In money terms
I'm reading Benjamin Graham's Intelligent Investor, right now, which is brilliant, by the way, and I think I've decided what my goal in life should be.
I want my value to be considerably higher than my selling price.
I want noone to ever wonder, and frequently doubt, as a matter of principle, if I have something of value to offer the world. I want to make it clear as day that I have something to offer and I'm a person of quality.
I've not been that all my life, sadly. I don't want to go overboard and spend my life trying to prove just how much better a man I am today than the asshole I've too frequently been in my life.
I want people to know that taking stock in me and what I have to offer is a solid investment every time.
That kind of valuation is earned, not asserted and nor speculated into existence. Value is created. And I have an all-too-short lifetime to create some of my own to contribute in this vast and amazing world we live in.
I've got to read Friedrich Hayek, after this. And Peter Drucker. And Baron de Montesquieu. And Voltaire. And John Locke. And Aristotle. And Adam Smith. And Kenneth Arrow. And John Rawls. And Amartya Sen. And Karl Popper. And Milton Friedman. And John Dewey. And Ludwig von Mises. And Alexis de Toqueville. And Lord Acton. And more John Stuart Mill. And perhaps some Joe Nye and Francis Fukuyama. And I need to finally read Francis Fukuyama's The End of History. And lots of history. Really good history. David Fromkin and Stephen Ambrose and Gordon Wood and James McPherson and David McCullough and John Keegan and the best histories of liberal democracy I can get my hands on.
I want my life to be one of value much more than reward. And perhaps some rewards follow that life, as well. But more importantly, perhaps that life is its own reward.
I'm aiming to find out.
