Value Creators have a code. They have a certain mindset. It looks different to people who haven’t yet come to understand what the Value Creator knows. A lot of people have a mindset that is still diseased, poisoned by unhealthy beliefs and bad ideas.
“My sales manager doesn’t motivate me.”
Do you really need someone to motivate you? Okay, try this: If you don’t do the work I will fire you. Are you motivated yet? This is what motivation is, an external stimulus, a threat.
Maybe what you really meant was that you wanted inspiration? So you need someone to convince you that your work is meaningful, that it is worth doing well, that it is worth giving yourself over to?
If you ever want to do meaningful work, you are going to have to provide that meaning yourself. The only inspiration that lasts is the kind that comes from inside of you. Someone may come along on light the match that you are already holding, but you have to catch yourself on fire.
Incentives are bribes, aren’t they? If you do this, I’ll give you that. This is motivation, too. But instead of a threat it’s a reward.
What it often says is that you are unwilling to do what is necessary unless someone is willing to bribe you to do it. Value Creators live by a different code. They are proactive. No one has to incentivize them to do what’s right. They have a greater internal incentives.
“If they aren’t going to pay me what I am worth, I am not going to do the work.”
That’ll teach them, won’t it, Sparky? It never pays to get value creation in the wrong order. If you want to capture value, you must first create value.
Old Zig Ziglar said that you can have anything you want in this world if you help enough other people get what they want. He didn’t say withhold the value you can create for others until they give you what you want. Why not? because it doesn’t work that way. It never has.
Never withhold. Do the work. The rewards will most surely follow.
“My school system didn’t prepare me.”
“My government should help me.”
“This is all someone else’s fault.”
Your school system didn’t prepare you. Your parents didn’t prepare you. Your first sales manager didn’t love you enough.
You’ll never find the answers you are looking for by looking outside of yourself. You’ll never find what needs to change by looking to someone or something external. You will never find anyone more responsible for you than you. You are all you’ve got, make of it what you will.
Believing or behaving differently is a diseased mindset.
Who is responsible for motivating or inspiring you?
Why do you need incentives? What’s your real incentive for creating value?
What do you gain by withholding the value you might create?
Who is ultimately responsible for your results?