Usually it's the very deep and subtle personal thoughts and preferences which make one travel along a certain line of life journey or another.

For instance, assume one can really freely choose, if he prefers equality to equity, then he goes with Communism or something alike; if his preference is the other way around, then Capitalism is his cup of tea.

So in that aspect, every individual should consider very deeply about his own intellectual system, so to speak. Put it another way:

"The unexamined life is not worth living."
-Socrates

:-)