Freedom First

CHAPTER 4Dominant Values

What you value – and how much – determines your success. But will the path you are followinglead where you expect?

When we think of those who become rich we tend to think of driven people who were single-minded in their pursuit of something, who successfully pursued some value. Individuals who were driven by a need that was stronger than the average person’s, causing them to accumulate a larger-than-average fortune over their lifetimes.

This awareness is scratching at the surface of the reality that what we subconsciously desire — what we value — and how strongly we value it, determines our results or success in life.

For example, it’s no coincidence that when we talk about the rich, we talk about the ‘rich and powerful’, the ‘rich and famous’ or the ‘rich and successful’. We even talk about the ‘rich and miserly’, bringing to mind people who are driven perhaps by fear, or a greater-than-normal need for security. These people all have what I call a Dominant Value. This is a value that tends to assert itself ahead of other values in many situations.

While it is quite normal for us to change what we value the most over time, these people tend to continue to place the same value first in their hierarchy of values. They tend to keep valuing some subconscious need, even when it would seem to others that they have objectively ticked that box.

There is more than one path to riches

What should you choose to value if you want to be financially free?

I think ...