Seth Godin’s blog today:
A figment. It seems like the only thing you can be a figment of is someone’s imagination. Andy Warhol wanted the word FIGMENT etched on his tombstone. He understood that the only place he actually existed (and will exist forever) is in the imagination of other people. No, the falling tree in the empty forest makes no noise, and your project or your brand doesn’t exist except as a figment in someone else’s imagination. The challenge, then, isn’t to worry so much about what’s happening in the real world, outside, but to work overtime to be sure you exist in the figment world, inside. You don’t need proof. You need belief. (HT to Rick Hyman).
This seems very profound to me, yet I don’t know with whom to share it, so I write it here. It’s somewhat akin to the ancient Greeks’ idea that after death we only live on in our reputation. I am told certain cultures, mostly in Africa now, believe that a person’s spirit lingers until the last person who knew him while he was alive dies.
Apart from the builders of the pyramids, perhaps, who has achieved a legacy that is not, in the final analysis, the effect on the lives of others who continue?