Money and greed (3)

By Jude Ndu

In 1987, one of my favorite Hollywood stars – Michael Douglas, won an Academy award for his lead role as Gordon Gekko, a stockbroker and corporate takeover specialist in the Oliver Stone-directed movie – Wall Street.

In his speech to the stockholders of Teldar paper, an organization he was bidding to take over, he says: The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word is good.. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all its forms. Greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge, has marked the upward mobility of Humankind.

And greed, you mark my words, will not only save this company but also, that other Malfunctioning company called the U.S.A. Indeed greed eventually revealed itself to be very destructive as I watched Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) crashed and crushed towards the end of the movie. In 1776, Adam smith, father of modern economics wrote the book that changed the world’s economic system – The wealth of Nations. In his book, Smith laid the intellectual foundation for today’s capitalism. His thesis was that individual ambition and self-centered interest for self-actualization was more powerful than any organized government system.

Adam Smith said the best results come from everyone in an organization or economic system doing what is best for him or her self. In competition the individual ambition serves the common good. Every man for himself. The global economy today revolves around the self-interest of a powerful few – The driving force for all capitalistic success. If you make money the centre of your economic policy, the machine will eventually be brought to a halt by greed. It’s not the love of money itself but the love of giving that drives economic success – compared to greed, giving is God like.

America is the richest and most powerful nation on earth today. Why? It gives more in public philanthropy than all other nations combined. A business billionaire, an American immigrant from the last century says it best: ‘Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege. Give and it shall be given to you.

With the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. It is more blessed to give. Give. Don’t give up! Do the best ideas flow towards those who dedicate themselves to the process of becoming big givers? Does it come to the ones who are the biggest givers? How did John. D. Rockefeller get the idea of using oil as fuel? Did God know in 1870 that Rockefeller would establish standard oil and eventually create the Rockefeller Foundation that would give away till today hundreds of millions of dollars? Where did steel come from? How did Andrew Carnegie recognize it? Did God know in 1872 that Andrew Carnegie would eventually create the world’s largest steel manufacturing company?

Did God know that the profits would all be eventually given away to fund 2,800 independent libraries across America ? Why did Henry Ford persist through several bankruptcies to become the pioneer innovator in the automobile industry? Where did the idea for Henry ford’s assembly lines come from? Did God know Henry Ford would eventually set up Ford Foundation that would channel hundreds of million of dollars to the less privileged in society? Whether as a country, company or character, your income per capita is directly linked to giving.

Don’t be selfish, but selfless. Be service driven. The question you must continually ask yourself- Do I experience a return when I help others? Do unto others, what you would want them do to you. Be more focused on what you can do for people than what they can do for you. When we help others, we help ourselves.

A wise man once said -you can have everything you want in life. If you will but help enough people get what they want: What goes around, comes around. Poet Edwin Markham wrote: There is a destiny that marks us as brothers; No one goes his way alone; All that we send into the lives of others, comes back into our own”. Novelist Herman Melville believed that –“We cannot live only for ourselves.

A thousand fibers connect us with our fellowmen; and along those fibers are sympathetic threads, our actions run as courses, and they come back to us as effects”. Always be the first to give! This is true in sales negotiation, an argument and in all different aspects of business and life. The person who gives first always has the advantage. By so doing you tip the scale in your Favour. By offering to others, you may get nothing in return immediately, but this business of life has a funny way of reciprocating.

Make it a habit, so that the gesture is sincere and not contrived. Where do you stand on the subject of giving to others? No man ever becomes rich unless he reaches out and enriches others. Creating new wealth doesn’t always mean taking it away from other players in the society. My success does not necessarily mean failure for others, just as their success does not preclude my own.