I've been reading Liars Poker, a book about the Bond Traders by Michael Lewis. He lived the life of a bond trader on Wall Street in the 1980's and recounts his experiences with great clarity.
In his concluding remarks he says:
For me, however, the meaning of making dollars crumbled; the proposition that the more money you earn, the better the life you are leading was refuted by too much hard evidence to the contrary. And without that belief, I lost the need to make huge sums of money. The funny thing is that I was largely unaware how heavily influenced I was by the money belief until it had vanished.
To me, this is the under-pinning of greed. To consciously be aware of the structure of belief that actions are based on. Rarely does this happen, and is transformative. Seeing clearly this 'hard evidence' can come slowly, over a period of years, or in a flash.
The adventure begins when one alters behavior based on this kind of insight.
