Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Well Craig, while people`s personal senses of reality certainly won`t change what the truth is, they will certainly act in different ways depending on those perspective`s. That is their motivation for doing what they do.

 I think it`s possible that years ago, people were more willing to adjust their perspectives as the truth became clearer rather than to defend those positions by calling the messenger a liar as is done so often today.

Rich

Rich, you`re making two really excellent points, I think. The first being that perception of reality is a basic consideration in motivation, the second being that reasoned argument about reality (and truth) can modify someone`s motives.

One problem we face today is that millions of people have been taught that "semantics" is a bad word. Any discussion on how someone phrases something, the meaning of the words they use, and their organization of language is just dismissed. "Oh, that`s just semantics---not really part of the discussion."

Unfortunately, we are the words we use. (I say unfortunately, but that`s for people who don`t understand language.) That sense of reality is entirely understandable through words. Without words we would truly live like the animals, one moment to the next without any coherant motivation.

Is a dog "motivated?" If you offer a reward system to train the dog to do a trick, is the reward a motivation? Or is it an incentive, and is there a difference?

Why does it seem that previous generations were willing to adjust their perspective of reality and truth? Modern schools emphasis throughout undergraduate classes that students are wonderful just the way they are. With no outside standards, criticism, evaluation, or judgement, nor any sort of reward or punishment, why would anyone want to change their perspective?

Can changing a perspective on reality strongly affect someone`s motivation to start a business, persist and continue with a business, write a business plan, or overcome obstacles?

Craig, doesn`t a dog react to instinct and experience? I think the difference between a human and a dog in this regard is the lack of deduction capapbilities in the dog. A theif sees you get out of your car and enter a movie theater and deduces that he has more time to steal your car than if you went into a convenience store.

Lack of standards; Many a past civilization has fallen under it`s own weight once the citizens started to believe they deserved all the good things in life and no longer needed to challenge themselves to live up to a set of standards. That`s dangerous territory!

How about, will those who are raised with no standards be able to endure the hardships of going it alone in a business of their own?

Rich

There`s another related fascination of mine, defining the difference between intelligence and cunning. For example, a dog does have instincts for certain things. However, watch any dog with its favorite toy and you`ll see that it`s calculating advantage where it comes to keeping the toy away from you. That`s not instinctive, excepting that it`s making a conversion from a fresh kill and you being a predator.

Would we say that the fight/flight response is a motivation or an instinctive response?

The bottom line is that today`s school systems are teaching children that they don`t require any motivation for anything. It`s been happening for at least three decades, and those who graduated back then are now in their 40s and 50s, in positions of authority.

To believe that people will automatically be motivated to exert difficult effort is, I think, completely ridiculous. Yet that`s apparently what we`re all allowing the schools to teach our kids. How come we`re not motivated to do something about it?

Lots of places use real motivation. I`m thinking of the "back story" in plays, books, movies, and other dramatic presentations. There`s also motivational analysis in sales.

The problem, as I see it, is that people are starting to "assume" that motivation not only exists, which of course it does, but that it requires no articulation. Nobody needs to create a motivation for young people, it "just happens." Nor does it seem anyone believes anymore that a negative incentive---disincentive---is a motivation as surely as a reward or incentive.

There`s an interesting thing about failure. If you remove all goals and rewards, remove all special mention and honors, then NOBODY can fail, ever! And isn`t that what a lot of New Age blather is all about, that everybody is just perfect the way they are?

We had a huge thread about the lack of failure in many people`s lives. They simply wipe it away with the stroke of denial. If they don`t feel they`re failing, then they`re not motivated to do anything about a problem.

Yes it surely can, and moreover, holding to a particular perspective is a decision one makes or not. I know this because every day I have to make the choice to ignore my family`s perspective — that I am stupid and doomed to failure because business is for people who are somehow special — and choose my own perspective instead. It requires a fair amount of effort, but I am assuming that eventually my own chosen perspective on this matter will become the default.

For a different perspective on perspectives, check out Despair, Inc.`s demotivational posters: http://despair.com/lithographs.html

"Change: When the winds of change blow hard enough, the most trivial of things can turn into deadly projectiles"

"Failure: When your best just isn`t good enough"

"Incompetence: When you earnestly believe you can compensate for a lack of skill by doubling your efforts, there`s no end to what you can`t do."

—paula

LOL! I`ve seen those anti-motivational things and they`re great! :-D