Man’s Greatest Weakness…

Greed, and more greed, are one of man’s greatest weaknesses. Once greed comes into the picture, all common sense goes out of the window. Once you are trapped by greed, it will suck you in like quicksand. And just like heroin, greed empties the brain of all logic and sense.

To relate an example of how greed at work, let me take you a few years back, in my area. That’s the time when the get-rich-quick scheme was all the rage, everyone wants to have a piece of the action.

A couple of my relatives were trying to convince me to “invest” in the scheme, for confidentiality, let’s call the scheme ZZ Invest. For every dollar invested, the organizer of the scheme will pay you 10 percent every month! So, if you invest $1,000, you’ll get it all back within a 10-month period. And you will continue to receive the $100 every month for as long as the $1,000 remains invested. Why? Because this is better than owning shares in Microsoft, Apple, or Tesla.

While any sensible person could see the big gaping holes, the ones who have invested in the scheme could see nothing else but money on the horizon. Their eyes were clouded by greed — money, money, and more money for virtually doing nothing. And the hard truth is that you can only remain sensible if you stay out. The only problem is that you don’t stay out for long. The skeptical ones were soon got sucked into the black hole by their well-meaning relatives and friends. “Just invest $1,000,” they pleaded. “Test it out. After all, ten months later you’ll get back your money. And if the worst happens, you’ll only lose $1,000. It’s only a small sum and will not be the end of the world.”

Fair enough, and so they invested. And sure enough, ten months later, they got back all their money. They pulled out. In theory, they made 100 percent profit.

But unfortunately, the story does not end here. Sooner or later, these same people would face some financial problems and require more money. They turned back to the ZZ Invest scheme, and this time, they invested not $1000 but $10,000, some even invested $30,000, after selling some of their jewelry or some part of their land. And, why not? After all, the previous experience had been positive, and good. They made 100 percent profit in 10 months without breaking a sweat.

As you can see here, greed had not only moved in but set up camp in the mind of these people. Why settle for $1,000 when you can make $30,000? And, some dump in a lot more than this. I have heard people actually lined up to hand over hundreds of thousands to this scheme!

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For a while, as it turned out, everything was fine and well. Everyone makes money and everyone was happy. Of course, they had every reason to, they make the money without breaking much of a sweat or spending any time and effort whatsoever. It was almost close to paradise as you can get out of this life. If you heard what they are saying about the scheme, you would have heard nothing but glowing praises. ZZ Invest was viewed as the poor’s man hero, even better than Robin Hood. Here was a scheme that gave money to both the poor and the rich!

But alas, pyramid schemes like this do not last forever. As long as there is new money coming in, the party goes on. But once the inflow staggers or worse, stops, then you better watch out. Trouble is just around the corner and will be as big as Godzilla.

True enough, soon, the payments stopped altogether. The clock struck 12 midnight, Cinderella missed her ride back and the party was over. The organizers of ZZ Invest spent some time in jail but what about the investors? Most lost thousands, some even millions. Many lost their homes and land, and some even went cuckoo.

It was reported that an incredible 35,000 gullible people had invested in the scheme! As of how much money was actually collected, no one really knows. One thing for sure is that the figure has got to be some monstrous and shocking figures, perhaps in the hundreds of millions, because the organizers themselves had stashed away some $120 million in their bank accounts.

Looking back, it was easy to spot the holes in the scheme. What were the investors thinking that allowed them to handover to the organizers of this scheme that much money? What business were the organizers running that they could afford to pay such attractive dividends? In all probability, they did nothing but collect money. And if such schemes are so good, then the whole country might as well not work. Let’s hand all our money to this ZZ Invest scheme while we spend time at the beach sipping fruit juices or tequila. No need to work, study, or even breath. Just hand over the money and then collect the dividend at the end of the month. Life is but one big long party.

Again, I must say that it’s easy to recognize the rot, as long as your eyes are not blinded by greed. It’s easy to be objective if you are looking from the outside. But once you are in and greed clouded your mind, your intelligence and common sense zoom out faster than a jet fighter.

Sadly, this is only one example of man’s greed at work. History abounds with tales of greed. What about buying stocks simply based on tips given by others? Isn’t that just another form of greed? And what about jumping in to buy the most active stock on Wall Street or New York Stock Exchange without knowing much about the company? Or even caring, for that matter. “Something must be happening, that’s why the stock is so active. I better buy some” Isn’t this greed at work?

So how do we prevent greed from corrupting our brains? How do we recognize it? Actually, it’s not difficult to recognize greed because it does not wear a mask like Zoro, or Lone Ranger. Basically, greed is present when we expect to make tons of money without:

a. doing any work whatsoever

b. doing research or check

c. any regard to the amount of money we put in

d. any regard to anything else but profit, profit, and profit only

The first two points are asking you to be skeptical, and be very skeptical of anything that requires nothing but only money. This will almost certainly result in you having no money at the end of the day. Just ask yourself, who would want to give you money for not doing anything? Nobody in the world will do so.

“Make sixty percent return in six months!” The headlines screams which bring us to the third point. This is also the clearest example of greed clouding the mind. When you expect to make thousands from investing only $100, especially in a few months, that is greed, pure and simple. Friends, the money we receive must have some resemblance to the money we put in. If we deposit $100 and can take out a few thousand dollars, what is the connection there? It does not even compute. Only greed is playing tricks with your mind here.

The fourth point needs a bit of explanation. Although the point of doing business and making investments is about making a profit, to do it without a care about anything would be a prime example of greed. In my country, I have come across places where human beings,have done all but destroy the environment in the name of profit. They cut down the trees and rape the forest in the name of profit. They cut, cut and cut and then leave to find a new virgin to plunder. A responsible company would have implemented a replanting scheme. Afer all, they want to do business forever instead of for a few years.I have also been to places where you can hardly see the sky because of heavy pollution. What is the quality of life there? Also, property developers delivering shoddy houses are being blinded by greed as well. And worst of all, they will defend their actions to the day they die. Instead of thinking how to improve and deliver better products, they spend millions on PR and legal purposes. Talk about misplaced priorities! These are tragedies we are experiencing once greed has clouded the mind.

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That’s all for now, friends. See you all in my next article.