According to Bertie Charles Forbes, the founder of Forbes Business Magazine, “The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure” (“Greed Quotes”). From an ethical point of view, greed is not essential to a successful business. Wanting to have more than what you already have at the expense of others is not the primary reason a business thrives. Greed, for sure, could ruin it all. Greed breeds other negative traits in the workplace because this vice teaches one to get what he wants no matter what whether I lie, cheat, or steal.
Greed cultivates disloyalty because one jumps over the fence at the first opportunity of more money. Greed can make one lose focus on the goals being set because it only points him to an easy way out to make more money. If an employer abuses his employees to get the maximum working hours without giving them their due or looking at their own welfare, it will not speak well of the employer nor the business. For sure, an employee is not proud to work in a sweatshop.
Nor would he stay longer to please his employer whom he knows is cheating him out of what he rightfully deserves. As a greedy employer, you lose the respect of your workers and the community. Whatever gains you may have from such practice will never be enough to buy you respect. You can never find in any successful manager’s book that greed drives a business to success. Profit and personal values can actually go hand in hand if everything is in its proper perspective. Hard work, discipline, ambition are what makes a business successful.
These personal values are considered the oil in your business machinery that will make it run and make you gain the mileage you work hard for. As B. C Forbes reminds us, “Don’t forget until too late that the business of life is not business but living” (“Money, Business, Greed”).
Works Cited
- “Greed Quotes. ” n. d. woopidoo. com. 02 November 2006. http://www. woopidoo. com/business_quotes/greed-quotes. htm;
- “Money, Business, Greed. ” 2006.
- Josephson Institute of Ethics Website. 02 November 2006. ;http://www. josephsoninstitute. org/quotes/quotemoney. htm
