Greed is an excessive desire to possess wealth, goods, or abstract things of value with the intention to keep it for one’s self. Greed is inappropriate expectation. However, greed is applied to a very excessive or rapacious desire and pursuit of wealth, status, and power.
I bring this subject up as I read about the occupy movements 
that are growing around the world. Yes, I support their efforts to turn their anger into awareness by protesting social and economic inequality, as well as the power and influence of corporations, particularly from the financial service sector, that have succumbed to corporate greed.
Examples of this include investment broker Bernie Madoff’s fifty-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, the Wall Street collapse, the AIG scandal, and the bursting of a overinflated housing bubble–all built on the unbridled greed of investors, buyers and lenders.
But where does greed really breed from?
Greed is about never being satisfied with what one has, always wanting and expecting more. It is an insatiable hunger. A profound form of gluttony. So, greed really arises from too little inner selfishness. That’s right. Greed grows from ignorance (unconsciousness) of one’s self.
Addiction is a form of greed. Addicts always want more of what gets them high, gives them pleasure, enables escape from anxiety, suffering, themselves. They greedily crave that which their substance or rituals of choice provide, be it drugs, sex, gambling, food, pornography, internet, television, fame, power or money. We all have our personal addictions: workaholism, rationalism, shopaholism, perfectionism etc. Such self-defeating behaviors are rooted in formerly unmet infantile needs, childhood and adult trauma, as well as failure to appropriately be sufficiently selfish in the present.
After all, we live in a society that worships success, celebrity and money. But what of the greed within? Are we not all greedy in some way? Don’t we all want to improve our lives, by increasing our income and wealth. It is human nature, right. That is often how most people measure progress.
Ask yourself:
- Do you or I really “need” a 52 inch flat screen?
- Do you or I really “need” to accumulate more frequent flyer miles?
- Do you or I really “need” a home with 2,800 square feet?
- Do you or I really “need” a new car/boat/RV in the driveway?
- Do you or I really “need” granite counter-tops?
- Do you or I really “need” to live a comfortable, easy life in retirement?
- Do you or I really “need” to send our kids to Ivy League schools?
- Do you or I really “need” a closet full of clothes?
- Do you or I really “need” a new pair of shoes or another pair of jeans?
- Do you or I really “need” a new iPod?
- Do you or I really “need” a new laptop?
- Do you or I really “need” a fabulously expensive vacation?
- Do you or I really “need” another sale, another customer, another project?
- Do you or I really “need” more cash in the bank?
- Do you or I really “need” more of anything we already have?
Greed is about being selfish, but in the wrong way. So, then what is the right way of being selfish? How does one become more spiritually rather than greedily self-ish?
First we must seek out the Self. This subtle process begins by listening more carefully and regularly to your own inner thoughts, feelings, impulses, perceptions and needs.
Realize that an unhealthy amount of greed can ruin a life. It can blind a person to everything around them that is good, and fix their focus on wanting more of something they don’t need. But, a healthy amount of greed – which you could also call desire, or ambition – can help a person persevere and achieve all that they strive for. Healthy greed also means knowing when to quit.
In a search for the answer, we might want to consider another value that is not measurable by money, and that is the value of Gratitude.
The experience of gratitude fills your consciousness with a sense of expansion, a feeling that is both grand and humbling at the same time. Gratitude is connected not only with yourself but with a wider sense of connectedness that includes a feeling of well-being and a feeling of inter being with all of creation. To put it more simply, gratitude is a feeling of totality and oneness similar to that kind of giddiness that one feels as a joyful child.
Gratitude can have a direct impact in the way we conduct our lives and business. Professor Charles D. Kerns, PhD of the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University says that:
“Effectively applied in the workplace, gratitude may positively impact such factors as job satisfaction, loyalty, and citizenship behavior, while reducing employee turnover and increasing organizational profitability and productivity.”
The genuine feeling of gratitude can also have a direct impact on health and consequent related healthcare costs, reducing stress, and increasing life span.
In the present time of uncertainty, counting our blessings may be exactly what we need to face future challenges and crisis.
I end this post with Aesop’s fable of the wolf and the crane.
The wolf has a piece of bone stuck in his throat and he cannot swallow. “I’d give anything to the one who can take it out,” he moans.
The crane agrees to try. The wolf sits down and opens his jaws as wide as he can. The bird then reaches down into the animal’s throat and gets the offending piece of bone out.
But when the crane demands the promised reward, the wolf grins. Baring his teeth, he says, “Be content, Sir. You put your head inside my mouth and took it out again in safety. That ought to be reward enough for you!”
Greed and gratitude don’t go together.
