"selfish gain" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It can be used to refer to a situation where someone is taking part in an activity in order to receive a benefit for themselves, rather than to benefit others. For example: "He had no intention of helping his colleagues, as his only motivation for joining the project was selfish gain."
"Don't abuse power for selfish gain, don't seek special privileges".
God shed his grace on thee Till selfish gain no longer stain The banner of the free!
But each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people's doubts grow.
America!/God shed his grace on thee/Till selfish gain no longer stain/The banner of the free!" Sherr writes that Bates, disillusioned with the Gilded Age's excesses, "wanted to purify America's great wealth, to channel what she had originally called 'selfish gain' into more noble causes".
As David Firestone also points out in his blog post on the subject, Bates, in her first version, said that the throng's "selfish gain" left a "stain" on freedom's banner.
We must accept, without cynicism, the fact that some of our family and friends give to us for our own sake (our own flourishing) and not for their eventual selfish gain.
Occasionally, some shareholders are galvanised, but too often for pursuit of selfish gains.
"Unfortunately our American partners are using these methods in order to achieve their own selfish gains and it is illegal to persecute people.
They answer that question by saying that we are interested only in oil and in pursuing our own selfish gains in that region.
As President Xi Jinping of China stated earlier this month, "No one should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gains".
It is that some countries keep playing on the issue for their selfish gains, and China is firmly opposed to them doing that".
