“The real source of wealth, the real measure of how wealthy you are is the people you love and the friends you have.” Mitt Romney, the Associa Tate Lecturer, said.
Renowned businessman and former politician Mitt Romney took the Tate Lecture stage at McFarlin Auditorium on Tuesday, Oct. 21. Romney is known for serving as the governor of Massachusetts, running as the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 and representing Utah in the U.S. Senate. He’s built an accomplished career marked by both professional success and personal fulfillment.
However, this didn’t come without reflection and self-discovery.
Romney emphasized the importance of how we define our lives, urging that true fulfillment comes from focusing on what we can control rather than relying on luck or circumstance.
He guided the audience to identify their core values, encouraging them to find meaning in qualities such as love, service and integrity.
“Business, money, promotions, elections, you can affect a lot of that, but not all,” Romney said. “If that’s how you define yourself, it’s going to be, in many cases, pretty darn disappointing,”
Romney explained that if you measure your life by relationships with family and friends, your commitment to your community and your connection with God, then your success depends entirely on your own choices rather than luck. Living by these values, he said, allows you to lead a deeply fulfilling and meaningful life that remains fully within your control.
Romney segued into a discussion about how to identify your values in relation to your life’s purpose and what that looks like in practice.
At his first consulting firm, Bain & Company, Romney learned that misalignment in a person’s goals and values can create tension and imbalance in the workplace.
He explained that individuals come from diverse backgrounds and carry different ambitions, which can make it difficult for everyone to move in the same direction. Some may be motivated by personal success, while others focus on entirely different priorities, causing organizations to lose cohesion as each person pursues their own path.
When Bill Bain recognized this lack of alignment, he decided to take action. He brought in two psychologists to evaluate the team and help them better understand what motivated each individual. During that process, Romney recalled one psychologist’s advice that has stayed with him ever since – a lesson that ultimately helped him define his own core values.
“If you are living your life in a way which is inconsistent with your core values, you’re going to feel divided and anxious and actually make you sick, unhealthy down the road,” Romnsey said, citing advice from Bain & Company’s psychologist. “So you have to live in accordance with your core values to be at peace.”
So, how did he identify his core values?
Romney explained that this psychologist helped him pinpoint his core values through an exercise. The psychologist told him to list a few people he most admired — living or dead. Romney chose Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, his father and his wife. Then, he was asked to write three qualities he associated with each person.
When he reviewed the list, he noticed that certain traits — love, service and integrity — appeared repeatedly. The psychologist told him those were his core values and that living by them would help him stay true to himself while connecting with others who share the same principles.
Throughout his career, he found other important figures who had qualities that he wanted to emulate as well: Jimmy John, Allen Goldberg, Venetta Flowers, Meg Whitman and Bill Marriot Jr.
From John, he learned the power of enthusiasm and how maintaining a positive attitude goes a long way.
Goldberg, as an Orthodox Jewish person, inspired Romney through his unwavering commitment to faith and family, even when professional demands grew intense.
Flowers demonstrated the importance of loyalty, especially when faced with tempting alternatives that might seem more promising.
Whitman encouraged him to focus less on others’ opinions and more on simply doing what he wanted to do.
Marriott Jr. impressed Romney with his example of authentic leadership — taking a genuine interest in others and leading with care and integrity.
“I like that he picked influential leaders that he had written down and followed,” said Michelle Grose, a 28-year-old Frisco native and attendee at the lecture. “I think it’s very important that we all have people that we’re influenced by and choose people of value and have values that they live by.” Public policy student Natalia Silveira appreciated “his focus on integrity, especially as it relates to the importance of integrity and leadership and policy.”
As Romney concluded, he acknowledged that while our nation is divided, it won’t be like this forever. In order to heal and move forward, we must each lead with our values.
“Now I believe that a great leader can help the nation. I believe a great crisis can help the nation, but I also believe great people can — and that’s where we all come in,” Romney said.
He reminded the audience that leadership isn’t limited to those in power, but begins with individuals who choose to act with purpose in their homes, schools and communities. By living out shared values and demanding more of ourselves and others, Romney suggested, we can help guide the country toward unity and renewal.
