By Maureen Sharib
“What motivates you?” the young woman in the back row, her chair wobbling in its precarious position tilted against the wall, called out, right as we were breaking for lunch on one of the MagicMethod seminars I was giving in San Jose, CA recently.
The question made me take a step back and froze me in my tracks.
“I’ve never really thought about that,” I answered. “Let me think about that and answer you after lunch. One thing, though, that comes to mind for me is the thrill of the hunt I experience and I talked about the egg finding story this morning, didn’t I?”
The question was met with nods all around, as in “we don’t have to go there again – I’m hungry – let me outta’ here!”, but for you who don’t know, here’s my story:
The first time I tried my hand at telephone names sourcing – the first time I studied a target list and picked up the phone and received what I was looking for (a name!), I was reminded how, as a child, my brother and I would visit a relative’s farm. The relative had a pond or a creek - I can’t remember exactly - I was so young! The pond had ducks and geese and some of the birds would build nests along the water’s edge and my brother and I would look for the nests (they were usually very well-hidden!) and find them. Whole days, it now seems to me, were spent engrossed in this activity and I remember well that feeling of utter excitement I felt finding those nests with their eggs. Finding names gave me the same flush of pleasure, that same rush of excitement. I couldn’t believe it - I was in egg heaven, and still am!
“The road to happiness lies in two simple principles: find what it is that interests you and that you can do well, and when you find it, put your whole soul into it - every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have.” ~ John D. Rockefeller III
It may sound kind of dumb to some of you but it makes perfect sense to me. I’m a kid again when I do what I do – I have so much fun! Think about something you LOVED to do as a child – remember that fun, hope and joy it raised in you, transfer it to a work activity today and you’ll feel that same enthusiasm John D. hints at above. Besides, the money is great and that makes it even more fun!
“…the money is great…” Make no mistake about it, one reason I’m in this business is because of the money. Taking that one step further though, I wonder if the same enthusiasm that has carried me through ten plus now years of telephone names sourcing would have endured if I did not receive the kind of
“reinforcement” I get from the income generated by my endeavors.
Money is a complicated subject and I know traditional scientific theory tends to minimize its importance in motivation, citing praise and recognition as being better motivators. I do not agree with this theory. In fact, I strongly disagree with this, believing those who say “Money doesn’t buy happiness” and “Money is the root of all evil” have plenty of it and are kidding the rest of us, trying to get us to “stand down” from competing with them for it!
I believe the LACK of money is the root of many evils in this world. The “money doesn’t buy happiness” mantra flies in the face of the fact that it sure doesn’t hurt anything either. Of course money doesn’t “buy” happiness but the lack of money sure as heck doesn’t assure it either. If you don’t believe me – try it!
All of you know that there are many parts to what attracts a worker to a job: the sense of job security it offers, the social fulfillment it provides and the challenges it presents being just a few. Those of you who choose to buy into the mantra that “money doesn’t matter” have a much harder row to hoe than your brethren who have the knack of uncovering a candidate’s very real (and many times primary) motivator and that motivator is – what is it? Of course – it is MONEY! In the rare instance where it’s not, rest assured, it probably is his wife’s! Pay no attention when they pooh-pooh money. Get it right up on the table and discuss it. Remove the bugaboos surrounding it and the mystery attached to it and I’ll bet donuts to these dollars any day your negotiations will not only go smoother they’ll go much faster!
Getting back to what motivates me. Now that we have my fundamental confession out of the way that money is an important and compelling extrinsic component now let’s turn to the more ethereal aggregators – the pleasure I get, the real sense of well-being, the fulfilling feeling of having learned something new or significant, the rewarding happiness and the joys of accomplishment my job offers me. I know it’s a mouthful and in the next part we’re going to take these intrinsic motivators apart and discuss them.
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Maureen Sharib is a seasoned telephone names sourcer, names sourcing since 1997. She and her husband Bob own the names sourcing firm TechTrak.com and Maureen telephone-names sources daily as well as teaches telephone-names sourcing in her online telephone names sourcing course "The Magic In The Method." She can be reached by email at Maureen at techtrak.com or by phone at (513) 899-9628. Maureen will come on-site to your company to teach telephone names sourcing to your sourcers.
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