi-faceted and go way beyond the limits of any single word.

However, it’s a question — even an exercise — that we should all think about. Will you be remembered as the jerk who was always negative to everyone and bashed concepts because you thought they were absolute garbage? Will you be remembered as that person who was always willing to lend a helping hand without expecting anything in return? Will you be remembered as someone who had only one end in life — and that end consisted on making money and nothing else?

I don’t know, but you probably do. You know yourself better than anyone else. But I’d venture to say that many people, right now, reading this probably aren’t happy about how the world will remember them or the impact that they’ll leave on society — the world.

And if that’s the case, then you are likely doing something that you may not be passionate about; perhaps something thing isn’t quite positive; or maybe something that you feel forced into doing due to various circumstances, i.e., for the money, fame, etc.

It’s important to check in with ourselves and see where our true intentions lie. To evaluate the ratio of what we are putting into this world to what we are taking out of it.

We all talk a big game about our contributions and how we’re going to change the world one day, but the fact of the matter is that changing the world isn’t contingent upon how “successful” our businesses are or how many people are using our service. Changing the world starts in the minds and hearts of a person and can be done on a daily basis by our “actions” and the we “think.”

Think about that.

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