Greg Morin | Nobel’s Story

When I think about that—when I think about the opportunity to create a legacy for my children, the opportunity to create a legacy for my family—I’m reminded of Alfred Nobel’s story. And when we think about Nobel, most people think about the fact that he is known for the Nobel Peace Prize.

But if we go back to the days prior to the Peace Prize, we go back to an opportunity he had when he woke up one morning and found his own obituary in the newspaper.

Think about that—a mistaken death. Because the reality of that newspaper is that it was incorrect. It was his brother Ludwig that had passed away, not Alfred. But that’s quite a wake-up call. And what it afforded him was the opportunity to think about how he wanted to be remembered.

Because the reality of how people perceived him was that he was a merchant of death—that he grew rich killing and mutilating people, because he was the inventor of dynamite. Now, he invented dynamite not to kill and mutilate, but to make mining safer. The purest of intentions went wrong because the human condition says, “Oh, I get to blow things up.”

But that was how he was remembered—as somebody who created something that was steeped in destruction. And that ultimately wasn’t how he wanted to be remembered.

So in that moment of reflection—on what people thought of him and how people described him—he made a choice. And he made a choice to take the majority of his estate and put it into the Nobel Peace Prizes, because what he wanted to do was be remembered for having a positive impact over the course of his life.

And so as we think about being able to reflect on who we are and how we are and how we want to be remembered, it’s important to be intentional and be consistent about what we build.

We have to have those principles that we talked about earlier. We have to lean into: what are the things that I value the most? And make sure that my actions are aligned up with those beliefs. We have to have that state of congruence.

Because at the end of the day, I can’t just talk about it—I got to be about it.

And so when we think about this story—when you think about how do you want to be remembered, as you figure out who you are—what are you trying to do over the course of life? Because when what I’m trying to do matches what I want to do, that creates congruence.

If I’m trying to leave a legacy of compassion, and I yell at my kids all day long, that’s incongruent. So what I’m trying to do and what I want to do have to be lined up so that my actions match my intention.

And I get to build this legacy that I want to leave behind.

So as you think about it—as you continue to lean into story—think about: who do you want to be? And how do you want to be remembered?