I am selfish

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

When people ask me why I made the dance video (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.

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.