LEAVING A LEGACY
You don’t get to choose the moment of your arrival and departure here on earth, but you get to choose what your legacy will be, what you will be remembered for.
At five, he wrote an advanced concerto for the harpsichord. Before he was ten he published several violin sonatas and was playing Handel and Bach from memory. Soon after his twelfth birthday he composed and conducted his first opera. He was awarded an honorary appointment as concertmaster with the Salzburg Symphony Orchestra, and within a few years was hailed as the pride of Salzburg.
When he died at age 35 he had written forty-eight symphonies; forty-seven arias, duets, and quartets, with orchestral accompaniment; and more than a dozen operas. He’s credited with some 600 original compositions in all. Even so, Mozart lived most of his life in poverty and died without fanfare. He was buried in a standard unmarked grave, as was usual practice for the time. No shrine marks his resting place.
Today, what is Mozart remembered for? What is his legacy? Not the modest life he lived, but the music he gave the world that still enriches our lives.
When your life’s sole focus is self-interest, you won’t be missed when you are gone, or missed for the right reasons. So find a cause greater than yourself, one that will outlive you, and pour yourself into it. Don’t just leave a will, leave a legacy.
