The legacy we leave behind us, whether bad or good, depends on who we serve in the present.

A couple of years ago, Newsweek reported the legacy of the 1990s was one of affluence in which parents could not say “no” to their children. Since the 1990s were years of childhood and adolescence for most ASU students, we are those children who rarely heard the blurting sound of “no.” In fact, Newsweek goes on to describe those of us brought up during that time as “wanting machines.”

And let’s face it — we are. We expect everyone to give us what we want exactly when and how we want it. “Entitlement” should be our middle name.

Gone are the days of working and saving our pennies to buy a car, enroll in school or go on a vacation. Instead, we’ve financed our futures with credit cards and loans. MSN’s Kim Khan reports American consumers owed about $2 trillion in 2003 — which averaged to about $18,654 per household (not including mortgages).

I can’t imagine what those figures are in today’s economy.

Besides managing our money better, what can we do about our “want-complex,” since it seems to be common to our whole generation? Do we wait for a great leader, orator or community organizer to emerge and tell us what to change and how to leave a positive legacy of hope?
One person can never solve the whole world’s problems. Changing our mindsets and leaving a legacy of hope has got to start with you and me.

One of my professors reminded me what this looks like. When I went to her office in August to get her advice on postgraduate opportunities, she asked me sincerely, “What can I do to help you succeed?”

This is not a normal thing for someone to ask — especially in a world where one person’s failure is another person’s success.

The whole idea of helping someone else succeed with our resources is a lost virtue. But it’s this idea of serving others — not others serving us — that lends itself to a positive legacy. And leaving a positive legacy is something we all should aspire to.

Now, don’t say, “Oh, I wasn’t born a leader.”

We all lead our own lives, don’t we? None of us live in isolation. We all have a sphere of influence. Whatever we do affects those around us.
Each and everything we do within our particular sphere of influence contributes to and shapes our legacy — bad, good or great.

It will be bad if we live our lives as “wanting machines” and think about nothing beyond what we want next — after we get that date with the hottest guy or girl in class, after we buy the latest Apple computer or after we snag the newest style of UGGs, since we definitely can’t be satisfied with what we’ve got.

Our legacy may be good if we are content to just provide ease and comfort for ourselves and those in our spheres. Since “good is the enemy of great,” according to Jim Collins, best-selling author and past faculty member at Stanford University, there has to be something more.

But the great among us have always been those who had a goal, dream or idea that unified those around them. And those who achieved that goal, not by putting themselves on a pedestal and demanding accolades, were those who persevered in their work, often unnoticed, caring more about the people in their sphere than about who gets the credit.

The kind of legacy we leave behind will be determined by whether we demand to be served or whether we choose to serve those around us.

Reach Catherine at catherine.e.smith@asu.edu