EXITED FOUNDERS TRUE LEGACY? Quick answers from 18 exceptionally successful entrepreneurs

0:00I've asked 40 exceptionally successful exited founders how they want to be remembered. That is a very spooky question. It's a tough question, right? This is sort of like the legacy. That is a great question. Anne. Anne's a good question. Not always easy, by the way, right? It's kind of new for me, even speaking about it out loud. That's a great question. Question. Ooh. These are some of my most favorite answers.

0:32Mikhail Rochsen. The reality is most people won't remember me, if I'm being honest. I think about the great entrepreneurs of the world like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. I can't tell you who the Bill Gates of 1700s was, and I'm sure they were incredible. but I think on a smaller level there will be people whose lives I hope are completely changed by having come across me in their journey that's what I really want to be remembered by is these people that say Yamakaya was generous kind and made an impact to my life and I would also say was a good husband and maybe, we'll see, a good father one day. But those would be really important to me, that people say he was a good husband and a good father if those things happen.

1:34Mimi Icahn. I want to be remembered as somebody who has loved, who has brought love to all those I've been around and who made the world a better place. Maybe it sounds a bit cliche, but I just love the song by Michael Jackson. You know, it's like if you want to make a world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change. So I always challenge myself to think, like, am I making this place better? Michael Sonnenfeld. What popped into my head would be an epitaph of he gave a damn. That would be enough. Wonderful. Keith Smith. As somebody who truly impacted and helped to be able to make society better and giving people more agency, more freedom, more autonomy, more liberties.

2:35If I can give people the ability to be able to find their own freedom, to be able to have their own, you know, to be able to, you know, teach a person to fish rather than just giving them a fish, you know, kind of a concept so that they can come into their own and find the joy that comes with freedom within this kind of society and be able to have a society that is going to reward them and be able to allow that to happen. That's what I would like to leave behind. And I'd love to be remembered for being able to participate in helping that at least some level. Adrian Cohen. Two things that come to mind.

3:09One more like as an individual that I was sincere, that I was, you know, loyal to my friends, to my family. It's actually quite important. So I hope I'll be remembered for someone that was sort of consistent with what he was saying. for me was crucial as impact and impacting people and leaving a legacy and so if in hindsight you know paralysis doesn't exist anymore in the world or at least people living with paralysis have life-changing options and that have played a role in getting there I think this can be an incredible way to uh to be remembered for for sure dave hirsch as someone who saw the deeper side of what was going on someone could see under the hood and help people as a result so to me that's always been the thing that i feel most drawn to is you know what's going on under the surface and how do we use that awareness to change what's above the surface.

4:20Mike Pollack. Someone who told good jokes at the right moments in time, that that would be, that's like the silly part of me. But the second one would be, you know, somebody who fought for the causes he believed in, someone who helped those around him, and someone who, again, always left things a little better than he found them. And if I get those four things, but if I get like one or two out of the four, I'd say that's a victory. Jeff. And again, that's important to someone. I don't need my name on a building. I don't need to be remembered across generations. I would like to think that the people that are in my life while I'm living would say, I gave more than I took.

5:02I was honest. I was fair. And hopefully, you know, taught as much as I learned. And that's fine for me. Matt Mattress. Just as a good person. Just a kind guy. A guy who cared, tried to make a difference. Robert Bruker. People are forgotten very quickly. And that people overestimate their capacity for legacy. And that even people who are very prominent in their days. So people are prominent in newspapers all the time, that kind of thing. Most of them, I mean, some of them, no. Some of them were made up people's minds for a long period of time. Most people are forgotten for a few decades. So it's gotten me your mother bigger for me.

5:49Pete Henderson. I think somebody who always had a smile, had fun, who is an adventurer. I think my wife's put it quite well. She said on your tombstone, I'm going to write down, you know, he's rested at last. So, you know, I don't rest. I have so much energy and so much fun and so many things to do that I'm not quite ready to just chill out and do nothing yet. Nick Telson. As a nice guy. I hate the word nice, but a nice guy that really helped the UK startup ecosystem. Alex Bean. I'm not a philanthropist at heart. My factory for good is I want to build businesses that create opportunity so I can employ people that are around me and in my circle of influence and put them up.

6:50And second, that creates cash flow and additional funds so that I can pour that into the budget of giving away to the people that we think are actually really good at philanthropy. You know, can we help these founders build their own kind of Facebook thing? And can we make more money? And we can put that into the budgets and we can start deploying more and more money into these various organizations, charities, people, et cetera. And I work with someone who's really good at helping me deploy that. So that's how I connect purpose and creating of additional wealth into Impact or Legacy. Den Reich.

7:27Again, a theme for me is like, if you're able to impact people's lives in a very intimate way, whether that be through philanthropy or through business, not only can you have a great impact on the world, but to get there, you must have a great impact on that person's life. Brett Gelfand. A good father, a good husband, and a good friend, a good son. I think the pressure of saying I want to be known as a CEO of a certain company or being a multi-ultro wealthy billionaire, millionaire, something that people do see me as today is being supportive, being enthusiastic when it comes to entrepreneurship and somebody.

8:14deciding to take a risk and leap into an unknown. Maybe in the future, if we do have this podcast in seven years, maybe I find a philanthropic opportunity where maybe I might want to be remembered as somebody that helped a particular part of this planet. And that's something that I'm definitely going to let marinate a little bit. Aaron White. As someone who is always excited about what they were doing and about what others were doing. And if that's how I'm remembered, I will feel really good about myself. Timur Armu. I don't care about being remembered. Once I die, I'm gone. Yeah. And I don't really care.

8:53And I think there is so much pressure that people put on themselves to do something that makes them remembered. But it doesn't matter. Fair enough.