People Are Selfish:
A Simple-Minded Premise

From The Simple-Minded Manager, Cutting Through Your Work-Life Chaos

Daniel is the CEO of a rapidly growing consulting company. He founded it. It was his vision and hard work that made it an unprecedented success. He has a bold strategy for continued growth and success.

But Daniel is a troubled man. He is troubled by the attitudes of his professional employees. "They don't have the drive that I did when I was their age," he thinks. "They aren't willing to sacrifice for the company like I did." Daniel doesn't understand why his employees aren't dedicated to the future of the organization.

Charlotte is a young project manager in the company, and if Daniel would only ask her, she could tell him why. Charlotte is "maxed out" by the ever-increasing demands to complete more and more projects in ever decreasing time frames. Whenever she gets one project done there are several more projects, all behind schedule, waiting for her to start. She can't maintain this pace much longer. Her fatigue is mounting and her irritability is increasing. Charlotte's life is in chaos!

Charlotte is frustrated. As a professional employee who is exempt from some provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, she gets no extra pay for completing more projects or for working longer hours. Instead, her own professionalism and desire to succeed motivate her. Charlotte naturally takes great pride in her work. However, in this situation, she doesn't have enough time to do a decent job, let alone meet her own professional standards. The pressures of the job have usurped Charlotte's pride. She only feels inadequate and unable to do satisfactory work.

Where is Charlotte's reward? If she produces superior work, she is rewarded with more work. She cannot remember the last time her supervisor said, "thanks, that was a great job." Charlotte doesn't see that she is sharing in the success of the company. She isn't!

Daniel has forgotten a simple fact. His employees are not working to make him rich or his company successful. They are working for themselves. They are working for their own self-interests, goals and dreams.

Daniel, in pursuing his dream, has lost sight of a simple truth -- People are selfish. Daniel has forgotten that people do not work to serve organizations; people work to serve themselves. In doing so, he has created an environment that is thwarting the dreams of his employees.

And this is the fundamental premise of this book -- People are selfish. They are motivated by their own self-interests. People simply accomplish the most when their self-interests are being served. The most productive organizations are those in which the interests of individuals are best aligned with the interest of the whole.

The core message of the Simple-Minded Manager is this. If you are a manager, or strive to be one, you must recognize that the key to your success is matching your self-interest with those of others. Whether you strive to manage a Fortune 500 corporation or just your own life, understanding that people are selfish empowers you to grow both satisfying careers and decisive organizations.

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