- Wall Street (subway stop, not the film)
Remember Gordon Gekko’s “greed is good” speech in the film Wall Street? Michael Douglas played Gekko, whose credo got etched inside us in the late 80s when the film about corporate excess was released. We were reminded of it recently at a lecture on raising compassionate kids, during which the presenter used video of Gekko’s outburst as context for the world we live in. The most memorable segment went like this:
The point is, ladies and gentleman, that 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.
And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.
Cute that so much money surrounded a paper company, no? Gekko’s thesis — greed is good — was outrageous, mostly because greed has negative connotations. If we accept his digression “for lack of a better word,” we see he’s really talking about desire. And desire is good — desire for life, for money, for love, knowledge, all of it.
Especially in the workplace. Read more