Note: This blog is not for everyone. It’s for brave individuals who want nothing less than freedom in life.

“If someone can make himself emotionally, psychologically, and financially independent, that kind of sovereign individual is an emperor in the modern world.”

I’ve read the best definition of financial success in a book called Sovereign Individual:

“One of the milestones by which you measure your financial success will be not just how many zeros you can add to your net worth, but whether you can structure your (daily) affairs in a way that enables you to realise full individual autonomy and independence.”

Let’s briefly explore three types of independence:

• Emotional Independence
• Psychological Independence
• Financial Independence

Emotional Independence

Humans have a wide range of emotions that colour their perceptions. These emotions constantly interpret all external events. Insecurity, fear, inferiority, greed, and attachment are the most common emotions that make our minds run after things, people, and situations. They cause an endless race of chasing things, people, and situations.

It’s because of these emotions that we don’t want to address upfront that we give the “market economy” and “social stigmas” access to navigate and control our lives. Market economies and social forces are well aware of our insecurities, fears, and inferiority to trigger it and sell what they want us to buy.

Moreover, every event that happens in life only triggers the emotions that are strongly held internally. That’s why different people have different reactions to the same situation. It’s a long and tedious process to deal with our own internal mess created by these emotions. But with committed skilful efforts, one can loosen the impact of those emotions on our lives.

Psychological Independence

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” -Blaise Pascal

This one line alone is enough to elaborate on the entire point of psychological independence.

We always want to tell something to someone. We always want to verbally vomit our own cluttered mind. That is the most dramatic activity we do on a regular basis without even knowing it. In layman’s language, it’s known as gossip. In this era of social media, our cluttered mental state is being projected on social media platforms.

Another point in this section is “social validation” or “social approval.” If someone is above this one thing alone, 90% of his mental issues will get resolved. Mostly all our likes, dislikes, and wants are deeply influenced by our social and peer groups. We always hesitate or deny making choices that make us unpopular in our social and peer groups. We are always reluctant to be rejected by people. But that chase of validation itself becomes a lifelong psychological cage for ourselves.

If one can raise his own mindset above these elements, he can attain psychological independence.

Financial Independence

There is a huge debate over this topic all over the internet. But my simple definition is, if “one doesn’t need to work actively to match his monthly burn rate,” he is financially independent.

Different people have different burn rates based on the lifestyle they want to live. That’s not an issue. But the only catch here is the consumerism trap. Even if someone touches the mark of financial independence and then falls into the trap of consumerism, he’ll go back to the endless loop again.

Of course, one needs some sort of corpus to make this happen, but that’s the point. In the early part of a career, one should work to create a foundation for their own freedom. The early part of a career is not for buying things on EMI to seek social validation of having a great career and established life in higher echelons. One should strive for freedom. Freedom to have control over their daytime.

Those who have no one to tell them from morning to night, what to do, what to wear, how to behave… They are the financially independent people. Because their earning is no longer dependent on anyone’s views about them.

And if someone can have all three independence together, they are modern emperors.

They might not have empires in their control, but they would have autonomy over their life.

Naturally, the question comes to our mind, does this kind of person really exist? If yes, where can we find them?

I’m pretty sure this type of person is not visible because they intentionally keep themselves away from the limelight. We can’t find them on social media sharing their how-to’s. They might be scattered around the world in unexpected places.

It would require sharp and unbiased acumen to identify them.