The M word
You can't shock a 20-something native Russian speaker with a curse word. For two reasons: Russian language has 45 million curse words, and most curse words are just nicknames for lovemaking tools and preferences.
But this word I first heard in Israeli army really shocked me. I'll tell it to you in Hebrew so that it sounds as foreign to you as it sounded to me back then.
Alex hu maniack , sociomat, ein lo Motivatzia... Which means, "Alex lacks motivation"
Ladies an gentlemen, Motivation is a curse! Hear me out and you'll learn
When I first heard the word Motivation, I knew it meant something really bad, but all I understood was that motivation is an ability to want something you don't want. Like dying in a battle serving your country. Call me crazy, but I was happy that I did not have such an absurd ability. ( Actually, they did call me crazy, that's how I got out of the Israeli army.)
And I lived happily ever after, until I got my first investment bank job on Wall Street. It was like the army flash back: sleep deprivation, uniform, discipline, and curse words. And again, the worst curse word: motivation.
This time I decided to find out what does it mean and opened the dictionary.
Motivation dates back to 19th century, the beginning of industrial age.
It combines 'motive' and action.
I knew about 'motive', because music has a motive, or a killer in Agatha Kristie story has a motive.
motif: a theme that is repeated or elaborated in a piece of music
Motive: a reason for doing something
Motive: 500 years older then motivation
But somehow investment bankers have motivation instead of a motive. It was a mystery.
And then I found this picture and it helped me to understand what was going on.
It's a simplified orgchart of an investment bank: the sociopaths on top, the losers in the bottom and clueless in the middle. Both losers and sociopaths have a motive: for the people on top it's the big money and the power, for the people on the bottom it's doing the least possible amount of work for the biggest possible paycheck. This pyramid would fall apart without the clueless.
But fortunately for the sociopaths, the clueless produce enough glue to hold the structure together. This glue is called motivation. I'll show you how it works.
When I turn this key the wind-up monkey is going to happily march forward. That's external motivation. If I teach the monkey to turn the key by itself, it would be called internal motivation. If I can contain 8 million self winding monkeys on an island it would be called New York City. If I can mass produce the self-winding monkeys it would be called globalization.
Why am I saying all this? Don't I want to be a better "motivational speaker who lives in the van down by the river"? Of course I do! So what's the point?
The point is that you're not a wind up toy. You're not a monkey. Stop turning that key. Go outdoors or just lay on the couch, turn off all external motivators including your TV, your Radio, Your Boss, Your Spouse, Your Coach. Do nothing . Wait. Listen. Your motive. Your motif. It's there. It's unique and beautiful. Play it louder. Let us hear it. Want what you want, and you might get it.
That concludes my motivational speech.
But this word I first heard in Israeli army really shocked me. I'll tell it to you in Hebrew so that it sounds as foreign to you as it sounded to me back then.
Alex hu maniack , sociomat, ein lo Motivatzia... Which means, "Alex lacks motivation"
Ladies an gentlemen, Motivation is a curse! Hear me out and you'll learn
- about the history the word 'Motivation',
- how to use motivation as a glue when you build your corporate pyramid,
- and how you, my friend, are different from a wind-up monkey
When I first heard the word Motivation, I knew it meant something really bad, but all I understood was that motivation is an ability to want something you don't want. Like dying in a battle serving your country. Call me crazy, but I was happy that I did not have such an absurd ability. ( Actually, they did call me crazy, that's how I got out of the Israeli army.)
And I lived happily ever after, until I got my first investment bank job on Wall Street. It was like the army flash back: sleep deprivation, uniform, discipline, and curse words. And again, the worst curse word: motivation.
This time I decided to find out what does it mean and opened the dictionary.
Motivation dates back to 19th century, the beginning of industrial age.
It combines 'motive' and action.
I knew about 'motive', because music has a motive, or a killer in Agatha Kristie story has a motive.
motif: a theme that is repeated or elaborated in a piece of music
Motive: a reason for doing something
Motive: 500 years older then motivation
But somehow investment bankers have motivation instead of a motive. It was a mystery.
And then I found this picture and it helped me to understand what was going on.
It's a simplified orgchart of an investment bank: the sociopaths on top, the losers in the bottom and clueless in the middle. Both losers and sociopaths have a motive: for the people on top it's the big money and the power, for the people on the bottom it's doing the least possible amount of work for the biggest possible paycheck. This pyramid would fall apart without the clueless.
But fortunately for the sociopaths, the clueless produce enough glue to hold the structure together. This glue is called motivation. I'll show you how it works.
When I turn this key the wind-up monkey is going to happily march forward. That's external motivation. If I teach the monkey to turn the key by itself, it would be called internal motivation. If I can contain 8 million self winding monkeys on an island it would be called New York City. If I can mass produce the self-winding monkeys it would be called globalization.
Why am I saying all this? Don't I want to be a better "motivational speaker who lives in the van down by the river"? Of course I do! So what's the point?
The point is that you're not a wind up toy. You're not a monkey. Stop turning that key. Go outdoors or just lay on the couch, turn off all external motivators including your TV, your Radio, Your Boss, Your Spouse, Your Coach. Do nothing . Wait. Listen. Your motive. Your motif. It's there. It's unique and beautiful. Play it louder. Let us hear it. Want what you want, and you might get it.
That concludes my motivational speech.