Its not about the money…
I cannot be the only person who read that in Dark Knight Joker voice.
The truth is there are a ton of Sales gurus out there who talk about sales success in terms of cash, and I get it. Cash is easy to measure and it is something we all would really like to have more of. But that is not the real goal.
I know, you are on a sales website and you heard someone blaspheme dead presidents. I will give you a moment to re-collect your bearings.
You see money as a motivation does not apply to everyone. If money motivated people, then you would not have salespeople avoiding phone time. You would not have priests and nuns taking vows of poverty. There would be no volunteer fire departments. Homeless people who stay out on corners all hours of the day and night in order to get enough for a down payment on a home. You would not have garage bands playing with no intention of getting a paying gig.
Motivation is missing a puzzle piece, and money does not fit in it.
So what does? What explains the totality of motivation to do anything? Daniel Pink has found the answer. And it is not one thing, but three.
Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.
Simply put, the things people want are the ability to make their own decisions without oversight, the feeling of competence, and to make a positive difference. That is it. Every action you see can be attributed to one of these three things.
So why do we want money? Because money is the best way to get those three things.
Want Autonomy? Make enough money so you can retire and stop going to work.
Want Mastery? Go out and buy a bunch of woodworking tools to make sure that what you make comes out perfectly.
Want Purpose? Make enough to donate to the church or charity of your choice.
You see the reason yu don’t hit your goals is that you set them according to money. IF you set a goal to make $250K and make $225K, you are probably pretty happy with yourself. But if that $25K made you backtrack on a promise to take your daughter to Disney World… that is something different.
Stop focusing on the money. Focus on your REAL GOALS. The things you want to accomplish revolving around Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. From there you will hit your goals way more often because you cannot justify hitting 90% of the number you wanted to hit.