Greed is good!

Nope I didn’t say that! He did! Stumbled upon an article about this quote, so I thought I just post something light about this.

Michael Douglas’s (left) fans may remember him and Charlie Sheen starring in ‘Wall Street’, a classic Oscar-winning 1987 hit, which is a show about corporate greed.

In the movie, Michael Douglas plays an uncompromising and unscrupulous corporate raider, Gordon Gekko.

During a memorable scene in the show, he spouts a famous speech that is now immortalized as one of the greatest movie rhetoric of all time. No prize for guessing the topic here – greed!

Here are the excerpts for your benefit.

“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.”

*Applause and whistles follow*

Wonderful! Brilliant speech indeed!

If you like to hear more, here is the video!

Recently, I wrote that greed is one of the worst enemies of every investor out there. Now we have someone proclaiming that greed is a powerful driving force that can save the corporate world.

My my..real food for thought!

So is greed really good?

Does it spurs and motivates?

Or does it consumes and destroys?

Shall not be going too much into this. I will just give you something here to ponder on!

If you haven’t caught the show, do it soon! Great great show!

Technorati tags: greed, wall street, gordon gekko, michael douglas, charlie sheen, stock market, corporate

Dude,

Real life example. Ivan Boesky who was caught for insider trading and fined 100million i think. He also touted that greed was good to some university undergrads.

Hi Alvin,

You can say that greed works like a double-edged sword.

It can be channeled positively by motivating oneself to do better and pushing the limits.

However more often that not, greed consumes and clouds the better judgment of most people, even the smartest one. Sad but true fact. That is why you often get news of people getting scammed!

Yep, I heard of Ivan Boesky. Not only him, we have our very own Nick Leeson.

Reminds me of a story out of Liar’s Poker.