Priscilla Rice (0:00)

Episode number 892, Infinite Legacy.

Dr. Ivan Meisner (0:05)

You're listening to the official BNI Podcast with BNI Founder and Chief Visionary Officer, Dr. Ivan Meisner. Stay tuned for networking and referral marketing tips from the man who's been called the father of modern networking, along with suggestions and insights into getting the most from your membership in the world's largest networking organization, bni.

Priscilla Rice (0:28)

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the official BNI Podcast. I'm Priscilla Rice and I'm coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. And I'm joined on the phone today by the founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of B and I, Dr. Ivan Meisner. Hello, Ivan, how are you? And where are you?

Dr. Ivan Meisner (0:49)

I am home in Austin, Texas this week. And this is a special week, Priscilla, because it is. This week is the 40th anniversary. January 8, 2025 is the 40th anniversary for BNI.

Priscilla Rice (1:08)

Wow, that's impressive, Ivan. It really is.

Dr. Ivan Meisner (1:13)

You know, when I started BNI as one group in Southern California, I honestly didn't think at that time that this was going to be a global organization. That, that hit me later in the year as I saw the chapters just increase like crazy.

Priscilla Rice (1:29)

Right?

Dr. Ivan Meisner (1:30)

But I decided a couple years ago with my co authors of Infinite Giving, to do a book and have it come out right around the time of the 40th anniversary for BNI. And the book would be about legacy. And so I just a couple of months ago came out with a book called Infinite Legacy. I absolutely love the opening of this book. It's fantastic. And I, I'll share the opening of the book maybe in a, in a future podcast. I think it's probably one of the strongest openings of a book that I've done, but here I, I want to kind of do an overview of the principles of leaving a legacy and, and life. The, the opening of the book does talk about whether we leave an accidental legacy or an intentional legacy, whether we're just kind of going through life without thinking about the impact we're making, or whether we're leaving an intentional legacy. And I think more and more, as certainly as people age, they are motivated to shape their legacy. And I started thinking about legacy a few years back. As I seem to get more gray hair, people would ask me, what, what do you hope your legacy will be? And my answer has always been your life is your legacy. How you live your life is the legacy that you leave behind. And with this book, we wanted to. We wanted people to shape the legacy they leave behind. We wanted people to leave an Intentional legacy and not an accidental legacy. And so we talk about in the book the seven principles of leaving an intentional legacy. And the first is to be proud of the legacy that you leave. Everyone leaves a legacy. So be aware of that and create one that allows you to be proud of yours. And legacy is a conscious choice. And by the way, a lot of people think, well, legacy, you know, you don't really lead a legacy unless you're a multi millionaire and you're leaving a lot of money and yada, yada, yada. And that's just not true. We all are able to leave a legacy. I look at my parents who were, you know, we grew up in a blue collar family. My dad worked multiple jobs, my mom had health issues, but they left an amazing legacy. Whatever people skills I have, I got from my mother. My mother was a people person and she would just talk to everybody. And I got my work ethic from my father. My, my dad was a hard working man and, and a family man too. And he spent time with us. And so I feel like my parents left a legacy. Even though they didn't have money, they left a legacy. And their legacy was how they raised their children, how they raised me. And they raised me so that I could do the things that I have been able to accomplish in life. And so you don't have to think of a legacy as being financially based. It's what you leave in other people that can be your legacy. And along that line, the second principle is give what you can afford, when you can afford it. And, and from here we mean, you know, give from your saucer, not your cup. I know somebody who wanted to start a nonprofit organization. They were very entrepreneurial, but they wanted to start a nonprofit organization and commit a lot of their time to this nonprofit. And I said, you know, do you have the financing to start this nonprofit? He said, no. I said, man, you are so entrepreneurial. Go start the business you want to start, make a lot of money and then financially support nonprofit that you want to do. You know, you're doing it in reverse. You're going to put in tons of time and you may not have the success that you want because you're not going to have the money that you need. And, and he didn't do it. He, he, he just went with the nonprofit and the nonprofit unfortunately failed. And so now he's doing the entrepreneurial thing. So he couldn't afford to do what he did. Give what you can afford when you can afford it. As your cup gets bigger, it will overflow and it'll overflow into a bigger saucer. And so as you're more successful, it can overflow into. And whether we're talking about money or time, you know, as you, as you have an opportunity, maybe you can give more time. It's not just money. The third is to be guided by your passion. And we had Mike Coleman, we have Mike Coleman coming in a week or two who's going to be on, and he's going to talk about the importance of your why. And I've talked about why many times. And you got to understand your why in order to align with your, with your legacy. Just know that I believe in passion. It's very important to be passionate about what it is that you're doing. And you have to have commitment. Passion without commitment is just an interesting idea, but you have to have that commitment and the passion. And most of my career, I've talked about the importance of following your passion. And I haven't always talked about the commitment, but what I've discovered over time is that you, you've got to really make a strong commitment to that passion in order for it to be successful. The fourth principle is connecting with your community. These are all the principles that we talk about in Infinite Giving. It's, it's not who's in your story, it's whose story are you in? It's about the, the people that you've made a difference within your community. And your community starts with your, you know, your, your family, and it goes to the street, your neighborhood, to, to the, the larger community, to your BNI community, the people that you, you know in your BNI organization. And then beyond that, you know, the greater area that you might live in, but connect with the community and make a difference with the. Richard Branson talks about this with circles. You know, you start with a very tight circle, and the circle gets bigger and the circle gets bigger and the circle gets bigger and, and as you become more successful, and again, not just with money, but maybe in, in. In what you do professionally, then your community can broaden act with urgency. But act as though act with urgency is the fifth principle. But act like someone's watching. We'll be judged on the legacies we leave, not the ones we intended. And so you want to act with urgency on, on how you show up in the world. The sixth one is an interesting one. I love this one. It's to think like a stonemason. And we, in the book, we tell a story about a nobleman walking up to a stonemason and asking the stonemason, what he's doing. And he said, sir, I'm. I'm. My lord, I am shaping the stone, chipping it off on the sides so that it can be handed over, sanded down a bit, and then given to another stone mason who will place it into the wall. And then he goes to a master stone mason. The. The. The nobleman goes to a master stone mason, and he says, what mask what you're doing? And the master stone mason says, my lord, I'm building a cathedral. The same exact job, but with a bigger vision. And so part of having an infinite legacy is to have that big vision of building a cathedral, not just chipping away to stone. And I think all too often in our life, we're chipping away at a stone as opposed to thinking about the larger vision that we have for the impact that we want to have. And that's the seventh principle, is to have an infinite mindset. True legacy is not the success of our endeavors, but in the impact that we've made on others. And so the importance of legacy is evident in the way it inspires and motivates future generations. And it can provide a sense of continuity and a connection from the present to the past to the future, giving people a sense of belonging and identity. And we thought that this is the perfect topic for our 40th anniversary and hoping that BNI is a legacy that will change, continue to change lives. To me, it's not just a business, it's a movement in changing the way people do business. And that's the reason why we came out with the book Infinite Legacy, which, by the way, hit one of the best sellers lists on Amazon recently.