Hi Friend
I had a fabulous trip to Tallahassee this week. Even more delightful was my mom hopped in the van and made the return trip with me. It’s a long drive. Memphis is the halfway point. We rolled into town around 10:30pm that night. My mom has travelled all over the USA because she did the RV life for 8 years. However she’d never been to Memphis.
Her first response when I told her we’d stop there was “Can we see Graceland?” 🤩 Friday morning we found ourselves at the front gate of the King’s Home. Well, actually the whole museum and entry point is across the street from the house. We made our way there, rode the shuttle to the house itself and then back for a couple more hours to look at his cars, clothes and every other item he touched in life.
The house is a trip. Vibrant and bold, it gave me ideas for decorating. I suspect in its day it was the pinnacle of cool and lavish. The man didn’t mind loud and outrageous. He bought it from the original owners, who are the ones that named it Graceland. I imagine as a kid, he saw that house as the ultimate symbol of success.
The home is just the first stop in experiencing all that Elvis was and did in his very short life. His car collection, outfits, gold records, visit w/Nixon, two years in the army, 31 movie roles, golf carts, gear, home movies and much much more! It’s astonishing to see all of the peripherals of his life on display.
What was more extraordinary was when I realized he did all of that in just 42 years on earth. His story prompted the query:
How Do We Measure Success?
The dude literally has 120 acres of museum and artifacts from his time on earth and people are still visiting it 44 years after he left the building! He’s been gone longer than he was alive and his impact somehow still resonates. That’s shocking.
He was certainly a workhorse and undoubtedly gifted. He achieved a stratosphere of global accomplishment that had never been reached before. He set the bar for being a successful entertainer that still seems uniquely his.
You and I tend to think in terms of legacy as an important metricfor measuring our success.
What did we pass on?
What did we leave behind when we are no longer here?
Whose lives are better because we lived?
Did we make a difference?
Will anyone even remember we traipsed across this world?
There’s a legitimacy to that measurement. Whether it’s family lore, intimate relationships or a broader scope of reach, what lives on after our death indicates something about our life. How we stewarded the gifts, talents and relationships entrusted to us will be remembered. For how long is proportionate to how well we handled them.
What bugs me though is quantity vs quality. Inherently we don’t want to die. We tend to think if we just keep living, our life is better, well, because we’re still here! Yet, at the end of people’s lives when medical involvement gets complicated we start having the conversation about their “quality of life” being untenable. None of us think or say about our loved ones “I’m not sure they’ve been living a quality life for quite some time.” 😆
Elvis didn’t get to meet any of his grandkids. He only got to be with his daughter for her first 9 years. So the immediate family metric was super low. He did however live and work with his parents much more than most others. So that family metric is high. By impression, it seems like he was doing what he believed he was created to do. So the calling/purpose metric was high.
Was his 42 years enough? Of course not.
Does Elvis have anything to do with my life’s purpose? Nope.
Is there a benefit to comparing my life or yours to his? Nope.
What’s nagging me is that I’ve already been alive 8 MORE YEARS than he was. I don’t want to be an entertainer, singer, performer or anything like him… but I do want my life to impact positivelythose around me and even those at a distance. You probably feel similarly.
Are we simply going for quantity of life?
Instigating Ideas
1. Do your best Elvis impression for someone. It will assuredly make them smile.
2. List your top five metrics for defining success.
3. What if legacy wasn’t important?
4. Who has impacted your life most and why/how?
Elvis is killing it in death! Of course he’s just a business entity now, not a real person. It’s likely you and I won’t achieve a business upgrade when we die. This life is where and when we’re making impact.
I wonder if our fascination with legacy is just an ego trip? There are millions and millions of people who lived and died over the centuries none of us know about. Yet, when they were here, they mattered to someone. Is that enough?
I like when wealthy people put their names on educational buildings. Oddly, I don’t find that an ego effort. Money represents their life. Creating a space for students to learn reflects a priority. Attaching their identity to that facility lets them live on serving humanity. I’m all for it!