Legacy Over Moments | Nam Nguyen

And I can tell your work that we've done there later be a part of that because I know how pivotal it was for me.

You know, I

think we often forget that, like some of the things that happen in corporate America or just in the workplace in general are.

actually happen because of the experiences people have several years prior.

Right.

Like we we have to remind ourselves and rewind beliefs of adults because adults are shaped by the experiences they had in those formative years.

I mean, middle school is super important.

I have two middle school kids and a high school kid.

Middle school is the beginning.

Right.

And you can get off course very quickly.

But high school, you become an adult in high school or you start to form adult experiences.

like behaviors and you have independence like you haven't had before and so I think when you know a lot of times like in my consulting I'll be asked to go in and like do a training on something I'm like I need to like unwind a belief system that goes like 10 years back I'm not sure I can do that in two hours yeah

no no exactly you're absolutely right which is why you know I mean and I have you know I know this podcast is about you're interviewing me but I'm just so fascinated by what you do too because on sort of the hr consulting and culture side of things it's i have always understood that if you were doing your job right to what you're describing you're like you just described you're kind of a therapist right and if you if you had the time and whatnot to do you could unwind it and you should unwind it and people should do that work to be like hey i'm what were the great things that i can bring forward and and whatnot and if i did have a bad experience and now i'm in a position to create experiences what can i correct because that's going to be my legacy right and i shouldn't carry that legacy forward if it was bad you know because it's again and selfishly to them it's about their reputation and how do you make it appealing for them to change and to shift and impact culture in that way But again, but that's why, I mean, you bring up a point, which is why I'm just so concerned about things like AI and who's building it.

Do we have the right builders of the technologies of our future? And are they the right people? Have they seen the right things? Are they looking at the world the way that we should or at least thinking about our future in the way that it should? And is it legacy creating or is it moment defining for them? Those are all those things that I...

That's a good one.

Legacy creating or moment defining.

Explain that.

Yeah, so I've always been the type, and maybe it was because I was fortunate enough to have a family that had to reboot their lives, and I've had that narrative to build off of.

My dad being a very honorable man of the Navy, like, you know, whatnot, he always pushed me, and some of my mentors have always pushed me, like, what do you want to leave behind? You know, even since I was a kid, they would always be like, what are you doing now that you can be proud of in 20 years? Right.

And in that instance, I've always, even though there was a future where I was really violently bullied, where I couldn't see a life past like 18, you know, But the moment I could, I was always like, okay, look, I'm not a perfect person by any means.

Like, I am not.

Like, I make all the mistakes in the world, and I have tons of regrets.

But the thing that has always at least helped keep me on a course that at least I can be proud of in the face of hard things is, well, how did I live my life? How am I living my life? And what legacy am I going to leave behind, right? And that has impacted the work and impact how I – operate and manage people and create vibes because I'm not asking someone to fix something or I don't get mad at failure because I understand it's momentary right like it's it's like well how are we learning from this and do you have the the purpose the passion the vision to be still be a part of this and we can work with that but if you're just here for the awards or the paycheck or the RSUs or the or the keg in the cafeteria, great, but I'm going to challenge you to think differently, right? Because for me, that's my responsibility because we do have a responsibility to try to hopefully leave this place alive.

better and ever since I was young and I think you ever since I don't have children long story but even when I was young I was always like well what am I going to be able to tell my kids about how I lived my life you know? And that is still something that drives me.