What Makes a Legend a Legend?

The dictionary defines "Legend" as someone who is famous and admired, usually because of their ability in a particular area. A Legend is someone who leaves their mark by creating energizing ripples around them.

Legends don't consent to change; they cause it.

Legends reject mediocrity; they passionately pursue excellence.

Legends don't go quietly; they spark, inspire, and design.

Legends challenge the status quo.

Legends are not born; they are forged. They have no roadmap; instead, they chart their own course. They respond to criticism with resilience. They see roadblocks not as barriers but as stepping stones. They spark inspiration and creativity in anyone who will listen.

Legends are trailblazers, carving a path where none existed. Legends ask, "Why not?" instead of "Why?" Legends don't let the past hold them back. They look to the future and create it, one step at a time.

Throughout history, there has been a line of legends who have, for some particular reason or in a certain season, stood out from everyone by creating, changing, inspiring, inventing, and doing things in an entirely new way that no one before them had considered or dreamt possible:

• Steve Wozniak developed and designed the first microcomputer for personal use, the Apple I, and subsequently teamed with Steve Jobs to form Apple Computer to sell his creation, igniting a technology firestorm that spread worldwide.
• Walter Elias Disney was deeply committed to creativity, high standards in quality, and imagination, fulfilling his novel idea of creating a place where parents could enjoy recreation with their children in a clean, safe, and healthy environment, something unavailable at the time.
• After escaping slavery herself, Harriet Tubman returned to slavery territory 13 times to personally rescue 70+ enslaved people. She saw liberty and humanity as achievable goals for everyone despite severe obstacles, becoming a symbol of enduring persistence and resilience.
• Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright are credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane, having successfully overcome "the flying problem" of pilot steering control. Their engineering design at Kittyhawk changed transportation, economics, and business, forever.

Joan Burge , Founder and CEO of Office Dynamics International , is a pioneer of the administrative training industry. She confronted the enormous barriers of corporations' and managers' attitudes and biases, which limited their expectations of the administrative professional role, creating comprehensive training and coaching solutions to raise the industry standards of excellence.

What these individuals have in common is a remarkable set of characteristics:

• Passion.
• Courage.
• Imagination.
• Smarts (book smart AND street smart).
• Leadership.
• Expertise.

Legends spark a desire in others to experience new possibilities, helping others gain the necessary experiential knowledge and skills to do better and be better. In so doing, Legends help others challenge their internal status quo and light a fire of success.

What is a Legend? Legends LIFT, LIGHT, and LAUNCH a new day and a new way of being!

For thirty-five years, Office Dynamics has been the global industry leader, offering a broad range of solutions and high-performance, sophisticated executive and administrative assistant training and coaching.

Learn from a Legend. Experience the highest caliber administrative training from Office Dynamics and its legendary leader, Joan Burge.

Written by Nancy Fraze , a dear friend and colleague of mine.