

I am selfish - karenxcheng
http://www.karenx.com/blog/i-am-selfish/

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karenxcheng
Cache in case my blog goes down:

I am selfish.

100 days ago I got an email from a lady who had seen my viral dance video. I
got lots of emails from people who wanted to learn to dance but that’s not
what she wanted. She had multiple sclerosis and what she wanted was to walk
again.

So I taught her how to use Dropbox (the very first version of 100 was files in
Dropbox folders) and she started taking videos of herself learning to walk
every day.

Today is day 100 and you can see she’s made a lot of progress:
[https://giveit100.com/@cynthia](https://giveit100.com/@cynthia)

When people ask me why I made the dance video
([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daC2EPUh22w](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daC2EPUh22w))
I say it’s because I wanted people to see the invisible hard work behind
talent. And that is true but you know why else I made it?

Because I am selfish.

I knew if I could make it go viral it would give me opportunity – as a dancer,
as a writer, as a speaker.

And when I had the idea for 100 (giveit100.com) I said I wanted to build it
because I wanted to help all these people. And that is true but you know why
else I wanted to make it?

Because I am selfish.

You know what one of my hidden motivations was? I thought it’d be cool to
write a book one day and I felt like a viral dance video wasn’t substantial
enough material. But something like 100 – ohhh that would be good, that would
be big, that would give me enough material for a book and I could become a
nice published author.

Well it’s been one month since Finbarr and I launched 100. It’s been stressful
and I feel burnt out and it’s tiring be constantly on.

And I wasn’t even going to admit that because potential investors will look
for cracks and weaknesses and no doubt they are reading this very sentence
right now. And they don’t like to smell weaknesses on a founder. Especially
not a female one.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last year, it’s that ripping your
weaknesses open for everyone to see is where you can draw your greatest
strength. If you try to hide it, you give it power. But drag it out in the
daylight and you will be liberated.

I am selfish.

But now I can see that 100 is bigger than me and it is bigger than a viral
video and it is bigger than a book. If we do this right, it’s going to be the
thing every person learning a musical instrument turns to. Every person
learning a language. A sport. Every tinkerer toiling away on their side
project. Every scared soul starting a business. Every teacher and every
student. Every parent recording every child growing up – learning to talk,
learning to walk. It will give people confidence, it will give people an army
of others who support them, and it will give them belief in themselves.

How someone as selfish as me could create something that could affect so many
people and make a real, practical, positive difference in the world – I don’t
know. We have a long, long way to go. But we’re gonna make it happen.

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javert
Being selfish is a good thing. That's what pursuing values _is_.

All entrepreneurs do it. In context of trade, you only make money when you
actually sell something people _want_ and give them a good deal.

Let's look at the other side of the coin. If you try to cheat or victimize
others, you are actually acting against your long-term interest; you are _not_
being selfish. Bernie Madoff was profoundly unselfish. He sacrificed his life.

Watch out for politicians and Popes who demonize selfishness; they want to
interrupt others' pursuit of values for some cause which, inevitably, is
ignoble.

The expansion of the economy, which _is_ what creates opportunity, expands the
labor market, and raises the standard of living, turns on allowing people to
pursue their values.

This, and its converse, is demonstrated empirically over and over since the
Industrial Revolution. People are poorer in direct proportion to how socialist
their country is. (And the US, with a stagnant underclass, is actually quite
close to Sweden these days in terms of regulation and wealth redistribution).

That is why it's important to reclaim the word "selfishness," not just let
people equate it with short-term victimization of others.

~~~
gaius
If you actually watch the whole "greed is good" scene in Wall Street, this is
what Gekko was getting at too. Unfortunately that one phrase is taken out of
context.

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lwan
Getting so many levels of meta in here.

