Life, old and new, should be looked at all year round - we should be constantly allowing for mind set changes and shifts to occur in our lives, to allow for the 'old' to fade gracefully away and to allow the 'new' to come to the forefront!
We should take very careful note of the issues that Linda has raised in this article, and make conscious decisions to change what needs to be changed - for our own sake and for the sake of all of those whose lives our life has touched.
Have a great, reflective day.
A Time of Beginnings...And Endings
The New Year is not only a time of beginnings but also of endings. A recognition of birth of the new, but also of the passing of the old. A time to reflect on what will be, while we reminisce about what has passed us by. Which brings me to the topic of this article, a topic that is as important as it is unpleasant to contemplate: What happens to the life-changing work you've created after you're gone?
This subject came up for me via a story linking to author Neil Gaiman's blog, in which he discusses the tendency for writers to neglect to provide for the disposition of their works in their wills (assuming they've made wills to begin with). And although Gaiman's post was aimed at traditional writers, it occurred to me as I read the piece that this was something coaches needed to hear, as well. Think about everything you've created. It could be as simple as a resourceful webpage or a few useful worksheets, or as complex as an extensive and interrelated series of books, programs, downloads and other materials. Now imagine your family, confronting the devastation and confusion of your passing, faced with the prospect of not only figuring out what all this stuff is, but what they're supposed to do with it now that you're gone and how they're supposed to go about doing it. Eye-opening, eh?
Although many of us coaches have been lucky in having families who are very supportive of what we do and who understand the value of our work, we simply can't count on them having intuited through some sort of psychic osmosis just how we would prefer our work and the materials we created to be handled in the event of our death. In some cases, solving this issue is merely a matter of sharing your wishes and preferences. But in other cases, the situation can be deeply problematic. I know for a fact that no one in my family knows the first thing about even the basics of website technology, let alone how to access and hand the materials I have on my site - or even how to begin to find out, for that matter. They don't know FTP from UPS. They wouldn't know what folders on my computer contain useful or important papers or what to do with them once they figured it out. And let's not get into how they're supposed to track down my online and offline contacts and let them know what's going on, let alone differentiate between who needs to know what. And for those whose families don't understand or support their work, or are even actively hostile to it for whatever reason, the need to carefully prepare for the disposition of what remains behind gains even greater urgency.
Sad though it may be, there are some coaches whose friends and family don't understand or support what they doing - or who actively oppose it - for reasons ranging from personal issues to religious differences to long-standing family problems. It's unthinkable what could happen to the life's work of a coach in this position who passed on without leaving clear, explicit and legally incontestable instructions behind. What matters isn't the size or quantity of what you've created, but what happens to it after you are no longer there to oversee it. A lot of questions need to be answered, and they need to be answered while you're still around to make the important decisions about who and when and why - not left to grieving, disapproving or simply oblivious family members to puzzle out on their own. Some questions you will need to address include:
Website: What happens to your website after you die? Do you want it to be taken down, or stay up as a resource guide? If the latter, what changes will need to be made, and by whom? How will the cost of hosting and domain renewal be taken care of? Who will be responsible for site maintenance and responding to emails from visitors and service vendors?
Clients: Who will inform your clients of your passing, and will what they say be left up to the, or do you want to pre-create a goodbye message? Will survivors know how to contact your clients (and do they have the usernames and passwords to access your on and off line contact lists)? Will active clients be referred to colleagues or simply informed of your passing, and in the former case is there an updated list of referrals to be passed on?
Products and Services: Will materials for sale remain available for sale and if so, who will handle this? If not, what do you want done with them, and who will oversee that? Do you want free materials left available and if so, who will be in charge of maintaining access to these and how will they be compensated for doing so? What about existing service contracts - will clients be reimbursed, referred to a colleague or otherwise compensated for their remaining purchased time, and if so by who? Is there a system in place to handle product returns and existing purchase fulfillment after your death? What about service you are paying for - do your executors know how to contact these vendors to cancel services and shipments and handle reimbursements? And most importantly, is there a pre-existing way for survivors to access your business records and financial accounts in order to handle all of this smoothly, without lengthy and costly probate delays?
Books and other intellectual property: What will happen to all that IP you created over the course of your practice - the worksheets, the assessments, the software applications and so on? Will they still be available and if not, what happens to them? Who is responsible for overseeing their disposition? What about your books - who will the rights (and the royalties) revert to and who will make decisions regarding reprints, paperbacks and other rights? Who gets to decide what happens to that rough draft or unfinished manuscript you've been working on? What happens to collaborations and existing contracts? Your notes? Your ideas? Your unpublished bits and pieces? These are just a few of the things everyone who has ever created anything of value needs to consider. I realize that this topic can be uncomfortable to talk about, let alone bring up with family and friends. But that discomfort is nothing compared to the possibility of years, if not decades, of hard work and valuable, life-changing material being forgotten, lost or even intentionally destroyed because pre-planning an alternative was just too uncomfortable.
On Gaiman's blog, he links to a pdf copy of a sample will that addresses IP disposition. You can download and use his version for free, or have a lawyer who specializes in IP draw up one customized to your needs. In either case, you will need to research what is considered legal and binding in your specific location (the will is written for use in the US) to ensure that everything is in order with any local legislation. So, while it's certainly more pleasant, and more fun, to start off the New Year with resolutions, reaffirmations and realignments for the coming year of life, consider taking a little time after the confetti finished falling to ensure that the unique and valuable legacy you've created - and it's ability to change the lives of those who most desperately need it - outlives the death of the genius who created it.
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