Selfish or Selfless?

Happy Holidays to all. I thought I’d take just a moment to look at a popular concept this time of year from a unique angle – the idea of giving. At Christmas we focus on giving, making others happy, showing our appreciation, blah, blah. Yet during the other 364 days of the year we focus on “getting” and make no bones about it. Its “dog eat dog, eat or be eaten, get it while the getting’s good, and nice guys (or gals) finish last.”
Just look at our heroes: Donald Trump, Sam Walton, John D. Rockefeller and Warren Buffet – ruthless billionaires. We admire ruthlessness, tough-mindedness and persistence. In fact, we try to emulate these qualities. Hey, I don’t exclude myself. I can be as self absorbed as the next person.

Many have said that selfishness is in our blood. They say that as humans we have had to cultivate a form of selfishness in order to thrive. Many have drawn the correlation to Darwin’s theory of evolution linking selfishness to the genetic evolution of a “selfish gene”. After all, even a school child knows that only the strong survive. Surely this connects nicely with Darwin’s theory of natural selection and the survival of the fittest.
But our world is changing. Just ask Martha Stewart, WorldCom and Enron.Even the tobacco manufacturers are becoming altruistic today. You would be hard pressed to find a leader in business who isn’t focused on some type of charitable endowment. Ethics is the watchword of the day. According to Amazon.com there have been over 122 books written about corporate responsibility in just the last 12 months.
It’s a shame we need such a wake-up call. For more about this, check out Richard Dawkins book, The Selfish Gene. But for now, how about this? Let’s let it begin with you and me. I have found when I give it comes back to me 100 fold. In fact, it is the 14th rule of attraction: Be a giver.

So let’s make that read, “Be a giver…the other 364 days of the year too!”

Happy Holidays to all. It is an honor to have you as my subscribers.
Have a great week!
I hope that this “Business Update” has been helpful in assisting you to improve the performance of your organization. For more information on how the Small Business Advisory Network assists companies in improving their performance, please feel free to contact us at 310-320-8190 or email mark@markdeo.com

Mark Deo

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