Motivated for motivation

Good leaders are motivated and motivate those around them with words, work and ways.

Can followers be good motivators?

One must care to be motivated.

One must be committed to be motivated.

One must have hope to be motivated.

One must inspired to be motivated.

One must have a purpose to be motivated.

One must be determined to be motivated.

One must have courage to be motivated.

“Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.” – John F. Kennedy

I would add “one needs to be motivated, a call to action, for things to be happen”. It starts with the outer self and generally moves to the inner self. It's an ongoing grind.

Our first motivational speakers are parents, followed by elder brothers/sisters, then maybe entertainers and athletes, then teachers/professors/books/seminars. This generally stops at our bosses.

But are we motivated to receive approval from those we look up to or to avoid disapproval?

In this process, where is the self-motivation?

We generally do not self motivate, right?

Maybe it's a cultural issue. The world is composed of people who are initiative takers and the remaining are order takers (who may become initiative oriented). The former change the course of nations, rivers and lives, and the latter pay the entrance fee to view, experience or buy the “beauty or development”.

A prime example of motivation would be the stakeholders of Silicon Valley. Some are motivated by invention and innovation; some by the desire to address problems, fill gaps etc in healthcare, education, financial inclusion etc via technology; some by becoming the “youngest billionaire”.

The triple bottom line of motivation: mindset, mover and movement.

Motivation and vision

Motivated people see things, say, five minutes before the rest of us. They think and process, say, five minutes before us. Therefore they execute before the rest of us.

(Has the time frame been expedited in today’s social media traffic conversion movement? If so, is that a good thing, as knee-jerk reactions may be costly?)

Their senses are more acute than ours, and their observations are fused with gut instinct (and experience), wrapped in a “can co-do” attitude.

Can this be taught in classes or self-help seminars?

Can love be defined in a dictionary or taught in a seminar?

Motivation  and failure

“We may encounter many defeats, but we must be not be defeated.” – Maya Angelou

There are two types of defeat: battle (fight for another day) and war (surrender). But lose enough battles, you will wind up losing the war.

The DNA of those species that say “avoid risk, hence avoid failure” has been subject to laws of Darwin. We must continue to evolve to survive, and eventually thrive.

The implicit assumption of motivated people is they are risk takers, actually, calculated risk takers. They are resilient, ie have thick skin. They use “failure” as fuel to move forward as they are wiser in learning what did not work.

It is alleged that Thomas Edison said, “I successfully failed 10,000 times in the invention of the light bulb.”

I have stated elsewhere, “Failure is badge of honour in, say, Silicon Valley, but a badge of shame in all Muslim countries.” So, in doing the math, Muslims are a tribe of consumers over producers and buyers over suppliers. For example, 85%-90% of the halal food supply chain is owned/controlled by non-Muslims. Thus the Muslim stomach is fattening the wallets of Brazilians, Chinese, Aussies, Kiwis, etc.

Furthermore, one wonders if oil, from petroleum to palm oil, is more a hindrance than guidance in the Muslim world development towards knowledge-based economies. For example, look at the commodity resource challenged countries of Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong and their leaders, and compare their developments with the resourced endowed Muslim countries.

Failure is the fuel that motivates people to prove other people wrong or eventually prove themselves right.

Motivation and direction

To change a mind may be more difficult than changing the course of history, as history evolves and the mind is often frozen, similar to eating something cold and getting brain freeze.

We are generally set in our ways, influenced by culture, history or even language limitations. Man is a creature of habit, hence we need to change part of the habitat.

The formula to change behaviour starts with the child’s upbringing (beyond being a physician) and educational system (beyond memorising), reinforced by country leaders and budget allocations (beyond property development), and complimented and led by the private sector to offer a dynamic environment (supported by equity capital markets) with world-class pay (from salary to salary plus stock options).

The concept of “corruption, capital flight and brain drain” is often associated with many Muslim countries. Why? Islam specifically mentions being “just and right”.

The youth-led Arab Spring got it right as an opposition, but wrong in what to do (show blue-print) when in power. May be it’s an over-simplification, but what if it’s not, and the lesson has been learned for Autumn Fall 2.0?

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

Conclusion

Motivation is the vision blueprinted without fear and executed with focused direction.

Followers should realise they can motivate self and others as they have been motivated.

Therefore one can be motivated to be motivated.

How do you motivate yourself and those around you? – July 15, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.