Designing Your Legacy to be Long-Lasting [Part 7]

This is the seventh blog in a 10-part series examining how to apply Dieter Rams’ principles of good design to your legacy.

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The seventh principle in Dieter Rams’ list of good design principles is that good design is long-lasting. Good design has a timeless quality that speaks to future generations in a sustained, vibrant voice. It understands that while central processing units may get faster, our hearts will continue to beat at the same rate as our ancestors. When we design our legacies, we usually have the immediate generation in mind. However, does our design have the foresight to include the subsequent ones? 

The endurance of a legacy stems from teaching others to teach. As one Chinese idiom observed, “Indigo blue is extracted from the indigo plant.” The indigo plant itself is a pale shade, a far cry from the deep vibrant hue of the finished dye. This saying describes the dynamics of the student surpassing the teacher. We teach, but do we do so in order that our charges will scale heights beyond our horizons?  

Our legacy should strive to gift and enhance. We should do so in a manner in which there is no doubt of our intentions and where nothing is withheld in our efforts. My wife has often mused that we will not know how well we parented until we see how our children parent.

Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” If we want our legacies to be long-lasting, we must design them. Think of a long-lasting legacy as a time capsule for family and friends you will never meet but will always love.