Greed is bad because there’s an infinite amount of resources that a single person could take in the world. It would take an infinite lifetimes in order to fulfill someone’s desires and wants. That’s why it’s bad. People don’t have unlimited amount of resources to conquer everything they want to.
The number one thing that greed is mistaken for is ambition. Ambition and greed are two completely separate and apart things. Ambition is a good thing where you are going after your hopes, dreams, and goals. Greed is going after things because you want to increase the quantity of what you have.
Know the difference between the two before finding out that you didn’t really want the end result after all. It takes sacrifice to get “more”. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. The only times when you get “free” things is when your parents pay for your existence in your younger years.
Other than that, it’s off to the races and you are responsible for your own life, successes, failures, careers, and health. Greed is bad because it sacrifices your physical and mental health in order to get “more”. There are people who sacrifice their personal lives in order to get ahead in a career.
They end up as multi millionaires yet are spending their days alone and regret spending too much in the office. Financial independence and increasing your standing in the world can be ambitious. However, there are inherent costs associated with wanting and going for more.
Make sure you know what you’re doing before being filled with regrets.
Why Greed is Bad
Greed doesn’t have anything to do with wanting the most amount of money. Greed has to do with your state of mind. When you’re always looking for more, when you’re always looking for the next thing to aspire to, you’re always stuck in the hedonistic treadmill of “wanting more”.
Unlike an actual regular treadmill though, it’s hard to get off the hedonistic treadmill because everyone else is doing it. It doesn’t physically tire you out, it just mentally tires you out. It’s so addicting that you don’t even know it’s mentally tiring you out, either. Not until it’s too late.
Greed may be bad but what’s not bad is gently tapping that social share button and post to your favorite social media!! Your friends might not know they’re being greedy and need a gentle reminder that there are more important things in life than greed.
So with that said, let’s get into why greed is not good for your health.
1) We have Unlimited Wants and Desires
As humans, we are biologically wired to want more things. It can be a wide variety of things. It can be more women, men, money, bigger house, a faster car, or anything else. Our wants are a bottomless pit with no true limits. And think about it. That’s only ONE person. There are billions of people on this planet.
We have unlimited wants and desires that we need and want to fulfill. Greed is bad because some people WILL pursue their wants at any cost and will pay whatever price they need to pay. Even if the price is good health. Or if the price is lost time with family and loved ones. Don’t be one of those people.
Going after goals and ambition is good. Going after goals for the sake of going after goals is bad. That’s the definition of greed. If I was given the choice of having one billion dollars versus my current net worth of ~$400,000 today, I would absolutely say yes. However, if I still want more than a billion dollars is when there’s a problem.
That’s wanting more even after having more than I could ever possibly want in my life, which is bad.
2) Greed is Bad Because it is an Obsession
Some people let it consume them. That’s all they talk about and that’s all they think about. That’s not a healthy lifestyle. Life is way more than a one dimensional want. Life is a multidimensional experience full of diversity and differing sets of opinions and values. When you only want one thing, that’s bad.
It becomes an obsession. It shows up in your dreams, subconscious, and the unconscious world. Greed is bad. When I was anxiously waiting for a job offer decision, that’s all I could think of. All I could talk about with my friends, all that I could think about. Because I knew my job was going to help my financial goals.
However, that wasn’t healthy. A job offer is good news but it doesn’t make up your life. There’s no point is getting obsessed about something to the point where it consumes you. If you want to think about it from time to time because it’s important to you, that’s fine. However, obsession isn’t healthy.
3) It Leads to Overwork
This is a big one. When you want something and will stop at nothing to get it, you will overwork for it. There are many people that I know who aren’t married yet but are very high up in the corporate ladder. They have immense power, absolutely. However, their personal lives are horrible.
There are many investment bankers and lawyers who work in high stress jobs whose children resent them for overworking. Greed is bad because there are costs associated with everything that you want. When you say you want something, you are completely at the other person’s mercy.
The other person WILL renegotiate against your wants and needs. The renegotiation mostly will be associated with overworking. Are you really willing to put up with it? There’s a cost to getting anything. There are times when you can’t focus on what you gain and you have to focus on what you lose.
4) There’s More Important Things in Life than Greed
Things like health, family, time, freedom, independence, time, and life is worth so much more than greed. Greed is bad because there are more important things in life than getting and wanting more things. You don’t appreciate what you have until you actually lose it. I used to have immaculate health in high school.
I played tennis often, I was in shape, and there were no body aches. However, because I didn’t stretch my neck and shoulders, I have horrible neck pain these days. Absolutely horrible. That’s because I tried too hard in high school with athletics. Or because I tried too hard in college and my posture is ruined as a result.
Do I wish that I would have zero neck pain? Yes. This is something I would be willing to lose $50,000 of my net worth in order to get it. Doctors run x-rays and tell me that there’s nothing wrong. Don’t give up so much to get a temporary benefit. My neck pain may also be a permanent pain, from what my doctors tell me.
Greed is Bad so Do Something Else
There are infinite things that you can do instead of breaking your back to pursue materialism.
1) Healthy Ambition
Healthy ambition is when you move up in the world at a good pace. Your family life is good, your friendships are intact, you have good health, and more. That’s a good thing and absolutely something you should pursue. However, there are people who would pass out from work exhaustion in order to turn in the latest work assignment.
Healthy ambition when you still have a social life when you want to and have good relationships to do stuff with people. The priorities in your life are set to the point where you’re pursuing the most important things instead of semi-important things. Greed is bad because it’s not ambition in moderation. It’s ambition to excess.
I want you to get after your goals. I want you to get the job of your dreams and get financial security and stability. There’s a point when you are giving up too much to get it and doing that is when it becomes bad. There’s a way to get there without breaking you back.
2) Self Care
Wealth is nothing without health. Take care of your health. Take a rest, recover, take a step back, and literally do nothing if you need to do so. There’s a point where doing nothing is better than doing a bad thing. My favorite past time is sitting on the couch, and just thinking about my life. It clears my head and calms me down.
Take care of yourself because no one else is going to take care of you. If you don’t take care of your body, your body isn’t going to give you warnings. Your body may suddenly just shut down overnight with diseases that you can’t reverse or get rid of. Irreversible damage is a scary thing. It’s even scarier knowing that it exists.
I own a massager with two shoulder and neck warmers. It has made the world of a difference for me. I would prefer that I don’t even need it in the first place but my muscle damage may have gotten so bad that it could very well be permanent. It’s a scary thought, knowing that I will still have this pain in my 40’s or 50’s.
3) Giving
The more you do something else for someone, the more they’re willing to do for you. It’s the law of reciprocity. It’s human nature. Yes, some people will just take and take until the other party cuts off ties with them. Most people’s psychology and human nature is to give. The more you give, the more you get back.
I asked one of my friends if I could stay with him while I did a 6 week stint at a prior company. He immediately said no. Then years later, I gave him a glowing recommendation for a job that he applied for. He got it and was paid very well for what he did. Then when I asked him for favors after that, he had no problem helping me out.
Giving can actually be more beneficial than taking all of the time. If you’re a taker and you’re known as a taker, people take note. They remember it the next time that you need or want something from them. Greed is bad but giving is great. When you help someone out, they don’t forget it.
4) Controlled Risk
When you can tolerate the amount of risk you are taking, that is great. Some people over-leveraged and bought anything and everything they could during the 2007-2009 crash. They didn’t just lose everything and end up with 0. They ended with negative and had to declare bankruptcy. That’s not good because the risk was out of control.
Greed is bad because it makes you take on unnecessary risk. Risk that you can’t afford to take on. When the creditors come knocking and you don’t have the answer, then that’s damaging. It’s painful. There are so many people who take on so much margin these days because the market is just going up.
I wonder if that will ever come crashing down. It may never come crashing down, yes. However, if it does crash down, then that will be the rudest awakening of people’s lives. Risk is great and you should take the chance. However, don’t take on dangerous risk because the music may very well stop at some point.
Greed is Bad for Your Health. Tame It.
Greed is bad. It works on a leaky bucket schedule. You don’t know just how much the bucket is becoming empty until years pass. Then you realize… What did I break my back for? When I was in college, I wanted to be the best at everything. I wanted to join clubs, take the hardest classes, and get into investment banking.
I sacrificed everything to get into investment banking. And I failed. All the Friday nights I spent studying rather than socializing with friends. All the days I spent networking trying to get my foot in the door. It was all for nothing. I can’t imagine how much more genuine friendships I would have now if I didn’t do something like that.
If I had to do it all over again, I would absolutely do things differently. All I can do is give advice to the current college students and hope they don’t repeat my mistakes. Greed is bad. By sacrificing everything in order to get more and get more standing in the world, you don’t realize what you’re missing out on. Not until it’s too late.
Stop trying to get more and end up missing out on life along the way. There are more important things in life than money, material possessions, and power. You can’t get back lost time nor is it easy to repair damaged relationships. It’s better to already start with a good relationship than to repair a damaged one.
Don’t let the Joneses let you think that they are doing well. Greed is a bad thing that will consume your life if you don’t know how to tame it to your will.
