Follow the Non-money
While I’ve been blogging on the subject of motivation, I realized that it is critical to understand motivation in order to more fully comprehend a person or a company’s story.
Whenever you read about someone (or some business) doing something, often your first move is to figure out what their motivation was – or, what’s in it for them?
As people we’re curious and therefore want to know why someone is acting the way they are acting. Your friends, family, customers, investors, vendors and boss all want to know what makes you tick. Usually the instinctive explanation is: money.
“She works 50+ hours a week, but that’s because she gets paid so much.”
“They’re having a sale? Oh, they must be tight up financially, so I get to save money.”
“He recommended that product, but that’s because he gets a kickback from the company.”
“He only wants me to buy that t-shirt because he works on commission.”
Sure, in some cases these explanations are right on. Except they almost always are not.
People don’t volunteer all those hours coaching a little league team for the money. Because there isn’t any!
People don’t work at their jobs from sun-up to sun-down and on weekends because they have to…they have coworkers that get paid just as much who work less.
I have to laugh when I call a customer to follow-up on their uniforms before the season starts. Sometimes I get treated like a ‘salesman’ because they think I’m trying to prod them along…I’m really trying to take care of them so the kids have uniforms by the time the season starts. I’m really saving the coach from the kid’s parents.
No, most people don’t do things only for money. There’s usually a minimum salary that gets someone to choose a job and stick with it, but after that the things we do are expressions of who we are and what we love and the impact we wish to make, not selfish acts designed to earn a few extra bucks (I bet no one is paying you to read this blog).
People don’t always pick the job that pays the best. People don’t always buy the cheapest t-shirt. I believe most of the meaning and activity in our lives comes from the things we do for free, or the choices we make about where we work, not the financial exchanges we do to support ourselves.
Before you choose to follow the money, follow the non-money first.
