People say that to be happy you have to be unselfish. But are they right? Because we all know selfish and greedy people, who seem to have it all. We have all been betrayed by someone who went on to live a seemingly perfect life. Who went on with seemingly no consequences... So there has to be something more to this - a more elegant explanationof the conflicts of life. A root explation of our selfishness... Of our altruism... About our DNA and "Nature vs. Nurture..." In today’s Book-Of-The-Day, “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins, weexamine this question of whether we are born greedy and 'evil' or ifwe only learn it from our environment. You can buy it from me here http://bit.ly/16gFhPR plus get a bunch of other bonuses for free. I consider this to be one of the 5 most important books that everyhuman should read. Yesterday I was talking about it on my Book-Of-The-Day TV show (checkout a new episode everyday at 11:30 am PST on www.tailopez.com/tv) One million people have read "The Selfish Gene" since Dawkins firstwrote it in 1976. He had a noble goal in writing it. He explained, “My purpose is to examine the biology of selfishness andaltruism. Apart from its academic interest, the human importance ofthis subject is obvious. It touches every aspect of our social lives,our loving and hating, fighting and cooperating, giving and stealing,our greed and our generosity.” Dawkins was right. The question of selfishness vs. unselfishness is atthe core of every major decision you will ever make. Who to marry. Who to make friends with. Who to protect. Who to ignore. Get this question wrong and you will get your life wrong. Most people approach the question all wrong. Whether it’s people who believe in religion or atheists, the confusionknows no boundaries between the sacred and the secular. So what did the scientist Dawkins discover and explain in this book? [make sure to check out my Book-Of-The-Day deal to get your own copyof “The Selfish Gene” and my own personal notes]... http://bit.ly/16gFhPR 1. Although selfishness is our natural inclination, we are not always destined to follow it: “Our genes may instruct us to be selfish, but we are not necessarilycompelled to obey them all our lives. It may just be more difficult tolearn altruism than it would be if we were genetically programmed tobe altruistic. Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because weare born selfish. Let us understand what our own selfish genes are upto, because we may then at least have the chance to upset theirdesigns, something that no other species has ever aspired to” I like that Dawkins recognizes that you and I have the chance for somelevel of enlightenment, however little it might be. We have somemastery over our genes. We’re not doomed to take advantage of peopleor to act in a more base manner. No, you see it all around you. Altruism. And not just the kind of natural altruism that we have towards ourfamily, friends, and loved ones (which in a sense isn’t really charityat all because of the possibility that we can be paid back). You see people giving to people that have no chance to give back to them. There is still hope. 2. The secret is to become a simulation machine, not just arobotically programmed automaton: Read the rest at TaiLopez.com If you're in financial scarcity now, or if you're making decent money but you know you should be making a lot more, @ 12 pm PST on "10 Rules to living the Entrepreneurial Lifestyle: The New Rules of Money" http://bit.ly/1GvRE5BLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related