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Enlightened self-interest is the idea that often times doing what is good for yourself is also doing what is good for others, and vice versa.

This means your interests and values overlap with the interests and values of other people. And ultimately, when you work to achieve your own values (and what really matters to you), you are also creating value for society as a whole.

In my article about false choices, one of the main ones I bring up is the false choice between “self-interest” and “altruism.”

The common belief is that to live a good and moral life you have two choices: 1) Be completely “selfless” and do nothing but serve others, or 2) Be completely “selfish” and just do what you want because other people have to take care of themselves.

However, the most important insight is to see how serving yourself and serving others is often the same thing. This is what enlightened self-interest is all about.

For example, when I’m being kind or doing good things for others, I never see it as a “sacrifice.” Because when I do something kind for someone, I don’t feel that it is an unfair trade – that I am giving up something of “higher value” for something of “lower value.”

Instead, I often share happiness and delight in the other person’s well-being. I want them to be happy, because their happiness makes me more happy too. It’s not a sacrifice – I don’t help people because I feel obligated to, but because I genuinely want to.

I’ll never forget when I heard Bill Clinton mirror these exact thoughts during an interview on The Colbert Report, where he describes his body of philanthropic work as “totally selfish.”

First he says simply that he does it because he’s good at it and it makes him feel good. But then he goes on to say something much deeper:





“There’s no difference between ‘selfish’ and ‘selfless’ if you understand how the world works. We live in an interdependent world…every time you cut off somebody else’s opportunities, you shrink your own horizons.” Bill Clinton



This is the core of enlightened self-interest. We’re not separate from one another, we’re all interdependent and interconnected.

When you achieve your full potential, you are also making the world a better place. And when you help and encourage others to reach their full potential, you are also making the world you live in a better place. Everyone wins.

At the end of the day, there’s no real difference between “self improvement” and “world improvement.”

A big part of taking this perspective, is learning a key aspect of emotional intelligence known as empathy – which is our ability to see the overlap between “self” and “other.”

The more you take this attitude toward your life and your goals, the easier it will be to follow your enlightened self-interest.



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