The myth of King Midas illustrates well how identifying your secret wealth is important. Because of his kindness and ambition towards a god, he was given one wish that would become true. He chose to have everything he touched turn into gold, soon after he realized that it included food and his loved ones, thus condemning him to a life of starvation and solitude. If he were to know better, he would have identified what were positive values in his life and what were negative.

On one hand, he was kind towards the god and towards his vassals. That sense of responsibility towards them and the balanced reign is not something to take for granted. There are some other values that might be seen in this story; maybe he was trying to look after his family and kingdom, that might be the reason behind his lust for gold.

On the other hand, seeing what his greed brought is a clear example of how important identifying one’s fortitudes and weak points is. The ambition brought him down in the same way that it has brought other rulers. For example, when Hitler attempted to conquest Russia. It had already taken hold of most of Europe but that was not enough to quench his thirst.

It is possible to identify one’s secret wealth by going through trial and error as history’s actors have but it is hardly productive to surrender an empire to know whether you are smart, ambitious, benevolent or tyranic. A better way to approach this is to examine every day problems we have faced, specially those where a clear-cut answer cannot be found. By doing so we can see how we weight in different values and where we stand. Those values and the skills that come with them are our ultimate secret wealth.

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