An Honest Word About the Day
Presidents’ Day is mostly a furniture sale and a day off. But the presidents history remembers all have one thing in common: they could write.Share on X
Presidents’ Day falls on the third Monday in February. Consider what it’s become. For most of us it’s a day off and a weekend of mattress sales, and I’m not going to pretend I treat it as something solemn.
The holiday started as a celebration of George Washington’s birthday and later expanded to honor all the presidents, or at least the office itself. The intent is fine. The execution is a long weekend. There’s nothing wrong with a day off, and I’ll take it like anyone else.
But there’s one thread worth pulling, because it connects to what I do. The presidents who get remembered, the ones whose words outlive them, almost all had one thing in common. They could write, or they could speak, and usually both.
The Presidents We Quote
Lincoln is remembered for the Gettysburg Address. Roosevelt for his fireside chats. The office gives you power. Language is what makes you last.Share on X
Think about which presidents you can quote. The list is short, and it’s not random.
Lincoln is remembered as much for the Gettysburg Address as for winning the war, a speech so tight it fits on a single page and still lands like a hammer. Roosevelt reached a frightened country through his fireside chats, plain language delivered with warmth, and it held the nation together. Kennedy’s inaugural line about asking what you can do for your country survives because it was built to survive, balanced and rhythmic and impossible to forget.
The pattern is clear. The office gives a president power while they hold it. Language is what makes them last after they’re gone. The ones who could turn a phrase, who understood that words do real work, are the ones still quoted generations later. The ones who couldn’t have mostly faded, no matter what else they accomplished.
The Lesson for the Rest of Us
Here’s the takeaway, and it applies far beyond politics. What you build may be impressive, but what you write is what survives.
A president’s policies get revised, repealed, and forgotten. The speech endures. The same is true for anyone with a story or an expertise worth keeping. The work fades.
The book, the speech, the written record, that’s what lasts. It’s the reason I tell experts and leaders to get their thinking into a book while they can, because the achievement is temporary and the written record isn’t.
So spend Presidents’ Day however you like, including doing nothing. But if you take one thing from it, take this. The people we still hear from across centuries are the ones who put their thoughts into words built to last. That’s a lesson worth more than a day off.