We asked every leader profiled in our December issue the same closing question: what do you want to be remembered for?
The answers surprised us. Almost none of them named a product, a company, or an exit. They named people — the ones they mentored, the ones they hired, the ones whose lives changed because of a decision made in a room the public will never see.
Legacy, it turns out, is a very quiet thing. It shows up in the second-order effects of the choices you make when no one is watching.