Fame doesn't define your legacy

  • Published
  • By Maj. Jerry L. Ottinger II
  • 9th Logistics Readiness Squadron
BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  I heard a novelist recently say that she wanted to be famous so she, "could leave a mark in history," and so people would remember she existed. Those words stuck with me. The desire to be remembered and leave our mark seems normal, and I think we all share that to some extent, but is it really best achieved through some extraordinary personal accomplishment? Based on the people I consider memorable and who have left a mark on me, I think there is a better way.

I believe that fame is not a goal, but is rather the byproduct of our interactions with other people.  In our personal and professional communities, there are always stories of Chief Master Sergeant X or General Y and how they were as an airmen or lieutenants. These stories do not usually originate with the individuals' achievements or a pursuit of recognition, however. Instead, it is usually like Maya Angelo said, "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

These feelings, both the positive and negative ones, start to build our fame. In my experience, the process is also mostly passive. We take time to teach a process with someone we supervise, spend a few extra minutes making sure a customer understands a form, or assist a neighbor whose spouse is deployed--and we do it out of genuine concern--and they associate the experience with us. Or we yell at an Airman because we are having a bad day, blame a pay error on a customer's lack of understanding of finance processes, or we ignore families of deployed members so that we can be free to enjoy our weekends with our own families--and they remember us for that instead. These interactions occur naturally, cut through façades and well-rehearsed words and deeds, and they define how we will be remembered by an individual. Then individuals talk, and our names are associated with...something.

I think about this often as a commander. I look back at my 13 years and my interactions and experiences. I think about the people who I want to be like because they trusted me and taught me about balancing mission requirements with my people's well-being and my own personal needs. I also think a lot about the people I have sworn to never be like, who taught me about breached integrity, professional ineptitude, and the demotivating results of preferential treatment. Some of the lessons were rough, but I owe all of these individuals, since I would not be the person or officer I am today without the whole of these interactions.

This is the major point that I want to communicate: we leave pieces of ourselves behind every time we interact with the world around us. These pieces define our legacy, and this legacy is what defines our fame as we move through our careers and lives. The speeches we give, words we write, and awards we win are largely irrelevant, since it is our actions and interactions that inspire feelings that can echo well into our future. These residual feelings are the things that leave marks in history and remind people we existed.