The Three Freedoms Framework
Free your finances, your mind, and your idea before you chase the dream
The Three Freedoms Framework addresses the gap between knowing your dream and being able to pursue it. Squibb identifies three forms of freedom you must gain before you can seriously chase a dream: financial freedom (stop selling time and start buying it, cut costs ruthlessly), mental freedom (train your mind to blend optimism with realism and bias toward action), and idea freedom (share your dream publicly to attract help, feedback, and accountability).
Each freedom builds on the previous one. Financial freedom removes the practical constraints. Mental freedom removes the psychological constraints. Idea freedom transforms the dream from a private thought into a public commitment that attracts resources and support.
The framework challenges conventional wisdom at every turn: that your job is safe (it is not), that starting a business is expensive (it is not), and that you should keep your idea secret until it is perfect (the opposite is true).
- Stop selling time (trading hours for wages) and start buying time (building systems that free you)
- Your job is not as safe as you believe and becoming your own boss is not as expensive as you think
- Mindset is the difference between seeing the same task as impossibly complicated versus straightforwardly achievable
- An idea is worth nothing until you start talking to people about it
- Help is everywhere if you give people the chance to provide it
- Free Your FinancesStop selling time to an employer and begin buying time by building ownership. Ask for equity in your current job, find a role that offers it, or start a side hustle. Simultaneously, ruthlessly cut costs: sell the financed car, consider downsizing your home, and eliminate debts that chain you to a paycheck. Frame every cost in terms of how many hours of work it requires.Pro tipThe most important truth about work: you should own a piece of the value you are building. Ownership conveys freedom. If your employer will not give you equity, consider that a signal to leave.WarningYou will never escape the trap if your career becomes an escalator where your salary must go up every year just to keep pace with expanding costs. At some point you have to jump off.
- Free Your MindTrain your mindset to blend big ambition with small daily steps. Replace multi-year plans with a series of one-day plans focused on the next tangible action. Give yourself permission to fail and learn. Be kind to yourself but maintain a bias toward action: stop saying 'I will' and start saying 'I am.' Business can be simpler than you think if you do not let your mind make it complicated.Pro tipRather than saying 'I will start a clothing brand,' say 'I am building a clothing brand.' Bringing the future into the present tense overcomes many barriers that keep dreams perpetually in the future.WarningDo not try to act like Nike before you have sold a T-shirt. The person who buys a sewing machine and makes a few designs and sells them is far more likely to succeed than the person who plans a factory in China before making a single sale.
- Free Your IdeaShare your dream publicly even when it feels raw and vulnerable. Tell friends, family, colleagues, and even strangers. Accept that you will face criticism but know that the benefits of sharing your idea and asking for help will always outweigh the costs. Do not wait for the idea to be perfect before seeking feedback. Ask one simple question rather than asking someone to be your mentor.Pro tipDo not ask people to be your mentor (that requires too much commitment). Instead, ask one simple question. In any interaction, aim to leave with one key insight you did not have before.WarningWorking in secret and trying to do everything yourself is almost always the wrong approach. The time you need help most is when your plan is messy and incomplete, not when it is polished.
Caitlin was a young photographer who believed she needed years of saving at a high-salary job before she could travel and take pictures for a living. Squibb suggested she seek sponsorship from lastminute.com. After her video was viewed by over 10 million people, the travel company contacted her directly.
Ben Francis started Gymshark at nineteen while working as a Pizza Hut delivery driver. He bought a sewing machine and screen printer and made clothes in his parents' garage, even getting his grandmother to teach him to sew.
Squibb observed through his TikTok interviews that the single biggest reason people do not pursue their dreams is the belief that they cannot afford to. He met Caitlin, a photographer who had a dream business name (Chromatics by Caitlin) but believed she needed to save for years before she could start. Within weeks of sharing her dream on camera, she had sponsorship from lastminute.com and was traveling to Amsterdam and Malta to take photographs. This pattern repeated with dozens of other people, showing Squibb that the barriers to pursuing a dream are almost always self-imposed.