Brad Meltzer on Legacy, Leadership, and the Power of Ordinary People (BOMA 2025)

Key Takeaways:

• Reflect on who shaped your life—and say thank you.
• Legacy isn’t about status; it’s about the lives you touch in your family, community, and even strangers.
• Use your words; they’re your power. “If you don’t use your power, time fades, and your power fades with it.”

If you scanned the top news stories of the day and asked someone who was making the most impact in the world, it would be logical to assume it’s the politicians and power brokers shaking global economies or billionaire celebrities tying the knot in beautiful European destinations like Venice. You’d be wrong, of course.

It’s ordinary people who really change the world for the better. That’s the message Brad Meltzer, New York Times Best-Selling author and host of History Channel’s “Lost History” and “Decoded,” delivered during his unforgettable opening keynote session during the 2025 BOMA International Conference & Expo in Boston.

It was a message that was equal parts heartfelt, humorous, and deeply reflective—and one that everyone in the room needed to hear given the tumultuous times in which we live and the challenges facing every CRE professional in the room. Framed around answering the question, “What’s your legacy?” Meltzer took the audience on a journey through his personal stories and experiences and turned them into a roadmap for how we can all leave a lasting imprint in the world around us.

He opened his remarks like any great author would: with a story that was so surreal and funny it was almost unbelievable were it not true. In a trip to Bulgaria years ago, he arrived to throngs of reporters who had been told he was the most famous author in America, which wasn’t true. “What’s it like to sell more books than John Grisham?” someone asked him through a translator. “I don’t know,” he replied.

In spite of his attempts to set the record straight, they insisted they were in the presence of greatness. It set the tone for a keynote rooted in the power of belief, connection, and storytelling—and how our lives, like his accidental fame, are often shaped by others’ perceptions and the stories we share.

An Unfinished Obituary and Four Types of Legacy

Meltzer turned the page and shared from another chapter of his life during which he had asked a journalist to write his obituary. The writer obliged but was then pulled over to a more pressing assignment and sent Meltzer the unfinished draft. The last line, which he projected onto the screen for the audience, read: “He was a …”

The impact of that incomplete sentence was felt throughout the room as Meltzer asked the audience, “How do you want that sentence to end for your life?”

Unfortunately, no one gets to write their own obituary, he reminded them. But he did offer an incredibly insightful response to the question about the meaning of legacy: “You need to separate what you do from what you do for other people,” he said. “That’s what legacy is. When you die, no one asks about your resume ever again.”

Meltzer outlined four areas in which we can leave a legacy that everyone, regardless of status or profession, contributes to:

1. Family

His parents, who once moved their six-person family into a one-bedroom apartment in Florida after losing everything, were also the first and most tireless promoters of his writing. He received 24 rejection letters from 22 different publishers on his first novel, quipping that two of them sent multiple letters to ensure he got the point. But after his books became best sellers, the sales data revealed that the highest volume of copies sold were in Boca Raton where his parents lived. “My mother single-handedly outsold 8 million New Yorkers,” he joked.

The act of showing up for loved ones through sacrifice, believing in them, or just cheering loudly, is perhaps the most enduring legacy of all.

2. Mentors, Friends, and Teachers

Meltzer credited a childhood teacher, Mrs. Spicer, with changing his life in three simple words: “You can write.” She instructed him to ignore all of the regular coursework she had for the rest of the class and nurtured the gift of writing she recognized in him. At the time, she had no idea the impact she made, but when Meltzer reached out to her decades later, he recalled that she was one year away from retiring from teaching because she felt she wasn’t making a difference.

He thanked her for inspiring him and credited her for the success he had become. Meltzer shared that she went on to spend another 13 years teaching after their conversation, which provided her with the energy and inspiration she needed to continue.

“Who was the first person to give you a job?” he asked the audience. “Who was the first person to tell you that you were good at something?”

“Find that mentor,” Meltzer urged. “Put their names into social media and track them down. You won’t believe what comes from it.” If they’ve passed on, he suggested finding their kids and telling them the story. “Go do it. Go say thank you.”

3. Community

Meltzer shared the story of how his father was among the first and only employers to hire black employees at his now landmark Jumbo’s restaurant during the 1960’s, which prompted many employees to quit. Undeterred, his father did what he felt was right and embraced the marginalized in his community. Decades later during the race riots in the 1980s, he recalled how buildings and storefronts were destroyed and set on fire in their community with the exception of one—Jumbo’s. No one would touch it because it had impacted their lives in such a positive way.

From CRE professionals to everyday citizens, he emphasized the power of community stewardship. “When you look out for your community, it looks out for you,” Meltzer said. “It may take years, but your community will pay you back forever.”

He noted how deeply CRE affects entire communities, and using examples from his work and audience experiences, he tied legacy to the built environment: “You don’t think of all the decisions you make in a building that are helping people too. Millions of dominoes are falling in the right direction because of what you do.”

4. Strangers

Meltzer shared the origin story of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, sparked by one officer’s act of kindness toward a terminally ill child. Unfortunately, the child passed away, but afterwards, the officer suggested to his partner that they should continue doing positive things for more children in their community. That officer didn’t set out to change the world but did.

“Ordinary people change the world,” Meltzer said. “I believe in regular people and their ability to affect the entire world.”

Reflections on Legacy

Circling back to the question of legacy and reading his own unfinished obituary, Meltzer closed with a sobering truth: “No one will ever capture the very best parts of who you are. You don’t get to write your own obituary.”

But you do get to influence what it will say, he added.

He encouraged the audience to lean into humility, decency, and empathy—values he sees as increasingly absent in public life during a time when we all so desperately need it.

“Remember when humility was a great American value? We’ve lost that. We have to remind ourselves—and our kids—that empathy and decency are needed now more than ever,” Meltzer concluded.