Individualism, at first look, might sound selfish and self-centered. One apsect of individualism might be making decisions based on the outcome of the individual and sometimes that might look like greed and narcissism. But another aspect might be, making decisions that maintain or hold onto your individualism. Which might be things like creative expression, unique personality and not having to conform to what everyone else is doing.
Individualism is making decisions based on what is best for the individual. But what’s “best” is relative and subjective and so individualism can take on different flavors. A rich and powerful person might make decisions just to increase their wealth and power at the expense of other people. Or maybe a person who wants to go to college has to stop hanging out with his friends because they’re a bad influence. Or maybe an artist, or someone that has a unique personality or someone who just speaks their mind decides to stay true to who they are, whether or not the people around them accept them.
Individualism weighs a value-based outcome between what’s good for the individual versus the collective and will tend to lean toward the individual, with reason and a system of thought, usually at the expense of the collective. This will sometimes seem cold and indifferent. And what might seem cold and indifferent is that an individualist has predetermined that they can’t please or help everyone, their help and resources are limited and that people have the capacity to help themselves. Not saying this is right or wrong, but an individualist’s typical reasoning will be, “If I work to better myself than the people around me will be better off.”