We each must decide what we want to give our lives to — what matters most to us and what will give our lives meaning. For me, there is nothing more valuable than freedom.
One month from today I’ll be an empty nester. My youngest of 6 children is heading off to Guatemala to serve a 2-year mission with our Church. For the last few days, I’ve had the most unsettled feeling… listless, irritable, and as if nothing I do matters. Why bother? It’s crazy. My life is good. I’m happy. I’m loved. Why the strange emotions?
Today, after a bit of self-examination, I realized I’ve spent the last 31 years rearing children and the last 30 running a business. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, yet in spite of me, my six children managed to turn out wonderful. Sure, there are those who are still working through the ramifications of being parented by an imperfect mother. Yet, overall, they are successful, smart, and independent individuals. So independent, in fact, they don’t need me anymore.
Despite my screw-ups, I succeeded in the one thing that mattered most to me – rearing independent adults who could make their own way in the world.
As I look to the future, I ask myself what’s next. What matters? I’ve been in business long enough to know that there is no business success that (for me) creates the sense of satisfaction from life I’m looking for. It’s no longer about the acknowledgement or the kaching of the cash register. I’ve been there, done that, umpteen times. I sure wish I could swap a lot of that time for having spent more of it with my kids.
Business tends to be a hamster wheel with just enough carrots along the way to give you the illusion that what you’re doing matters. Please, don’t get me wrong. Entrepreneurship is a wonderful thing. We need entrepreneurs to have a free society. Entrepreneurs create jobs; they invent things that make other people’s lives better; they put food on the table for their families and other people’s families. Every major society that has had entrepreneurs has had freedom. When a society loses its entrepreneurs, it loses its freedom.
Which gets to the heart of what I discovered myself. In asking myself, “What would give my life meaning?” The answer was obvious … fostering freedom. If that means encouraging entrepreneurship, if that means spurring independent thought, if that means educating people on the priceless treasure of freedom we enjoy – that is where I intend to spend my remaining days.
My grandchildren may live far away and never know me. I may never meet my great grandchildren or great great grandchildren. Yet, there is one thing I can work toward and work for … leaving them a legacy of freedom. If I can do something, anything, even a small thing that can turn the tide and leave more freedom for my posterity, my life will have mattered.
The question I’ll be asking myself daily is: “What can I do to foster freedom today?” Then, I intend to act courageously upon the answer.
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