Far too often, I’ve been seeing a disturbing trend of the idea of greed being confused with success. Business owners should be allowed to make money and when they work hard, they should be rewarded for that hard work. It’s a basic imperative to want to do better for oneself, and the accepted method for accomplishing this has always been to contribute to society in some meaningful way. However, more often than not, I see too many people upset that they won’t be able to pursue greed as an objective.
Let me be clear on this point: providing a quality product or service for a reasonable price and gaining the trust of the market is success. Finding ways to strangle competition so that you can provide a poor product or service once you’ve cornered the market and then raising prices or creating pools with other companies in your industry to prevent prices from dropping too low is greed. Rationalizations may seem to alter these definitions, but there’s no substitute for actual business ethics that seem to be sliding in our society.
If bonuses and contracts are sacrosanct, then we must also consider the work itself to be just as much so. If we are to reward success, we should punish greed in equal measure. Slippery slope arguments are all well and good, but instead of worrying about the potential for future abuses, it’s time to address the abuses we see currently. If we’ve come to the point where it’s no longer clear which is which, then we’ve already slipped far past the line of acceptable behavior on the other side.
I wish all people in business success. I hope that your companies grow, that you become well known and even beloved by your customers. I honestly wish success on every business owner. However, the moment that you forget that your job is not to make money, but rather to provide for your customers, you’ve lost sight of what’s actually important. Ethics are not an inconvenience, but an obligation. Don’t confuse success with greed.
