Systems to Build Your Legacy

I was barely three pages into the massive tome of family history that I’d borrowed to fill in some of the more remote branches of my family tree when it hit me:

For decades and centuries, we relied on newspaper, certificates of birth and marriage and death to record the impact of one person on the world. Now, with the advent of YouTube and blogging and the internet, it’s much harder to be forgotten and to make a true impact.

I love watching episodes of “Who do you think you are?” because they always delve a little deeper than Uncle Henry born in 1932 or the distant cousin who died during the Gold Rush. It’s all about the stories you uncover, the images from the past and the miracle of history and luck that made you who you are today.

If someone tracked the history of your business, 100 years from now, would it be a footnote in the margins or an origin story that inspires and impacts the world?

It’s worth the time, the break in your daily routine, to pull back from the email and processing payments and marketing to look at the legacy you’re building. Some entrepreneurs are content to build a little company to meet their financial needs and keep them out of a cubicle and if it expires when they do that’s not a big worry.

Other entrepreneurs are determined to build a legacy that will outlive, outlast and survive them for decades or centuries to come.

Whether you’re thinking 100 years ahead or just want a future where you can take a vacation and spend more time with your family than your laptop the answer is the same: systems.

The very systems that you build today build your legacy, brick by brick.

I’m not talking about the very real sense that you’re going to be using the same technology, scripts or products in 100 or even 10 years, but the process and habits develop a business that sends deep roots into rich soil.

There are three primary ways that systems transcend what you’re talking about and create your legacy.

#1 Cultivate a Systems Attitude

I never teach that systems need to stay the same, that’s the quickest way to stagnation and death. But the attitude that systems creation cultivates is one of tracking what works, adjusting what doesn’t, continual improvement and an investment in the process.

There’s a huge difference between a restaurant kitchen that has systems to order ingredients, store fresh produce, prep, and cook an amazing meal than a restaurant which does it haphazardly. The restaurant without systems might occasionally create a fantastic dinner but the restaurant with systems does so consistently.

#2 Develop a decentralized team

Ever wonder why some businesses survive the loss of a great leader like Steve Jobs, or a central figure like Roger Ailes, while others flounder and fail once the owner or founder steps away?

If you want a business that becomes a legacy then you must decentralize the business focus from a person to the systems that you follow. It’s not that the owner is unimportant but when you can take their skills, knowledge, insights and preferences and bake them into the recipe of the business, you no longer rely on a single person to be successful.

Decentralization also allows you to unplug without everything shutting down and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

#3 Systems create powerful consistency

More important than choice and quality, we crave consistency. It’s the reason that chain restaurants and fast food joints are so popular. You know what you’re going to get, even if it’s not the most amazing meal ever. There’s comfort walking into a Target or Wal-Mart and knowing the signage, the layout and the way the checkout process runs.

It’s not an accident that large corporations have consistency, it’s systems. Whether they’re promoting a special offer, rounding up shopping carts, or restocking the shelves, top companies study what works, improve upon it and then systematize it across all their stores, locations and offices.

And you don’t have to own a chain of 400 stores in order to take advantage of systems. You don’t need 38 employees or 1,000 products or 532 transactions a day to build the systems that your business needs.

Building a legacy is not about creating the largest company in the world or competing with Wal-Mart, it is about doing what you do best in a consistent manner.

Systems are your tool to unlock that legacy. You just have to pick them up.