Legacy Equations
I’m at the Dad 2.0 Summit with 400+ other dad bloggers (including other Tumblr dads like @thedaddycomplex and @craniodad). On Friday morning, author Brad Meltzer gave a powerful opening keynote about our legacies as fathers, and as humans. While trying to decipher my notes tonight, I found I’d jotted down several of his points in mathematical terms:
Legacy = You × Others
When you die, nearly everything about you and your life will fade, except your effect on other people. For good or for ill, that effect lives on in them: in your family, your peers, your community, and even on to strangers who feel the distant chain reactions of your life.
Caring = Strength
Being a strong dad means being a dad who is there for your family.
Crash + Rebuild
While sharing a story from the Wright Brothers, Brad noted that they brought spare parts with them to test flights, so they could rebuild quickly after a crash. In other words: expect failure. It’s OK. (I was immediately reminded of Wieden & Kennedy’s slogan, Fail Harder.)
Fame ≠ Heroism
Fame isn’t real. Fame is being put on a pedestal. Heroism is caring for others.
Clark Kent > Superman
Clark is the real hero, not Superman, because he cares — even when he’s concealing his powers. It’s not about the muscles. It’s about the man. (Not by coincidence, this integrates well with Dove Men+Care’s #RealStrength campaign.)
I’m hardly doing justice to Brad’s talk, but it was excellent. Assuming I correctly recorded the spirit of his message, it’s fantastic that the points are so reducible.