The Life Terminal Value (ltv) Formula: a North Star Metric
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper transposes the concept of terminal value from discounted cash flow (DCF) models — where it typically accounts for 60–80% of a company's final valuation — onto the valuation of a human life and professional trajectory as a whole. A formal Life Terminal Value (LTV) model is proposed, by analogy with the Gordon growth model: LTV = Σ (KRᵢ × Aᵢ) × (1 + g)ᵗ, where KRᵢ is any key result in its raw magnitude, Aᵢ is the coefficient of alignment with one's true objective (True North), and (1+g)ᵗ is the compounding factor. The golden rule of no neutral activities is formally grounded: any action either compounds into long-term value or works against it. The model is set against C.G. Jung's constructive (synthetic) method, in contrast to the Freudian causal-reductive approach, and introduces the distinction between robustness and antifragility per Taleb as a criterion for an asset's resistance to external devaluation. The theoretical claims are illustrated with numerical calculations drawn from a wide range of literary and historical case studies — from the Odyssey and Russian classics (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy) to the Western literary tradition (Hugo, Dickens, Dumas, Salinger, Lewis), Hesse, Borges, García Márquez, and Akutagawa. A separate empirical corroboration of the model is examined — the U-shaped curve of subjective well-being by age, documented across 145 countries — interpreted as the point of forced reconciliation of Aᵢ against one's accumulated portfolio of KRs. The paper positions LTV not as a metaphorical transfer of financial instrumentation but as a single computational mechanism, identically applicable to an individual decision and to systems of any scale.
Authors: Bochkarev V., Bochkareva M.
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204745494