What did Ayn Rand mean by rational self-interest?

Rational self-interest means that your own life is your proper moral concern — but the word rational is essential.

It does not mean doing whatever you feel like, using other people, chasing short-term pleasure, or ignoring consequences. That is not self-interest. That is usually self-destruction with a selfish costume on.

Rational self-interest means you think long-range. You ask: What actually supports my life, happiness, self-esteem, health, work, love, prosperity, and future? Then you act accordingly.

It rejects two false ideas.

The first is self-sacrifice: the idea that you are moral only when you give up your values for others.

The second is sacrificing others: the idea that your happiness entitles you to lie, cheat, exploit, manipulate, or coerce.

Objectivism rejects both. A rational person neither lives for the sake of another person nor asks another person to live for him.

So rational self-interest means:

You earn your values.
You think honestly.
You deal with reality.
You trade value for value.
You build self-esteem through productive effort.
You pursue happiness without guilt.
You respect the same right in others.

It is the morality of a self-respecting human being who wants to live, love, work, create, prosper, and be happy — not by sacrifice, and not by predation, but by reason.

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