If you somewhere between the ages of 6 and 60 in 1987, you probably remember this quote from Wall Street:
“… greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
Horse feathers.
Passion is good. Passion works. The drive to take personal responsibility for success cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Passion, in all of its forms–for life, for money, for love, for knoweldge–has marked the upward surge of mankind.
Greed, on the other hand is a perversion of the evolutionary spirit. Greed has held us back. Greed–in all of its forms–has caused us some of the most expensive detours away from our evolutionary goal! From religious wars to secretive governments to exorbitant executive pay, greed is the rock tied to mankind’s ankle as we try to move forward! (More on CEO pay in a minute.)
There is a fundamental difference between greed and passion, and it is a difference any 5 year old can spot in a moment. Gordon Gecko played a semantics trick with it, and he convinced a generation of weak-minded capitalists to abandon common sense with it. Here it is, in blunt language:
Passion: good.
Greed: bad.
Here is is again, with a little more explanation:
Passion: Positive creative force directed at the betterment of mankind, often at the expense of self.
Greed: Negative creative force directed at the betterment of self, often at the expense of mankind.
The models are irrelevant, CEO compensation is too high, period.
I went to U Penn and Wharton for undergrad. I went to Kellogg for grad school. I’ve seen the financial models and the competitive forces models that show why stratospheric CEO pay is justified. I had to run some of those analyses as homework in my finance classes. Ultimately, they all came down to one thing: “It’s what the market will bear.”
Donkey chips.
Show me a leader, and I’ll show you the culture of his or her organization. You show me a leader who is so greedy for money that he goes for the absolute highest paycheck, and justifies it based on “it’s what the market will bear,” even though his true motivation is to be the big swinging dork at the country club–and the more significant the financial strain his paycheck puts on the organization paying it, the better the story will be on the golf course, by the way–and I’ll show you an organization where people clamor for credit rather than share recognition, where self-interest trumps loyalty, and where people’s best is held hostage to fierce political negotiations at every level.
On the other hand, show me a leader who takes fair compensation and prides himself on his ability to keep his salary from becoming the subject of neighborhood gossip, and I’ll show you an organization where employees are loyal, take pride in what they do as part of the team, and where they bring their best to their work every time because they wouldn’t dream of bringing anything less… at every level.
The Gordon Geckos of the world supplant passion with greed, and spirit with ambition; in the story of mankind’s evolutionary surges, no matter how white their collars are, they play a dark role.
“Greed is good?”
Take a hike.
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I'm Jason. I make people shine. My mission is to help 1 million people tell their stories better. 
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