The BIGG Successs Show
Does It Pay to be Greedy?
We have our opinion about greed, but Warren Buffett may disagree with it. Read our show summary at biggsuccess.com.
- Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today we ask, does it pay to be greedy? - The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. There's an old saying and it goes like this. It's okay to be stupid if you're not greedy. It's okay to be greedy if you're not stupid. But where you get into trouble is when you're greedy and stupid. - Aha. - And Mary Lynn, I'll tell you something. My whole life because of this saying, I've always tried never to be greedy. Guess you know what I think of myself now. It's worked well. - I think it's smart to stick with what works for you, George. - Oh, thank you all, man has to know his limitations. - I would say though that some would argue that being greedy is stupid. - Well, and I think it's kind of like the confidence and cockiness thing. And if you can picture a bridge on this side of the water, we're confident. Cross over the bridge to the other side and we're cocky. And I think for a lot of people, you know, they adore confidence, but they despise cockiness. But the bridge between the two can be very short. Now, obviously they're examples of people who are way over on the other side. - They're like, "Hey, look at me." - Yeah, that's right. - That's also true with greed. There is a short bridge between ambition and greed. And you can get right up to that bridge. That's where you find big success. But don't go over it. That can lead to big trouble. - And obviously this applies to our businesses, our careers, our personal finances. Our goal is to achieve big things. The only way you can do that is to think big, to dream big, and to have big goals. - But don't cross the bridge because greed is like a drug. Now once-- - Just say no. - When someone gets started, it's really hard to stop. And once they're in deep, I think they get the shakes and they start to do stupid things because they have to feed that addiction, that greed. - And in this context, stupid means that someone isn't thinking logically. They're letting their emotions rule the day. - They're not making decisions based on the facts and they start thinking like a gambler and just roll the dice hoping for the best. - All of a sudden, I'm thinking of Kenny Rogers. - You gotta know when to hold 'em. - That's right. The great example of this is the most recent real estate boom. I was talking to a friend of mine who's a big time real estate investor. And I'd seen some market data that showed the returns on condominiums in various markets across the country. And it did make sense to me because the returns were so low relative to the cost of the mortgage. And I asked him about it and we went back and forth a few times as I'm really just trying, I thought maybe I was missing something. - You were drilling him. - Well, I was, but not in the physical sense, but we went back and forth. And finally, he really just said, he's like, well, you just gotta count on someone coming along who's willing to pay more than you. And the point is the market was so over-inflated that you had to count on someone being greedy and stupid. - And look what happened. A lot of people lost small, even large fortunes because of untimely real estate investments. - And to stick with the theme of today's shows, stupid is, as stupid does, and sometimes stupid doesn't work, especially if you're being greedy. - Well, there's someone who knows about big success who disagrees with us when it comes to greed, and that is coming up. - Today we're talking about greed, and we said it's okay to be ambitious, but don't be greedy. But it appears that Warren Buffett may disagree with us. - Warren Buffett, of course, the great investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. - Man knows what he's talking about. - Yes. - So I guess that means we don't know what we're going to do. - I know, I know. Close up shop here. - But Warren Buffett said, be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. And according to Buffett, there are times when it pays to be greedy. Apparently it pays well because he's built his career on being greedy when others were fearful. - And the results are good. He's now the richest man in the world, according to Forbes. And Mary Lynn, I think if we go to the real estate example we talked about, Warren Buffett would have not been buying when everybody else was gung-ho for real estate, but he would be buying now. - All right, well, I've got a house to sell him. (laughing) Well, we said it's okay to be ambitious, but not greedy. Warren Buffett says, you should be greedy when others are afraid. So we want to know what you think. Does it pay to be greedy? Leave a comment on our blog today at big success. That's bigwith2gsuccess.com. That's also where we have a written summary of today's show. - Mary Lynn, don't you think that as humans today we have to make more decisions than probably any time in history? - I'm not sure. - No way to commit Mary Lynn. (laughing) You know what, there's some new research out that talks about how all of those decisions that we have to make affects our productivity. Check in to find out what this research says. - I will decide to tune in. Until then, here's to your big success. - The Big Success Show at B-I-G-G Success.com. (crowd cheering) (gentle music)