settle for less greed

In the 1987 film Wall Street, Gordon Gekko famously declared,

"The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

He argued that greed drives progress—that it “clarifies” and “captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.”

But what if the opposite is true?

What if settling for less greed is actually better for our well-being, our relationships, and our communities?

Greed tells us we’re never enough. It fuels comparison, competition, and the constant need to be better, richer, smarter, thinner, or more accomplished than the person next to us. It’s the voice whispering you’re falling behind—even when we’ve achieved plenty.

But here’s the truth: There will always be someone with more. Even the richest person in the world holds the title only temporarily. Someone always comes along with more influence, more followers, more success. Greed traps us in a race we can’t win.

Worse, it turns life into a competition—me vs. you. Greed doesn’t just live in Wall Street boardrooms. It shows up when we compare salaries with coworkers, when we envy a sibling’s achievements, or when we see someone else’s posts on social media and feel like we’re not measuring up.

So what happens when we stop feeding that impulse?

When we settle for less greed, we make room for

• More peace.

• More gratitude.

• More collaboration.

• More joy.

It’s in those moments, when we stop chasing and start connecting, that we find something better than “winning”: belonging & building.

To learn more, check out these articles:

• "Greed is associated with negative psychological states including stress, exhaustion, anxiety, depression, and despair, and with maladaptive behaviours such as gambling, hoarding, theft, deceit, and corruption" (Burton, 2024)

• "Greed personality trait (GPT), characterized by the desire to acquire more and the dissatisfaction of never having enough, has been hypothesized to link with negative emotion/affect characteristics and aggressive behaviors" (Wei et al., 2022)

• "10 Times Mr. Krabs' greed hurt others around him" (DeRosa, 2021)