value is what value does

For years, the financial industry has been selling the idea that freedom is "I only do what I want to do". OK by me. This is the first of three conditions for ultimate value. If I have to do something I don't like doing or don't really want to do then I'm not truly free.

Second idea: Richard Clark said to me once that his success as a lawyer comes from "I only do what only I can do". He builds teams of people to do the other stuff. If something needs to be done and someone else can do it, then he has someone else do it. So far in this value equation, true value is the intersection of drive and talent. These are two necessary but insufficient conditions for value creation. There is a third idea that completes the trinity.

The last idea is based on service: "I only do what someone really needs me to do". This is about my value to someone else, regardless of whether I get paid or not.

So value is the intersection of drive, talent and need:

I only do what I want to do, what only I can do and what someone really needs me to do. It's an ideal. How close I get to the ideal, I think determines my quality of life.