just another blog pressed for words

We need more of it.

Greed fuels self-interest. And we need more people who put their own self-interest ahead of the interests of other people.

I am not being facetious.

I understand that the common response to a statement like this is one of revulsion. And that is because I believe greed and self-interest to be widely, almost totally, misunderstood, by all levels of society and government, in almost every context.

A quick example, let’s consider Bernie Madoff. A very greedy man, right? Wrong. His “greed” did not fuel his own self-interest at all. His life is ruined. His reputation is shot. His ability to make money in the future is severely diminished, if not totally destroyed. And he will likely be imprisoned. If Bernie Madoff set out to be self-interested, how did he do? When it comes to taking care of himself, he is an absolute and total failure.

From the standpoint of true self-interest, Bernie Madoff took care of himself about as well as drug addict, an anorexic or a compulsive cutter. He looked after himself, his own interest, and the affairs of his life horribly. He’s a cheap hustler. If he were truly greedy, he would have done things totally differently.

In fact, let’s contrast what Madoff did with how a truly greedy and self-interested person would have done things.

Let’s assume the self-interested person would want to make money, get rich enough to afford leisure time and improve their life in such as way as to enable them to pursue whatever happiness they wish, so that when they die they can confidently say they had done everything they ever wanted to do.

With that starting point, and for sake of time, let’s assume also that they have an existing way to make money, like Bernie Madoff.

The truly greedy and self-interested person, you, would first want to make sure to have a long term strategy in place. In this way you can be sure of a long, and hopefully increasing, supply of money. Quite naturally, such a strategy must please all of your employees and clients. If you treat people poorly or lie to your clients to make a fast buck, eventually, nobody will want to work for you, or with you, and you will not get rich. You may even, as Bernie Madoff found out, find yourself under arrest, the money you have made could be taken from you and you could spend a considerable amount of time in prison. Assuming that these things are not on the list of dreams you have for yourself, then it is truly in your own best interest to make sure that people want to work for you, and that people want to be your clients.

How is this greedy? Because greed will fuel the most forward-looking visions on how to realize your selfish ambitions.

A truly greedy, wholly self-interested person will adopt the position that, not only must I treat employees well, I must treat them so well that people line up to work for me. I must treat them so well that they can’t imagine working anywhere else. I must also treat my clients so well that they too are lining up, and they too cannot imagine doing my sort of business with anyone else. I must contribute to my community in such a way as to make my company indispensable to it. And with my greed fueling me, I must not stop there. In fact, I must envision running my company in such a way that my community, my city, my state, my country, my planet, and, as we expand our influence and colonize space, my galaxy, my universe, my dimension, cannot even clearly picture its own image in the absence of mine, thus ensuring that my company is both omnipotent and immortal. And I must make lots of money while doing it. Then I will surely be rich enough and powerful enough to do anything I wish to do in life before I die.

This is a proper long-term strategy.

This is true self-interest.

This is greed.

And greed is good.