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Motivation, Self-Confidence...Entrepreneurship & Sales

by Rick Baker
On May 16, 2013

Some people are convinced their motivation is not their responsibility. They rely on others for motivation and they blame others when motivation isn't happening. In their world, self-motivation does not exist. For people with this view, company enjoys misery. Like-minded, these people naturally congeal around the lowest-common denominator. Low or even zero motivation becomes the benchmark and hue and cry [for example, around the water cooler].

And, within the group, there can be a lot of crying and other forms of complaining.

These people tend to approach everything with a What's-In-It-For-Me? attitude. Or, they consider themselves victims.

At best, these people spread out the breeding ground for the mind-virus called mediocrity....a 'mob' mentality.

Each and every person who chooses not to join this 'mob' feels a personal responsibility for the task of self-motivation.

Often, these self-motivated people railroad over the people in the 'mob'…and, often, the 'mob' responds by providing the things desired by the dominant person in command.

Most of these not-in-the-'mob' people could not care less why the 'mob' refuse to self-motivate. Dominant people who are not in the 'mob' simply dominate and the people in the 'mob', to a large degree and with consistency, do what they are told or forced to do.

Some of these not-in-the-'mob' people think about how people in the 'mob' might be converted into self-motivators.

They wonder:

  • Perhaps, the answer lies in big sticks and loud screams? 
  • Perhaps, the answer lies in nurturing arms and soothing tones? 
  • Perhaps, there is no answer and we must accept that resistance is futile, a necessity under the human condition? 

[I think, yes, for certain people we must accept it.]

Needless to say, if you buy into anything I am saying, you will quickly understand why many business problems exist around self-motivation. For business-work the real problem is, the people in the ‘mob’ lack the self-motivation and the self-discipline to have the required level of work-drive to do well in the entrepreneurial or the sales environment.

The people in the 'mob' may be able to survive in different-than-entrepreneurial environments but even that is getting tougher and tougher to do under globalization [if that exists] or global commoditization [which I know exists]. Certainly, these days, a complete career in a blue chip organization is not anticipated to be a most-likely outcome for very many people, especially the people in the 'mob'. In fact, the people in the 'mob' have no job security.

A Key Point: Virtually 100% of the time, low self-motivation, low self-discipline, and low work-drive have a single root cause. That root cause is low self-confidence.

Entrepreneuring ain’t easy.

Sales ain’t easy.

And, the 'mob' attitude is business-weak. So, the people in the 'mob' really suffer in entrepreneurial and sales environments. They suffer because they accept this defeat or that defeat, without accepting this responsibility or that responsibility or learning this lesson or that lesson. The people in the 'mob' make this excuse or that excuse.

They choose to accept failure after failure while rejecting any we-can-win thinking.

The 'mob' recognizes some struggling happens prior to achievement. And the 'mob' understands winning requires directed effort.

Some struggling & directed effort…well, that's a whole bunch of work, isn't it?

Tags:

Attitude: Creating Positive Attitude | Entrepreneur Thinking | Sales

Comments (2) -

Adeel
6/3/2013 12:37:52 AM #

Great blogpost.

You are hitting on a lot of crucial points here.

The mob has a mind of it's own. Mobs can introduce dysfunction. Mob mentality can be hijacked. At the end of the day, the mob is a system.

The mob can be visualized as a blob. A giant, lethargic blob.

Provoke and prod it and it fights back. You cannot make it budge. And unless one is in that dominant position, someone else can rarely get the mob to do something that they'd want the mob to do. If the system has achieved some success, the mob has a higher propensities for throwing fits, engaging in activities that are not good for the system. "We've been doing it this way all this time. Why must be change!?".


However, as with all systems, the mob too has it's components. Understand the framework that drives the mob and it's mentality. The strategic pressure points. And then we have a better chance of working with or eliminating the "force-field" that give this blob it's properties.

This is the only way to get the mob to behave the way it should be behaving. Useful in situations where the mob might be acting in ways/heading down a road that might cause hurt to the mob itself.

However, one must be careful, because the mob fights back.
- Big sticks: Approach the mob with utmost care. And never in a manner that could be taken as confrontational: http://adeelkhan.ca/?p=1531

- Nurturing: (For the brave): Richard Tafel has a 5 step process for driving systems change - http://adeelkhan.ca/?p=1518

- Resistance is futile: Since, 'the mob' has a couple of things in common with a crowd of zombies. Hence, sometimes you just need to keep the mob entertained.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsRbDgCN2xc

Overall, the mob will exist, up until there is a shift in (higher) consciousness.

rick baker
6/16/2013 2:26:54 PM #

Thank you for your input, Adeel...very important thoughts about dealing with a common problem.

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