What is it that you aspire to be?
Have you ever given serious consideration to the type of ‘contribution’ and ‘legacy’ you would like to build and leave for your self, family and the world?
Is it something you think about it or has the thought never ever crossed your mind?
As an entrepreneur, I am sure you have many aspirations besides making money.
There had to be an underlying reason or reasons as to why you decided to start an internet business and become a business owner.
The reasons could have come about because you ultimately wanted to improve your quality of life and create for yourself a financially free lifestyle, which is awesome.
Everyone I know wants a bit of the same thing.
I will be the first one to admit and I say I am no different. I want a piece of the cake too.
In my other blog post, I kind of alluded to some of these reasons as to why you may want to become an entrepreneur.
These are noble and well-founded reasons for most folks like you and me.
As a matter of fact, most of us have gone into business precisely because we have:
- A need to fulfil or
- A problem to overcome or
- A state of affair to improve
So far so so good…
I would like to think we are in agreement here and there are no contradictions in our thinking.
But what If I ask you a number of hypothetical questions?
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The Ideal Lifestyle
Having created the ideal lifestyle you wanted and finally made it, meaning you have become so successful at least as far as materialistic gains are concerned.
You no longer have to worry about yours or your family’s survival.
You have arrived at your destination so to speak and have achieved all that you ever wanted.
Imagine you have all:
- The condos
- The houses
- The dream cars
- The endless vacations
- The money in the banks
- Trust funds set for the kids
- Investments
- Profitable businesses
- Great relationships
You name it, you have it all. All that you have ever wanted and worked hard for you’ve got it.
Would you be content with your achievements?
Will you be fulfilled?
Will you truly be happy?
Or is there something much bigger than any of these things, you feel, you need to make you complete but you are not quite sure what it is?
Is it the acquisition of:
- More money and richness?
- More influence?
- More power?
- More fame?
- More significance?
- More relationships?
- More expensive toys and gadgets?
- More food?
- More designer handbags?
- More clothing and shoes?
Or what exactly do you think could be missing?
Ah ha. That is the million-dollar question.
The answer could be as simple as ‘helping‘ and ‘serving’ other people that is all you need.
You certainly don’t need to have money to have great fulfilment, because is not always about money.
However, money can provide a way for us to create a much bigger impact quickly.
In life, most things are not free and if you truly want to make a meaningful impact, you would need to pay for these services.
For example, If you want to build:
- An educational institution
- A homeless shelter
- A refuge for women, men, children, the marginalised & the forgotten
- An online business school to attract young talent
- An orphanage
- A health centre
- An environmental body for raising awareness on the serious issues of climate change and its effects on our planet
- A research hub dedicated to developing cures, vaccines and therapies for our most debilitating diseases such as cancer, malaria, Aids, flu pandemics, COVID-19, Alzheimer’s, dementia, extreme loneliness, addictions, mental health conditions and other harmful illnesses
- An animal protection sanctuary
- A crime prevention program
- An enterprise dedicated to developing the latest innovations and emerging trends in tech, sciences, business, medicine, engineering, robotics, artificial intelligence, economics, aviation, architecture, education, literature, social sciences, humanities, and the arts
- A legal body that represents the voice of the voiceless and fights for true justice in order to remove oppression, repression, racism, discrimination and systematic injustice
- A centre for eradicating global warming, pollution on land and sea especially the plastic pandemic issue and its effect on marine life and the rest of the planet
- An organization for eradicating hunger, malnutrition, drought, poverty, illiteracy, inequality, and for providing clean water and energy
- A conservation centre for preserving history, languages, heritage, listed buildings, culture, coral reefs, extinct species, ecology and trees.
- Initiatives to educate, inspire, and empower people to improve their lives, loved ones and their respective communities
The money has to come from somewhere.
One of the ways to acquire this ‘funding’ is through entrepreneurship.
This is what I am doing and I hope, it is also what you aspire to do if not already started.
The following, are the 4 outstanding rewarding ways on how to ‘build’ and ‘leave‘ a lasting legacy for your self and loved ones.
#1: Top Rewarding Ways – Live a Life of Service
If you are an entrepreneur with money and have a conscious for wanting to help people, you would have created for yourself an ideal lifestyle.
A life full of purpose and meaning, dedicated to making a difference to the world and by so doing, you are more likely to achieve:
- Fulfilment
- Inner peace
- Contentment and
- True happiness
You probably heard the saying ‘in giving we receive so much more in return’.
Material gains on their own will give you a temporary high.
After a while, you will get bored and will be looking for the next thing to make you feel complete.
By doing this, you will be stuck in a vicious cycle because what you are focusing on is just masking the emptiness by consuming things that you think will make you happy.
Remember that money is just a tool and a very useful one at that when used correctly.
It gives us choices and allows us to access things that in normal circumstances we will not be able to acquire so easily.
Instead …
Let us learn to share our:
- Time
- Gifts
- Efforts
- Wealth
- Insights
- Wisdom
- Expertise
- Resources
- Compassion
- Cooperation
- Collaboration
- Knowledge and
- Life Experiences
You will be amazed at how ‘fulfilling ‘and ‘contented’ your life will be.
#2: Set Your Vision For a Higher Purpose
You will have the opportunity to build and leave a lasting legacy where your name will be remembered for many generations to come.
Whatever noble cause you have that you are passionate about, you owe it to yourself to do something with it.
I would encourage you to plant the seed today as part of your life’s vision.
You can set visions for both your business and personal life. Each coexisting in harmony side by side with no conflict.
Aim to build and leave a lasting legacy where people will benefit from what you have started and leave behind.
If you are able to build something whilst you are alive, you will be able to enjoy it much more and witness it with your own eyes how it will impact people’s lives.
This is priceless and of course, when you leave this world, people will continue to benefit from your great contribution.
If you, myself, every other entrepreneur and like minded-individuals live our lives with these principles, can you imagine how much we can ‘collectively’ achieve to make the world a better place?
Our global village is in turmoil, no doubt through the mischief of men, misuse of resources, mother nature, inequality and a cycle of never-ending chaos, injustices, oppression, biases, prejudices, discontent and disunity.
We owe it to our children and the next generation to leave them something of value and substance.
You may also like to read:
- How To Set Your Vision for an Ideal Blissful Life In 6 Ways
- 14 Top Amazing Habits of Successful People
#3: Contribute To The Human Race Purposefully
We have to start asking the right questions and teach our children to think differently.
This is beautifully articulated in Vishen Lakhiani’s video of MindValley featured below where he was responding to very good questions of:
How Do We Prepare Our Kids For The Future?
How Do We Contribute To The Human Race?
You may also like to read:
#4: Shift Your Mindset
Our mindset has to change and take a different view of the world we are familiar with.
No more conditioning by society’s average thinking and doing what everyone’s doing because it is the norm.
Sometimes it takes fewer extraordinary people who are willing to go the extra mile and think outside the box.
They are the people who usually make an impact in the world and contribute significantly to the human race.
Let us aim to be:
- Unifiers
- Healers
- Creators
- Inventors
- Educators
- Innovators
- Contributors
- Justice-makers
- Peace-builders
- Global shapers
- Impact-makers
- Change-makers
- Problem solvers
- Decision-makers
- Accurate thinkers
- Visionary effective leaders
- Supporters of awesome causes
- Early adopters of great visions and …
- Facilitators & enablers of effective change
Not people who just like to complain and don’t do anything to change the narrative.
If we don’t act now, then when?
Take Home Message
Each one of us has the ‘potential‘ to do something special in our own unique ways, in order to make a difference in our world, however small or trivial it may seem to be.
Every little bit counts, never underestimate how useful and rewarding it can be to the recipients and for yourself.
We can do this right now and we certainly don’t need to wait until we become wealthy or financially successful to make a difference in the world and our communities.
It always starts with you and me.
Are you willing to change and adopt a different path?
If you are, know that you would have done something of tremendous value and greater benefit for humanity.
So go ahead, please …
Start planting your seed of ‘impact‘ and ‘contribution’ today.
Have you thought about what your contribution will be, before leaving this world?
Love to hear from you – Leave me a comment below.
Don’t forget to share the article with your friends. Thank you.
Hope the future humans will get a happy and easy life of the modern world.
Hey Louis
I sure hope so! better than that we have to start taking responsibility for our mess during our lifetime.
We can’t expect future generations to fix everything, there might be nothing worthwhile left by the time things get to them.
It is our planet, it is our world, it is our people, it is our values, it is our concern… it is no longer about them and us but all of us collectively!
Thank you for your valuable comments and contribution to this article.
I can’t say but this article is great
Welcome, Aman.
I am so pleased to hear you liked our article. I hope it has inspired you to start thinking about making a contribution and leaving a legacy for yourself, family and the world. Don’t be a stranger, we would love to see you again.
Please share the article with your friends. Thank you.
Hello Rabia,
Your article is really thought-provoking and it really resonates with me. I have wanted to start a business purely to take care of my family and to also contribute to my community through empowerment initiatives. A purpose driven life is the ultimate goal for me, to contribute to society and leave a legacy for my family and children.
Thank you for such an informative article. I’m so encouraged to work harder and implement all my project so that i can contribute to the future generation.
Best regards,
Kele
Hi Kele
I am so pleased to hear you found the article somewhat useful and inspiring.
It is precisely for this reason why I started this blog, to encourage and empower like-minded entrepreneurs to achieve our greatness through entrepreneurship and enterprise.
We can do so much to uplift our lives and the lives of many people in our communities and humanity at large when we find our true purpose in life and have a vehicle to help us deliver our vision.
I wish you every success in your business ventures and have no doubt you will achieve all your dreams and goals of wanting to take care of your family, contribute to your community as well as leaving a legacy for yourself and children.
Thank you.
Best wishes
I love this article Rabia, it’s inspirational. You’re absolutely right that material things just poorly fill a void, there’s much more to being your own boss than lots of shiny things.
My aim is to have portable income to give my family location independence and freedom. Freedom from institutions, from making other people rich while we just scrap by. Freedom to explore, to travel, to really experience life and cultures without restrictions. By the time I’m done I hope to leave my children all the tools they need to set up and run their own businesses in whatever they are passionate about.
My legacy will be having educated thousands of people in natural health and reducing toxic exposure for healthier, happier lives. Perhaps we’ll put big pharma out of business too. Just maybe.
Keep writing great articles, Rabia. I’ll be reading!
Good on you Lace! You don’t know how pleased I am to hear you feel the same way about these issues.
I say yes, bring it on. Freedom from the norms and what we have been conditioned to accept. There is another way, there has to be, only if we look for it and pursue it.
I am positive you will able to achieve all that you ever wanted to accomplish and aspire to be. You have the right mindset and the vision for it. We need more entrepreneurs who think like you do, so we can truly make a difference to the world in a significant way.
Natural living is the way to go as our ancestors did before us. Having damaged our planet, men now recognize and acknowledge things have to change.
I love your legacy. Continue to live your true purpose, the universe will reward you for it.
Thank you for your encouragement.
I enjoyed reading your article very much! It’s always a good reminder that our time here on earth is really miniscule in the grand scheme of things. So we should take time to really look around and see what our legacy will be when we’re gone.
For me, when my grandson runs up to me and gives me a bear hug and tells me how much he loves me, I love seeing that I will live on in his memories when I’m gone. There’s nothing material that I could obtain that will ever come close to that!
Hi jlClayton1
Thank you for stopping by. I am pleased to hear you have enjoyed reading my article.
I have been thinking about leaving a legacy for a long time and it is also one of the reasons why I went into business.
I want to encourage myself and other entrepreneurs to think along these lines, as one day we will leave this world and what a better way to go than to leave knowing we have done something useful that benefit mankind. It is very touching to hear of your relationship with your grandson. Indeed these are the precious memories of loved ones that matter the most than material gains. You cannot put a price on that.
Best wishes.
Rabia