If Your Motivation Is Purely Financial, You Won’t Succeed. Here’s Why.

When the going gets tough, what will really keep you going?

We all talk (and write) about motivation a lot.

And it’s no surprise, given that motivation is what drives us to do literally anything. We may not use the word directly sometimes, but it’ll be in there somewhere in various forms such as ‘drive’, ‘goal’ or ‘focus’, usually used interchangeably, and often not technically correctly.

But despite being the very foundation on which we base all our actions, we spend surprisingly little time working out what it actually is.

And I can prove it.

If you ask someone directly what the motivation is for them, for example, doing their job, you’ll usually get a series of responses based around the money it brings in, the status it provides, the perks, the career path and so on.

We can conclude therefore that by removing some, or all, of these factors would affect that person’s motivation for doing that job until we reach a point where they’d no longer do it.

Yet there are other people who would, genuinely, continue to do a job without any of these benefits, presumably for as long as they could until the effect of not having them creates enough problems to physically prevent them from doing so.

This difference can simply be explained away by simply acknowledging the fact that the two people taken as examples above have different motivations, goals or drives to begin with. There is no issue with this, because it’s unlikely we’d all be motivated by the same thing, with a few possible survival exceptions.

If that’s the case then, logically, we should be able to safely assume that the person who is working hard for their (for want of a better word) ‘materialistic’ needs has the same amount of drive as someone who has works for a different reason, such as the desire to make a difference or pure enjoyment.

But is that really the case?

The Financial Motivation Test

I’m going to create a hypothetical test for you to try and find where your motivation level is set.

For this test, I’m going to ask you to meet me on the top of a large, tall building on a windy day.

As you open the roof access door, the wind tries to whip it from you and you have to grab it quickly to stop it slamming back. You manage to control it and control the close, but as you do so, you notice that it is not only windy, it’s pouring with rain. Cold, hard rain that soaks you immediately and stings when it hits your face.

You pull your jacket tightly around you and make your way across the flat roof, each step carefully placed on the shiny, black surface underneath your feet, feeling for grip as the moisture has made it slippery. As you step over the ubiquitous cables that litter the roof top, and weave between the air conditioning extractor fans, you notice in the grey light that I am not there, despite promising to meet you.

You make your way, instinctively, to the edge, and can’t resist peering over the edge. The drop is frightening. A fall from here would certainly be fatal.

You wait and, before long, my voice crackles over the earpiece you were asked to wear before you embarked on this adventure, only minutes before when we met in the warm, bright lobby that may as well be a world away.

I instruct you to look into the grayness, across the building edge, and you notice for the first time there is a second similar building set a mere hundred feet away where you now see me standing holding what appears to be a suitcase.

Between us, and spanning the void, is a single wooden plank that would allow passage from one roof top to the other, bringing you to me, should you dare to cross it. You begin to suspect what it is I am about to ask you to do.

Through the earpiece, I explain that the suitcase is filled with cash, one million dollars to be precise, and that you can have it. All you need to do is collect it from me by walking over using only the plank.

You evaluate it immediately. The plank is narrow. It is slippery. Gusts of wind suddenly and unexpectedly blast from the sides making balance difficult. A single mistake would mean death.

But it’s a million dollars. Surely it’s worth a try?

Perhaps you try gingerly putting a foot on the plank. You might even take a step or two and get close to the point of no return, but as you pass the point where you can see down into the abyss, you feel your legs beginning to wobble.

A million dollars? It’s not worth it.

Sensing your reticence, I pull out another suitcase. Another million dollars. And then a third and fourth. Would you cross now?

Does it even matter how many suitcases I present to you? Would you really risk what could well be your last steps to get it?

The Emotional Motivation Test

Now imagine we run the test again. Everything is the same, but as you stand at the precipice, you notice that I am no longer holding a suitcase, but something far more sinister.

I now hold your terrified and confused children hostage in my arms. I am cold and emotionless. You understand immediately there will be no negotiation. This time you will cross only to save their lives. There is no other reward.

Would you cross now?

Financial vs Emotional Motivation

As a parent of young children myself, the very thought of this scenario terrifies me to the core. Even typing it, in control as I am doing so, creates an image in my mind I prefer not to see.

But the reality is that there isn’t a parent alive who wouldn’t attempt the crossing without hesitation. Or die trying.

The plank is in the same place, the conditions and implications to you of failure are the same, yet one results in action and one does not. Why?

This extreme (and hopefully entirely fictional) example is designed to do no more than demonstrate the difference between a purely financially based motivation compared to a purely emotionally based one. This is an obvious and well made point, but how does it translate to a ‘real world’ situation?

In simple terms, it means when things get tough — as we know for certain they will — the picture of your kids on the wall is going to drive you far more than that picture of the Ferrari you rather fancy.

I should clarify that there’s nothing wrong with aiming for that Ferrari. Reaping the rewards of hard work, focus and discipline is an immeasurable pleasure in itself, but the simple point is that there will come a time when the obstacles you face obscure the view of that beautiful car and you may need to make some tough decisions. You may decide to quit. You may well decide you can do without it.

But you will never decide to do without your children. It won’t matter what life throws at you, you will find a way to love them, protect them and be there for them, whatever the cost to you. You will find a way through, even in the darkest hours.

The emotional drive is all powerful

I’ve used children as an example in this article simply because they are my emotional motivation, and that motivation helps me shape my discipline and focus.

Whenever I feel like I am losing the battle and need a second wind, I’ll look to the picture that sits on my desk of my wife and children, before taking a moment and diving back into the melee to continue the fight. They are the reason I will strive to be the best I can be and to make sure I set the right example in everything I do. Their motivation is unending and limitless. They drive me.

Yes, I dream of certain nice material items that money can buy me, but even my primary financial goals are based around them — a nice family holiday without limit on expense, the freedom to spend the time with them however I wish, and so on.

I DO look at the metaphorical picture of the Ferrari, but it’s interesting to note that this is only on the good days, when possibility allows me a moment to consider that luxury. It does nothing when things are tough.

Find YOUR Emotional Motivation

It’s clearly important that you identify and clarify your emotional motivation, even if you already think you know what it is. When you do, you will be unstoppable.

Take the time to imagine yourself there, on that rooftop, facing that plank and the consequences it represents.

Just what is it that will get you to willingly cross to me in what would otherwise be a silly and dangerous stunt?

Can you explain exactly what it is I would be holding for you as a reward for doing so?

The more precise you are, the more certain of your answer, the more likely to are to be fully tuned to what really, actually drives you.

And I bet you anything it won’t be a Ferrari.

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