The Daily Mastery Podcast by Robin Sharma
Sep 16, 2026 · 6 min · 6 segments
Although I spoke a lot about legacy years ago (even wrote a book on it 25 years ago called *Who Will Cry When You Die?*), I no longer think it’s a thing worth pursuing. Because we’ll be dead. So who…
Well, towards the end of the Everyday Hero Manifesto, I come up with a pretty contrarian thought, which is, "Don't worry about legacy." We live in a culture right now where so often we hear, "Think about your legacy.
Think about how you want to be remembered when you're no longer here." Quest for immortality, so many pundits say.
Many years ago, I wrote a book on legacy, and I called it Who Will Cry When You Die? And at that point of my journey as a philosopher, as a human being, as a mentor to leaders, I really thought le- legacy was important.
So I would coach them, and I would mentor them, "Live your li- life in such a way that when you're no longer here, you are revered the, by the people you leave behind." I think it was Joseph Campbell said, he said, "Live your life in such a way that you live in the hearts of those you leave behind." Well, at this point of my process, I don't really think legacy is very important.
I think legacy is really just about ego in many ways because legacy is how will you be remembered when you're no longer here, but why does it matter how you will be remembered when you're no longer here? Because you will be food for worms.
You will be a pile of dust in a little urn on someone's mantle over their fireplace next to their Little League pictures and their anniversary photos.
And I think what's most important, and what's far more important with being concerned about how you will be remembered when you're no longer here, is how will you live while you get to be alive? I'm gonna repeat that again because it's so important.
What really matters is how will you be remembered or how will you live your life while you get to live.
In other words, how will you inhabit each of your days? And that brings me to a question I'd love to ask you in this session, which is, how will you spend your last day? On your, at the last hour of your last day, when you reflect on your life, how will you have wished you will have lived? How do you wish you will have treated people? What kind of work will you have wished you will have done? What kind of values will you have lived by? What kind of pursuits and adventures on your last day will you have wished you will have done? Because, you know, what we regret at the end are not the risks we took, but the risks we didn't take, and the relationships we didn't build, and the adventures we didn't do, and the music we didn't listen to, and the books we didn't read, and the places we didn't travel to, and the masterwork we didn't push out into the world.
I'm reading this book, it's about the Last Supper, and the author interviews all these famous chefs, and it's a great book, and it's basically what do you wish on your...
What, what will y- do you wish your last meal will be on your last day? Let me ask that to you.
What do you, what will you wish will be your last supper on your last day? On your last day, who do you wanna be surrounded by? On your last day, how do you wanna spend your hours in terms of work? Where do you wanna spend your last day? What thoughts do you wanna think on your last day? What art do you wanna look at on your last day? What will be the last paragraph you dream of reading from which book on your last day? If you could actually have one person around you in your last minute, who would that be? What would you say to yourself in your last moment? Some things to think about, some things to meditate on, some things to journal on, and most importantly, forget about legacy.
Live today fully, and then do the same thing tomorrow because you create your future by what you do today.
Well, towards the end of the Everyday Hero Manifesto, I come up with a pretty contrarian thought, which is, "Don't worry about legacy." We live in a culture right now where so often we hear, "Think about your legacy.
Think about how you want to be remembered when you're no longer here." Quest for immortality, so many pundits say.
Many years ago, I wrote a book on legacy, and I called it Who Will Cry When You Die? And at that point of my journey as a philosopher, as a human being, as a mentor to leaders, I really thought le- legacy was important.
So I would coach them, and I would mentor them, "Live your li- life in such a way that when you're no longer here, you are revered the, by the people you leave behind." I think it was Joseph Campbell said, he said, "Live your life in such a way that you live in the hearts of those you leave behind." Well, at this point of my process, I don't really think legacy is very important.
I think legacy is really just about ego in many ways because legacy is how will you be remembered when you're no longer here, but why does it matter how you will be remembered when you're no longer here? Because you will be food for worms.
You will be a pile of dust in a little urn on someone's mantle over their fireplace next to their Little League pictures and their anniversary photos.
And I think what's most important, and what's far more important with being concerned about how you will be remembered when you're no longer here, is how will you live while you get to be alive? I'm gonna repeat that again because it's so important.
What really matters is how will you be remembered or how will you live your life while you get to live.
In other words, how will you inhabit each of your days? And that brings me to a question I'd love to ask you in this session, which is, how will you spend your last day? On your, at the last hour of your last day, when you reflect on your life, how will you have wished you will have lived? How do you wish you will have treated people? What kind of work will you have wished you will have done? What kind of values will you have lived by? What kind of pursuits and adventures on your last day will you have wished you will have done? Because, you know, what we regret at the end are not the risks we took, but the risks we didn't take, and the relationships we didn't build, and the adventures we didn't do, and the music we didn't listen to, and the books we didn't read, and the places we didn't travel to, and the masterwork we didn't push out into the world.
I'm reading this book, it's about the Last Supper, and the author interviews all these famous chefs, and it's a great book, and it's basically what do you wish on your...
What, what will y- do you wish your last meal will be on your last day? Let me ask that to you.
What do you, what will you wish will be your last supper on your last day? On your last day, who do you wanna be surrounded by? On your last day, how do you wanna spend your hours in terms of work? Where do you wanna spend your last day? What thoughts do you wanna think on your last day? What art do you wanna look at on your last day? What will be the last paragraph you dream of reading from which book on your last day? If you could actually have one person around you in your last minute, who would that be? What would you say to yourself in your last moment? Some things to think about, some things to meditate on, some things to journal on, and most importantly, forget about legacy.
Live today fully, and then do the same thing tomorrow because you create your future by what you do today.
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