What Have You Built?

What Have You Built?
What will stand long after you are gone?

Your ethnicity, where you came from, your religion, and who your ancestors are don’t matter. Your gender, your sex, who you like to have sex with, and whether you’re vegetarian don't matter. Your taste in music, your favorite restaurants, how you dress, whether you have tattoos, and what color your hair is, or if you have hair, don’t matter. The movies you like, what car you drive, what your house looks like, and where you live don’t matter. Whether you came from nothing or have always had everything. What you want to do in the future or the person you want to be or the person you talk about being doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter much a damn what you say.

What have you built?

What relationships have you built? Who are the friends who lean on you? Does your family stick together? How do you support, hold accountable, and build up those around you? How have you raised your kids? How strong have you been when others needed you? How have you created opportunities for others? How is the little league team you coach? What have you built that others have come to rely on? How have you built others up so they can come to rely on themselves? How healthy is the lifestyle you’ve built? How little of a burden are you on your peers so you can be their rock? How have you made meaningful progress towards the issues you claim to care about? How is the company you built or the company you helped build? How many jobs have you created or how much wealth have you created for others? How have you built purpose in others? Why, without you, would the world be worse off?

Nothing else matters. There is only building.