Money: Blessing or Curse?

Today, the Roman poet Terence weighs in on money. He once wrote, "Riches get their value from the mind of their possessor; they're a blessing to those who know how to use them, a curse to those who don't."

Money, of course, isn’t the meaning of life. And it’s not evil, either. Its value depends on how it’s used. We’ve all seen it destroy people. And we know how a lack of it can make a life so much more difficult. Any form of wealth is a resource that can be used or abused. How are you, typically, using yours?

Ultimately, it’s up to each of us what attitude we adopt toward money. It can serve us, or we can serve it. How does it function in your life right now? Is it merely a great and useful resource, or a number one focal goal? Is it an obsession or a tool? Does it control your life, or do you control it, for the good of others as well as yourself?

Most of us worry about it too much, one way or the other.

It can indeed be a blessing or a curse, and that's up to each of us.

What Motivates You?

The more forms of motivation you have for your work, or anything, the better - right? Well, not necessarily. A new study by Amy Wrzesniewsky, professor of organizational behavior at Yale, and Barry Schwartz, professor of psychology at Swarthmore, announced in today's New York Times, has found the opposite.

There are basically two forms of motivation for any behavior, or activity: intrinsic and extrinsic, or instrumental. With intrinsic motivation, you do what you do because you love it, or find it meaningful, or you value its natural innate rewards. With extrinsic, or instrumental, motivation, you engage in an activity because of external rewards you think it will bring, desirable things that are not inherently tied to the activity, but are promised to you for some form of excellence in that activity. As an example, when you're learning something new, you may be motivated intrinsically by the fascinating nature of the subject, or your own personal curiosity. You may value learning and growing and enriching yourself by the study you do. That's all intrinsic motivation.

In principle, you could work just as hard, even if you weren't that interested in the subject, or in the growth it would bring you, but just to get an A grade in a course, a 4.0 grade point average, Dean's List, and admission into your favorite next school along the way. That would be extrinsic, or instrumental, motivation, where the activity is being used as an instrument or tool for the attaining of something that's not inherently tied to it by its very nature. Someone not in school at all could be reading the same books, and doing the same analysis and memory work, where there were no grades, or lists, or future admissions at stake. That shows those rewards to be extrinsic, or not inherently tied to the activities in question.

Wrzesniewsky and Swartz claim that their research shows something interesting. Intrinsically motivated people do better over the long run than extrinsically motivated people. That in itself, or intrinsically, is interesting, and is a truth explored at length in Dan Pink's very nice book, Drive. But what's perhaps more surprising is the new body of evidence that adding extrinsic, or instrumental, motivation to an intrinsic interest, can actually be problematic over the long run, and degrade results.

How can that be? Isn't it always more motivating to add on an extra promise of reward? "Do the job well, and we'll give you extra credit, extra pay, a promotion, a cruise!" Well, it turns out that, no. The research being reported indicates that those who have both motivations for a longterm activity actually do less well than those whose motivations are simply intrinsic. Why? The researchers don't really say.

Let's suppose their study is right. How could it be that adding on an extra level of motivation for excellence in a longterm activity might actually be counter-productive? Well, one simple hypothesis is orientation conflict. People can't serve two masters, as the old biblical phrase has it. Whenever you have two distinct motivations, they can in principle come into conflict. There can be situations where there's a way to get the A, the Dean's List, the raise, or the bonus, that is actually out of step with what the intrinsically motivated person would do, and even more, where it's detrimentally contrary to a path of overall, longterm excellence. And because extrinsic motivators like prizes and grades and bonuses are available in the relatively immediate future, are commonly coveted, and appear, when they do, suddenly and dramatically, as well as often in a public way, they can easily begin to edge out the intrinsic motivator as what primarily forms your behavior. And this means that when there is a conflict, the wrong motivator wins.

People who love their work and find meaning in it tend to do better work than those who work only for the money. We know that. But wait. Does this new research show that we shouldn't pay people at all, lest we tempt them to serve two masters and do lesser work?

Not at all. There's a big difference between a consequence and a motivator. If a paycheck, or a royalty, or a financial return on investment of effort or expertise were not a part of the picture, most people could not afford to do the work at all. But the best people are often those who enjoy the consequence without being motivated by it. They do the work because they love it. They do it because it's meaningful to them. And, because of that, they do it best.

Secondly, this new research, at least, as it's reported in the Times, doesn't show that adding extrinsic rewards to intrinsic rewards can't in the short term enhance performance for a wide range of people. It's just problematic over longer time horizons where excellence is an issue.

Therefore, what?

Work for love. If you haven't already, then go find something to do that you love to do and would want to be involved in even if you weren't being paid for it. And then, when you can, make sure to hire people to do it with you who feel the same way. Create a keen sense of the excitement and meaning of the work - its nobility - both in its impact for good on others and in the fulfillment that comes to those who do it with world-class excellence. 

Ironically, then your extrinsic rewards will tend to be greatest. Which just shows again that we live in a wonderfully crazy world.

The Inner Game of Everything

Imagine two outer actions, which would appear exactly the same to an onlooker. In one case, the act springs from a routine in a job that's long lost its luster. And if we could walk into that office and ask the guy involved in that action, he might tell us that he was excited about his job at first. It was his big break. It was an entry level job, but in a big company. The building was beautiful. His colleagues were smart and ambitious. He seemed to have his foot firmly in the door of greatness. But the culture around him soon became clear. It was all about the sale, all about the money. Profits were the air they breathed. But breathing that air, and only that, every day over time, had taken a toll. He had lost the true excitement of the early days. The enchantment was gone. It had gradually become a matter of pressure, and routine. He now still kept up the pace, and all relevant appearances, and did the work, but it was almost automatic, and without any inner soul.

The other guy, across town, the one performing apparently the same outer action - say, reaching for a phone, or filling out a form, or making an entry into his computer - lives and works each day with a strong sense of purpose, and a real passion for what he's doing. He's with great people who think and feel the same way. They have a camaraderie and a sense of mission for the work they do. They're building something new together. They're making a difference.

I submit that the two identical looking actions of these different individuals are really not the same at all. One of the actions is ennobled by the inner state from which it springs. The other is not. And this is not some flaky mumbo-jumbo mysticism. It's a difference that makes a difference. One action embodies something almost magical, and it will, eventually, if not right away, have seriously different results, on many dimensions, regardless of how small an act it is.

I've come to think that it's the inner that's always definitive of the outer, in everything. When the spirit is right, the enterprise is just different, and vastly more. Plato distinguished clearly between appearance and reality. We should all do so, as well. No matter what the appearances might be, it's what bubbles up inside us, what animates us in our minds and hearts, that makes all the difference.

Inner purpose, real passion, and the sort of commitment that embodies a spark of nobility simply brings something different into the world. Don't you think?

What will animate your actions today?

Goals and Guiding Purposes

This week, I’ve shared some Weight Room Wisdom, accumulated from my daily workouts with friends. Now, granted, most people in a gym are typically in just another version of Plato’s Cave, working on appearances. But in our group, we tackle serious realities as well. I have one more story I’d like to share, from this week’s workouts.

Between sets of bicep curls, I was talking to a friend, Tim, about his career. He’s a very successful entrepreneur, living in a beautiful gated community, and getting ready to relocate to St. Kitts for an exciting new adventure, in his early fifties. Right out of college, he worked for a big maker of scientific instruments. And he was a great success. But the more he sold, the more pressure he came under. The sales manager would congratulate him on his spectacular results and set a target for 30% more sales for the upcoming year, even when it became nearly impossible to attain without sacrificing everything else in his life to the altar of More.

At 28, Tim decided to start his own company, largely to give himself the freedom to spend more time with his young family. The first four years were hard, but then success came, and it came in abundance. There was more to do, more to think about, and as the business expanded, his time gradually shifted back into something like the grind he had left. The natural thing for an entrepreneur who has struggled and is finally making money is, of course, to take full advantage of that fair wind and set new goals that will generate even more money, avidly pursuing the opportunity  to “make hay while the sun shines,” as the old adage has it.

But Tim realized what was happening and did a values check. What are my life purposes? What do I care about most? What really matters to me above all else? It wasn’t just more and more money, attained as quickly as possible. It was a balance that was right for him, with plenty of time for family, as well as a flourishing business. So he made some adjustments, and didn’t stop being successful, but stopped being pulled from his prime values.

That’s too rare in our time. For many decades, motivational speakers have talked about the importance of having goals, almost as if it doesn’t matter what they are, as long as we have some. And we’re told to dream big, which is good. But the problem often becomes that people dream what their surrounding culture dreams, whether it’s right for them or not. They set goals based on their most immediate desires, rather than according to their deepest values and highest purposes. And when you do that, attaining your goals can actually make your life worse, rather than better. Tim realized this, and made sure that his values and purposes, his deepest beliefs, always guided him in business. He eventually sold that original company and started a new one in a different field, and had great success again. And he did so by keeping his guiding purpose in view.

It’s a good reminder for us all.

With that in mind, have a great, productive, purposeful day.