Why Writing Your Eulogy Creates Leadership Goals That Actually Stick

If you haven't read Warren Buffett's final shareholder letter, you need to check this out. One of the most remarkable business leaders of our time, 95 years old, 60 years at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway, and all indications are this is the farewell note.

There's one section in particular that stood out to me, and I want to share it with you directly. It comes near the end.

Warren says: "Remember Alfred Nobel, later of Nobel Prize fame, who reportedly read his own obituary that was mistakenly printed when his brother died and a newspaper got mixed up. He was horrified at what he read and realized he should change his behavior."

Warren goes on: "Don't count on a newsroom mixup. Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it."

Wow. Let that sink in.

I think there's something profoundly useful in this quote, not just for legacy, but for planning and for execution.

(Here is Warren’s final shareholder letter.)

Why Traditional Goal Setting Falls Short for Executives

This isn't just about thinking big picture. It's about how executives actually set goals that compel us, that move us forward as opposed to going in circles. Because if you are not living a story that's compelling to you, you're not going to find the discipline or the energy to stick with it.

I see this with leaders all the time. They end up drifting or they defer or they get stuck in the noise.

Today I want to walk you through a concept that I use with executives around starting with the end in mind. Writing your eulogy can actually give you more clarity, more motivation, more productivity, maybe even more than some of the traditional planning tools that you are using in your personal and professional life today.

The Power of Narrative Traction

This idea, many of you know, is not new, right? You might have bumped into it in Seven Habits. It's also the backbone of Donald Miller's book, Hero on a Mission, where he explains how writing your own eulogy helps you understand the story that you want to live, a story that you are writing about your life as opposed to letting someone else write it for you. And how to start living it now.

This is powerful because when you sit down and draft a eulogy, you're not being morbid. This is not drafting your actual eulogy. It's a creative exercise, but it is a very intentional exercise because you are making a decision about what kind of character you want to play in your own life's story.

It helps you gain narrative traction. You gain clarity not from just all these to-do lists and achievements and accomplishments, but from seeing first the story that you actually want to be writing and living, and then taking action to live into that story.

Again, if your life story does not inspire you, it's just not compelling to do the work that you need to do. It doesn't inspire you. It doesn't inspire the people around you.

Why Most Leadership Goals Lack Staying Power

Motivation is so much more than just having big ambitious goals and speaking these things into existence. It's about having goals that really align with the story that you want to be authoring and living.

I see this with executives pretty regularly. If you are chasing goals that feel random or that feel disconnected, they just don't matter to you when you state them, but then have no staying power three months down the road or whatever the case may be.

And this is even worse: if you're chasing goals that are externally imposed, right? You've set them because you think that's what success looks like or what the world is asking of you. If that's the case, you're going to struggle to stay focused.

But if you start with your own eulogy, your own end in mind, and build backwards from that vision, then everything is going to sharpen. It'll clarify for you.

The Reverse Engineering Approach to Strategic Planning

You'll get clarity on what matters and what to say no to. And most importantly, you can spot when you're veering off course so that you can stay focused and make progress on this.

When we designed revenue and go-to-market revenue plans in my role as a CRO, we would start with that annual revenue goal in mind and we would reverse engineer it. When you reverse engineer this stuff, it becomes so much easier to take bold steps in your career, in your personal life, your health, your relationships because you're aiming toward a vision that genuinely moves you.

The Practical Step: Write Your Eulogy

Write your eulogy. Not your actual eulogy. It's a creative exercise, but write it down. Seriously, set aside a few hours. It took me a few hours to start with it in the morning. And then I had to keep revisiting it again multiple times through the day. Had to sleep on it, come back to it the next day, and then it really started to harden.

I recommend you cap it at around 3,000 words. It's enough to get a little bit of depth there, but it's also short enough that it'll make you tighten it and it's short enough that you can revisit it on a regular basis to read it. It'll help you when you're setting 10-year, five-year, one-year goals and even setting quarterly priorities to make sure that you've got that focus and that narrative traction.

Five Core Categories for Your Leadership Eulogy

As you're writing your eulogy, I want to give you five categories that you can use as prompts. Think of them as narrative pillars that will help you:

1. Physical Health

Energy, presence, how are you moving? How are you feeling? How does it empower you to show up and live this life that you want to live?

2. Family

What do family relationships actually mean? How do you love and lead at home? What kind of spouse or parent or sibling do you want to be remembered as? How are you showing up with family?

3. Friends and Community

Who are these people you're spending time with, investing in, and who are investing in you, who are leading you toward a rich, meaningful, and compelling life? Who did you impact? Who felt seen, supported, lifted because you were in their life?

4. Spiritual Health and Core Values

What values anchored you? Are you living with integrity, with generosity, with humility, with faith? Whatever you define as the deeper purpose, how does that show up for you?

5. Career and Contribution

What did you build? What legacy did you leave in your work? How did you lead others? Did you pursue meaning? Was it more metric focused? Spend time with those five components and it will help you draft a compelling eulogy, a story you want to live, a story that you care about writing.

Turning Your Eulogy Into Daily Leadership Action

Then you can use it to filter your decisions. You can let it shape your calendar, your habits. It can come into your annual planning. It becomes really a true north sort of an exercise.

If this resonates with you and you want help doing this kind of goal setting either for yourself or your leadership team, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I do one-on-one coaching and workshops. I am a certified life plan coach among some of the other certifications, and I would be happy to help you with this because you have one story to live and I think you should make it a good one and live it with intention.