I don't have my dictionary, but my understanding of altruism is that one does things simply for the benefit of others without thoughts of oneself. Unselfishness may not necessarily mean having to forget about oneself and not having Compassion for oneself, but I think altruism is usually defined as doing things just for the benefit of others; self-sacrifice. But I can't be sure of that. I don't use the term altruism too much, because I don't want people to go to the extreme where they forget about having Compassion for oneself. I do believe that true Compassion has to also include oneself.
Each one of us is a human being, just like everybody else. In the interviews, I often give a little analogy about a very stern teacher. Just imagine it is the first day of school and all the little five- and six-year-old children are coming into the classroom. The teacher separates one little kid and says, "You sit over there," and, to all the other little kids, "You can sit over here." Then the teacher turns to all the little kids over here and says, "You know, in school, we make mistakes, but if you learn from the mistakes and then go on, this is how we develop. You all have lots of potential in yourself that you will be able to realize. Take joy with it." Then the teacher turns to this little child over on their own and says, "But you, you are not to make any mistakes at all!" Now would that be fair? No. Most people wouldn't feel very nicely towards that stern teacher. It wouldn't be very fair to that little kid over there, but often that is what we do with ourselves.