An auditorium filled with college students and no one could have guessed the advice they were about to receive.
Arthur Blank, one of the Founders of The Home Depot, owner of the Atlanta Falcons, among other businesses, was invited to address a standing room only crowd of young minds who had a very bright future in front of them.
As always in these settings, there were introductory remarks from the guest, in this case his business experiences, an update on the Falcons and the newly constructed $1.5 billion dollar arena where the Falcons would play, as well as the future of Major League Soccer in the Atlanta market.
The attendees then were allowed to ask questions of Arthur Blank.
Kyle, a Junior majoring in marketing, asked, “Mr. Blank, what’s the best advice you can give us as we move toward our careers and moving up the corporate ladder?”
Arthur Blank responded in this way, “The best advice I can give you, or anybody else, is don’t focus on your resume, focus on your eulogy. What do I mean by that? When you are gone, what will people say about you? What will they think about the decisions you made in your life?”
It was probably not the advice these college students thought they would gain from a billionaire who had accomplished so much in life.
Yet those were the words Arthur Blank gave as his best advice.
“Don’t focus on your resume, focus on your eulogy.”
If you were to write your own eulogy what would you want said?
What memories would you want others to remember you by?
What lessons of life would you give for those left behind?
We are creating the memories, we are establishing our lessons of life…every single day.
Let your life speak the words of your eulogy.
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