Competitive victory seeking can supersede money and morality as a motive

Evidence

What drove Rajaratnam, an eminent financier known for his pride, to self-destruction and the ruin of so many other business executives? Several years earlier, in an interview for the book The New Investment Superstars, Rajaratnam described himself as a relentless competitor (Peltz, 2009). In commenting on his financial success, he explained that he tied his sense of pride to unmatched victories, especially in risky undertakings. “It is pride and I want to win. After a while, money is not the motivation. I want to win every time. Taking calculated risks gets my adrenaline pumping” (Peltz, 2009). However, winning illegally got him an 11-year prison term. This is another case in which morality apparently yielded to overbearing competitive ambition. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1470

Categorization

• XREF: The drive for competitive victory over money echoes the vault’s claims about status-driven authoritarianism and how positional competition overrides moral restraint. — connects to: Addiction to competitive victory can override monetary and moral motivation; The American dream ideology frames success pursuit as virtuous rather than materialistic
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1470