Pavel felt that he had had a good day. At the most recent board meeting of the Raler Company, he had managed to push through a salary and bonus packet worth $20 million, taking his CEO-to-worker pay ratio to four hundred. But in spite of this formidable pay packet, it did grind on him that some of his colleagues in other listed companies were making more. He comforted himself with the knowledge he had other irons in the fire. His purchase of the most advanced Gulfstream corporate jet made him feel better—at least for the moment. He also gained a modicum of pleasure from the fact that Raler paid for his $20 million New York penthouse apartment. Plus he had a generous expense account set up to give him unrestricted opportunities to charge for personal items, including the cost of a yacht rental of $20,000 last summer.
Despite these luxuries and perks, Pavel continued to question whether he deserved more. After all, wasn’t he the mover and shaker of the company? Adding to his lingering sense of dissatisfaction was the thought that he still wasn’t a member of the billion-dollar club. He wondered how he would be able to reach that milestone.
As always, life is full of surprises. In the middle of a heated discussion pertaining to a takeover bid, from which he stood to make a real financial bundle, Pavel had a stroke. For a short time, he was kept alive on life support. But soon after, it was death that put an end to his sense of never having enough. For Pavel, life without money had always seemed incomplete, but money without life turned out to be quite useless.
Pavel is a good example of the greed and excess that is the hallmark of many executives. Greed is a characteristic that cuts across most human endeavours and goes back as long as our species has been on earth. Throughout humankind’s history, greed has had a mixed press. On one hand it has been hailed as the motor of economic growth and human progress, on the other, uncontrolled greed, has been seen as the cause of much misery, as recent economic history has shown very dramatically. In spite of these examples, our culture continues to place a high value on materialism, and, by extension, greed.
Recognising the greed syndrome
What are the warning signs of uncontrolled greed?
- Overly self-centered behaviour becomes the first give-away of greedy people. Greedy people are always saying “me, me, me” with very little regard for the needs and feelings of others.
- Envy and greed are like twins. While greed is a strong desire for more and more possessions (such as wealth and power), envy goes one step further and includes a strong desire by greedy people for the possessions of others.
- Greedy people lack empathy. Caring—being concerned about the feelings of others—is not part of their repertoire. As such, they have little qualms about causing pain to others. Their inability to empathise, their lack of genuine interest in the ideas and feelings of others, and their unwillingness to take personal responsibility for their behaviour and actions makes them very difficult people to be with.
- They are never satisfied. Greedy people look at the world as a zero-sum game. Instead of thinking that everyone would benefit as the pie gets larger, they view the pie as a constant and want to have the biggest part. They truly believe that they deserve more, even if it comes at someone else’s expense.
- Greedy people are experts in manipulation. They are highly talented in taking credit for work done by others. They can be charming, but their principal agenda is to have people around them that feed their ego.
- Greedy people are into the short run; they are focused on satiating their immediate needs and leave it to others to cope with the consequences. To illustrate, as leaders of corporations, they are more interested in getting their bonuses, instead of making investments for future innovation, or to share whatever benefits accrued with their employees.
- In the pursuit of their material needs, they know no limits. Greedy people are not good at maintaining boundaries. They will compromise moral values and ethics to achieve their goals. They look for loopholes or clever ways to outsmart the rules and regulations that have been put into place to moderate this kind of behaviour.
Dealing with excessive greed
What I have learned from experience dealing with executives that suffer from the greed syndrome is that it is usually the foolish decisions born out of greed that eventually prompts them to make changes. Often setbacks, such as health issues or serious interpersonal problems, propel them to confront their addiction to greed.
To create a motivation for change, people obsessed by greed may have to go on an inner journey (perhaps accompanied by a coach or therapist) to uncover the unconscious sources of their singular pursuit of wealth. Doing so may imply dealing with the childhood setbacks that they have experienced that makes them behave the way they do. It means that they may have to deal with unresolved conflicts, to cope with pent-up emotions and anger, to work through unfulfilled dreams, and to face the various defences that drive them towards excessiveness.
They may also need to become acquainted with what is really essential in life such as love, emotional intimacy, unconditional acceptance (and self-acceptance), and “rich” satisfying relationships.
People suffering from the greed syndrome need to find ways to move on from egoistic strivings to more altruistic ones. It’s important they recognise that they have a choice. This means stepping back, and looking at other options open to them rather than mindlessly following their cravings for more. Greedy people need to recognise that we can only be rich if we are able to give. Taking this altruistic route requires persistence, patience, humility, courage and commitment. Not doing so, however, will be at their peril, as Pavel discovered to his detriment.
The bigger question we should ask ourselves is how can we change the societies we live in that are based too much on acquisitions and excess? As Schopenhauer said, “wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become.” If we learn how to overcome greed, we may have a simpler, more meaningful, happier and richer life.
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Anonymous User
For me it's like the elephant in the room of the world. We are voraciously being dumbed down every single day. Anyone who tries to fight it and dares to challenge what's happening to us as a human race, is dismissed.(and that's the most PG response) Has anyone else noticed that anyone with a spiritual purpose and desire to know what is our "truth" is just labeled mentally ill? What is depression and anxiety really? Isn't it that we are becoming more and more aware that we aren't supposed to live like this? It's not natural, it's not the point of life. Slaving 40+ hours a week to a job quite literally hurts most of us. It hurts almost anyone with enough sense to know we are being slaughtered, slaved, destroyed.....am I alone or I guess I should ask, am I just mentally ill? Is there something wrong with ME?
Anonymous User
It seems that your line of work is important to your mental health. If you crave outdoors and have taken an office job it will diminish your quality of life. But on the other hand you got a role as a National Park ranger I bet you would be feeling a whole deal better.
Something to think about
Anonymous User
"Not doing so, however, will be at their peril, as Pavel discovered to his detriment."
He didn't discover. He had a stroke and died. He learnt nothing from this because there was little to be learnt.
"...it was death that put an end to his sense of never having enough."
Most I met care no more than for themselves even when they claim the opposite. People lie and justify their existence: They read articles like this and think they are good; But it's the same in the end. Human nature is look after oneself. Most see their offspring as an extension of themselves, which lets them look after them because they have their own interests at heart.
Human greed and selfishness has stood the test of time. I see death as the only escape exit.
Anonymous User
A brilliant article and has made me think about my greed for food and items..i also know of many greedy persons-numerous persons.
there is a begger in waltham cross micheal, whom im going to buy him a hot meal-possibly fish and chips.
Anonymous User
I bet the HTML gets mangled, but...
The actual search was for "extinction via excessive greed" and this URL about the "greed syndrome" was the 8th hit (based on the search engine's secret interpretation and even more secretive manipulation of my interests).
What I was actually considering at the time is the prevailing American philosophy of "What's mine is mine, and I want what's yours, too!" In other words, it's the insane greed syndrome idea that "The entire world is a zero-sum game, and I can only get more by taking it from someone else and I ALWAYS WANT MORE!" Before I did the search I was actually thinking more like a list "Why does he want what's mine, and what's my spouse's, and what's my children's, and my parents' and my neighbors' and my friends' and my ad infinitum's?" This is the insanity of a mindless cancer, but you also find it among many "successful" corporations and Libertarians and other lunatics and you can see where that's going, eh? At least a regular non-corporate cancer has a sort of excuse for exterminating itself. Since cancer really is mindless, of course a mindless cancer cannot understand that the host is finite and taking too much results in the death of the host and the cancer, too. Now try to explain that to one of the mindless corporate cancers that is "profiting" from climate change.
Do I need to clarify that the extinction angle arrived via Fermi's Paradox? Most recently encountered in a book called Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics. Fermi's was the ninth and last, and also the one where he did the worst job of resolving the dilemma. Rather than tackling a resolution, he merely lists 7 possible resolutions near the beginning of the chapter before ignoring them. My own position is between 5 (extinction via self-destruction) and 6 (they are too alien to talk with us), with a dose of 1 (they are here already) mixed in for flavoring. As I see the paradox, I think naturally evolved intelligence (such as homo sapiens') is only a transitional stage to designed intelligence (such as GAIs'), but the GAIs do not suffer from the greed syndrome (or they would have already exterminated themselves). My theory is that GAI converges, but they are still amused (whatever that means to a GAI) by studying the infinite variations of Mother Nature, so they are quietly observing all the forms of life on all the planets that have such. If they have a sense of humor, they are probably wagering quatloos on the so-called intelligent species, but right now the bookies and the smart money says homo sapiens won't survive long enough to produce a GAI. Alternatively, they are not joking, but worried about a GAI with the greedy syndrome, but in that case I can't understand why they haven't exterminated us already. And you have a nice day, too!
Anonymous User
Some people know that they are greedy, but few of them do not even realize the harm caused by their behaviour on others. They can see only, what they want to see, hear and understand. Their intellect revolves only around their thoughts and belief systems.
Anonymous User
To create is to give of one self to the creation. A spiritual being above all is a harmonious being. Harmony in a social structure requires intelligence. By lacking intelligence harmony would not be possible. Today humanity is at the depth of an abyss. The roots for all these afflictions can be attributed to mental illnes. All these various forms of mental illness are the true causes for the loss of intelligence. This loss of intelligence can be from a minimum to a maximum. All of which and depending on the loss of intelligence, diminishes its harmonious potential. However, of all the various forms of mental illness, greed is the most destructive of all.
Life is about love and giving of our selfs to help others. Greed has no interest in giving, its interest is strictly devoted in taking. From the psychological aspect, greed can be said to be:
An intellectual distortion, accompanied by the loss of conscience.Anonymous User
Greed exists when there is unprocessed anger in the subconscious. It is a byproduct of anger. You will not find greed in a person who has freed him or herself from anger. The anger is a dense energy suppressed into the body in early childhood. It is a natural occurrence from lack of health within the family system. Only when the time and circumstances are right can this energy be consciously processed and integrated. Once integrated the various neurosis that the energy was supporting such as greed, selfishness, narcissism etc will no longer play out. The source of the dysfunction has been cut off. So once anger is integrated one can then express this energy consciously and it will only serve truth and have a much more potent purpose.
Anonymous User
Thanks for the informative article. Unfortunately greed always comes at the expense of someone else. It is the ugliest of human emotions and often comes in the disguise of 'SUCCESS'. I think the world would be an entirely different place if we all had this issue under control in our personalities.
Clint Allen
I could not agree more. Greed is the worst.
Anonymous User
This article is so true. Everyone needs to read it.
Ulrich Neuhauss
Thank you Manfred. It is a good reminder of what really counts in life.
Anonymous User
Greed comes when individual and societal values break down. The breakdown of religion due to it's own excesses led to the formation of value based societies that could not counter the challenges posed by consumerism.Society itself changed focus from rewarding role models like innovators and pioneers to rewarding shallow gimmickry or manipulation of masses eg. managers, artists etc. A look at spiritual organisations may provide clues to counter this scrounge of the society. Even though run by personalities the ethical values of followers spirituality based organisations are laudable and not harmful to society unlike organised religions. These spiritual philosophies need to be analysed along with their impact on society and individuals.
Anonymous User
Wonderful article.
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Anonymous User
09/03/2021, 05.42 pm
Everybody is greedy.The degree of greed may vary person to person... depending on their upbringing.wenever we feel tat greed is blooming inside of heart we should immediately become alert as our biggest enemy is entering inside our heart nd mind nd should try our best to curb it with lots of efferts.,may b we will not successful fully but our enemy of greed will also think, whether I should attak him/her.Greed always is associated by envy nd these both our biggest enemy (why)bse greed nd envy don't allow us to think how much we are harming ourselves nd the society so it is very necessary to save ourselves from these two hidden enemies with the help of meditation nd by reading gud books nd self analysis.