Beautiful Nightmare: Legacy. Echoing For All Eternity.

By Antonio Pantoja • Model: Jessica Zehnder & Megan Mullins

“Who in this room remembers their great-grandfather’s name?” 

A few hands went up in a room of over a hundred of the most successful and innovative business people from all over the world. 

“Who remembers their great-great-grandfather’s name?” 

Two hands. 

Then came the gut punch: 

“And do you remember what he did?” 

That moment didn’t feel like a keynote at a business event. It felt like a truth bomb disguised in a question. It wasn’t about revenue or ROI. It was about something that echoes beyond us. It was about legacy. 

These were the words spoken by Scott Joseph at the Business, Bourbon & Cigars event—a room full of entrepreneurs, hustlers, dreamers, and doers. But he wasn’t pitching a business model. He was holding up a mirror. 

See, I never thought much about legacy. Not really. Not until Scott framed it in a way that hit me directly in my soul. Because he’s right. Just two generations removed, most of us are forgotten. No matter how big we think we are in the moment. Unless… 

That unless is the important part. 

Unless we live in a way that impacts others so deeply they feel it long after we’re gone. Unless we choose to matter to people more than we matter to ourselves. 

Legacy isn’t a name etched into marble. It’s not a statue or a scholarship fund with your last name on it. That’s branding. 

Scott said it bluntly: “legacy is bullshit”. 

Because the way we typically define it—it is. 

And if you’re chasing it for applause or immortality, he’s right. We act like our names are going to be whispered for centuries like emperors or saints. 

Real legacy isn’t about being remembered. It’s about making a ripple that impacts other people positively. A ripple that breaks cycles just because one person believed in you. 

Scott’s legacy isn’t just the businesses he’s built or the money he’s raised. It’s in the orphanages he helped build in the Philippines with Troy Duhon. It’s in the charity auctions that pulled in hundreds of thousands for people who’ll never know his name. It’s in the room he curated when he created Business, Bourbon & Cigars—not to flex, but to connect. To build community in a world that desperately needs it. 

Legacy isn’t built in boardrooms. It’s built when no one’s watching. It’s built in how you treat people who can do nothing for you. It’s built in choosing purpose over recognition. In choosing what’s right when no one’s watching. 

I might not be remembered by name. That part’s out of my hands. But if something I do causes someone else to live differently—to love deeper, dream louder, or help someone in need—then maybe I’ve done enough. 

Legacy isn’t about being remembered. It’s about being worth remembering. 

And before I go, let me leave you with something that’s been stuck in my chest since the day I heard it. A quote that cuts deep— especially when things fall apart: 

“Am I stranded on an island… or have I landed in paradise?” —Barry Parnell 

Perspective changes everything. So does purpose. Every opportunity a gift, every failure a lesson. Fail forward, fail often. Don’t call it failure. Call it “trying to succeed” 

Find Scott and Business Bourbon and Cigars here: @scotttjoseph @me_plus_ultra