What to do in a Value Conflict

I saw no point in being the richest man in the cemetery.

There rarely is a conflict between a person’s strengths and the way that person performs.  The two are complementary.  But there is sometimes a conflict between a person’s values and that same person’s strengths.   What one does well-even very well-and successfully may not fit with one’s value system.  It may not appear to that person as making a contribution and as something to which to devote one’s life (or even a substantial portion thereof).

I, too, many years ago, had to decide between what I was doing well and successfully, and my values.  I was doing extremely well as a young investment banker in London in the mid-1930s; it clearly fitted my strengths.  Yet I did not see myself making a contribution as an asset manager of any kind.  People, I realized, were my values.  And I saw no point in being the richest man in the cemetery.  I had no money, no other job in a deep Depression, and no prospects.  But I quit-and it was the right thing.  Values, in other words, are and should be the ultimate test.

ACTION POINT: Does what you do well fit with your value system?