Roy Moëd was a businessman with an established background in the aviation industry before he started his LifeBook service in 2012. Originally set-up for his own father to help him record his life story and preserve his memoirs, under Roy’s stewardship it has now expanded into over 40 countries worldwide. Speaking on The Leaders Council Podcast about the LifeBook story, Roy also revealed that it was borne out of a desire to rewrite his legacy, inspired by the story of Alfred Nobel.
Roy tells host Joshua Jackson: “LifeBook was set up some 10 years ago in 2012 for my father to try and record his life story so that I had those stories as he aged but also, more importantly, it gave him a project, something to focus on, at a time that was tough. I used to do a little public speaking entitled ‘Inspiring Your Parents: A Project to Live For’, and so I started and gave my dad a project. A number of terminally ill people we find want to do their ‘LifeBooks’ because it gives them something to focus on which isn’t their death.
“However, moving on from that I started looking into why people were doing their autobiographies. A lot was about having that legacy, leaving a mark on the world that can't be erased. I’ve adapted my presentation now to the value of legacy, not money. A lot of that presentation comes from the fact that we're all going to have a legacy. It doesn't matter whether it's you, me, a company, we all have a legacy. But is it one that you're going to be happy with? And do you ever stop to think what your legacy will be?”
Drawing upon the story of Alfred Nobel’s life, Roy told of how the eventual founder of the Nobel Prizes was once the inventor of dynamite and various military explosives, who became fearful of his legacy after obituaries were mistakenly published for him following the death of his brother, Ludvig, in 1888.
Roy explained: “My presentation goes around the fact that Alfred Nobel in 1888, was in Paris and his brother Ludvig died. Alfred saw the obituary for his brother in the local papers, but they thought it was Alfred Nobel who’d passed. And the obituary said: ‘the merchant of death is dead, the man who was responsible for killing more people than anyone else, has now died himself’. That obituary referred to Alfred Nobel’s history with explosives. And he thought to himself ‘Oh, my God, that's going to be my legacy.’
"So, a few years later, Alfred Nobel took his whole fortune, and he created the five Nobel Prizes that we know him for today. This was a man who had an opportunity to see his legacy and changed it. So, I always in my presentation talk about the fact that my legacy was going to be airline food. And I don't think I really helped many people with that. So, I've changed mine. My legacy is now the 10,000 people around the world who are holding a LifeBook in their hand and have a memoir.”
Of course, LifeBooks has recently been forced to adapt its work during the Covid-19 pandemic to be able to record private autobiographies through technology such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. However, with social restrictions now a thing of the past in much of the world, Roy also discussed how no experience working with those that want to tell their life story compares to being able to interview them in person, meaning that it was imperative to resume normal service quickly.
“Over Covid, having a project for many people to focus on was important given how elderly people became so isolated. We had about 47 people over Covid that did it all through Zoom, and we were pleased with the results. But the whole idea is to do this through face-to-face interviews, not over Zoom or Skype or Teams. And that’s because who wants to be crying and telling the story about your son dying in the war, or your wife passing away, or even laughing when the phone goes down, or it starts buffering? There was a whole queue of people waiting for face-to-face interviews so that we could get back to the reality of it once restrictions eased, and I think what you find is that everybody enjoys it. The interviewer is actually having a good time hearing fascinating stories.
“We then get these interviews professionally written and turned into beautifully handmade books, which last some 400 years. We don't publish, we don’t sell the books, it’s all just there for the family to hold.”
Photo by Joel Moysuh on Unsplash
