Hey good thread


My motivation is helping people to change their lives and improve it

There's a reason why some people do things, and the reason they tell other people.

Most people aren't motivated by the money. That's just the results of being successful.

A lot of people I talked to over the years can trace their start in this business back to wanting approval or proving someone else wrong.

Maybe they want to be successful so their parents / family / loved ones look at them with admiration and are happy with their accomplishments.

Or maybe they are trying to prove to someone that they aren't failures, that they will be successful and do more.

If you look at most successful entrepreneur's backstories, their motivation is rarely about the money, the real drive that keeps them moving forward is some deep seated emotion that they have to validate.

That's what my motivation was. I was seeking approval from my father who thought I wouldn't be able to be successful without going the traditional route.

I proved him wrong, and the greatest reward I've ever gotten out of being successful online was not the money, but my fathers approval of what I was doing...

On his death bed he said he was proud of me and what I had accomplished. He wasn't worried about my mother struggling after he was gone. I would be there to take care of her.

That was my personal motivation.

A mix of both. I'm motivated to be rich and make a lot of money but I want to be successful and know "I MADE IT". My real driving force is regret and is something that keeps me going everyday.

My motivation is my family..

I do everything to help them..

I really get a big sense of significance by creating things that help people

Also by people I care about seeing what I'm doing, gives me validation.

And the desire for growth and helping others feel accomplished.

My motivation is a mix of both But I think helping people is more important

Any poster above or below this that doesn't say the money is a liar.

I have never heard a totally broke homeless person referred to as a success in their business.

You CAN be a success AS A PERSON without money but in your business which makes no money?

Cut the Malarkey.

Definitely the money - Money motivates me to continue with what I'm doing; and

On the other hand, what inspires me are the things that my family and I can do with that money.

I am motivated by the money, the freedom, and loving what I do.

When people make significant money they always come up with other reasons, simply cause they are already used to the money.

I bet my life on it that everyone was initially motivated by the money.

I still remember being kind of on tilt when my business really started to boom, couldn't believe it was for real and jumped a hole in the air.

IM'ers that say they like to help others are in fact only helping their selves, the other person they help comes as a good second or third if he's lucky.

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For me personally... Financial freedom.

The ability to wake up every morning and to never worry about paying the bills, mortgage etc.

It's a MASSIVE stress reliever when you can remove money from things to stress about.

Also, I treat internet marketing as a game and the money I make as "points".

This way, I'm always trying to beat my current best score which makes its a lot more fun, as a result :-)

James Scholes

Work toward helping others and the money will follow

I'm inclined to say helping as many others as I can and knowing by doing this I will help myself along the way as well.

GOAL : Both Money and having Purpose beyond making that Money



- Robert Andrew

Awesome thread. Thanks

If you do what you love, then the money will naturally follow.

I have to be honest in saying that I am motivated by both. I like how I can tell people that I started from scratch, and that now, I earn enough to maintain a comfortable life and travel from time to time.

This has been my biggest motivation

From the Movie / Book; Fight Club

1. the money - and choosing my own work hours

2. the ability to ignore people who write on red backgrounds telling me what I SHOULD do..

The freedom but also the money because money brings the freedom

Here's a fun exercise:

After each answer about what motivates you, ask the question "Why?"

If you can answer the question, then the real motivation is something deeper than what you're acknowledging.

For instance: "I am motivated for the freedom that Internet business offers me."

So answer the question "why?" What is it about having freedom that is so important to you? Is it because you hate being told what to do and how to spend your time? Is it because you have other things you'd rather be doing? Is it because you are a creative person and can't stand to locked in a box with structure?

You see, if you can answer the "why" about something that motivates you, there is really a deeper motivating reason or factor than what you've stated.

I know I'm going to get Mike's bloodpressure boiling when I say that money is rarely the ultimate motivator. He has already called me a liar.

But why is money the motivator? Is it so you can get out of debt? or so you can feed and shelter your family? or so you don't have to live in a dumpy apartment? or so you can buy that Lambo you've dreamed of? or quit working 12 hours a day and retire on the beach? What will the money do for you? Why are you working so hard for it?

I believe your answers to "why" expose your real underlying motivations.

No Mike, I will not argue this point with you. I'm just giving my opinion and it's different than yours.

Steve

MOTIVATION?

For me is the ability of every enterpreneur to GIVE SOLUTION, to a problem.

People have a problem, you have the solution: so you give VALUE to fix that problem, and u overleverage it.

Thats the reward.

Money is a terrible motivator...

And people who say money motivates them need to do what Steve said above...

Money is just one of the by-products of being successful. If you believe money is what really motivates you... then there's probably a reason why you don't have any...

Dig deeper and find the real reason behind your motivation to succeed...

How are success in business and money mutually exclusive when the money is the measuring stick of business success?

Well, everyone has its own way of thinking. So It varies person to person how they get motivated.

People get motivated when they are satisfied. Some become happy on their achievements and some on getting money.

There are a lot of people in business, and an equal amount of reasons that people want to be successful in business. My personal equation is perhaps a little less complex then what most people would put out there as a reason, but I came up with it about 8 months ago in a goal-setting meeting with my manager at the time.

The expectation was that we would do 4-quadrant goal setting together, talking about what I wanted to achieve financially, career-wise, in terms of personal development etc. A major competitor had opened up down the street and our business was suffering - it was getting difficult to set goals when we understood that it would be harder than ever to hit our bonuses and get the money we wanted.

I told him: "My two goals in business are to be happy and to not suck", and that statement holds true to this very day. I want to go into work feeling like a valuable member of the team and feeling like I'm making a key contribution that's holding the business together. If I'm working towards that and getting no recognition at the end of it, the business could be growing 100% monthly and I'd still feel like a failure.

Money is important, but recognition and the feeling of a job well done are much more worthwhile objectives for me than just the money alone. It's important for me to feel like I'm doing good work and I'm valued by other members of my team.

You also have to be motivated for your product itself and for the process of bringing products to life. I know a lot of marketers who are making good money but they know little about their product and can not relate to it.
If you are a marketer, you may feel more connected with a marketing product than say, a cooking product, but if you are a kitchen fanatic you will love creating cookbooks and so your work will feel pleasant.

You know what I like better than motivation? Lamborghinis.

fear of the dreaded 9 to 5 keeps that fire lit for me..


-Ike Paz

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I am motivated by helping others grow their businesses. Money is nice too.

A little bit motivated by money and mostly the success that I picture for my own.

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You will find a lot of the top entrepreneurs do it for the thrill of succes, the money comes second.

Hey man, thats a great thread and a really interesting question.

For me its a great question because id imagine that most super driven people usually never try to understand the nature of their drive or why they continue to work towards their goals relentlessly.

This super driven state of mind that you'd see in super competitive people seems like a civilized expression of a primal instinct and when it goes bad it reminds me of the monkey trap where people would put a banana inside a glass jar.

A monkey would come along and then reach his or her hand into the jar to take the banana. With the banana in his hand, the monkey wold not be able to remove his hand from the jar and would keep hold of the banana, with his hand inside the jar until the hunter came and found him.

Anyway thats a bit of a tangent but I guess the point is that understading the forces that drive you and what they want is a massive key to successfully reaching your goals and not letting your drive and desires take you for a ride.

I think knowing from the outset what it is you want will help you to easily identify what you are willing to do to get whatever it is that you want, and more importantly whatever it is that you don't want.

It's like that line in the film "A Most Violent Year" (superb by the way). Where the protagonist is facing a crucial point in the future of his business and literally everything is falling down around him - his family recieve death threats form competitors, his employees get shot at, his clients are pulling out etc, the FBI are rooting around in his affairs but he keeps going towards his goal. His lawyer and confidant asks him at one point why he wants all this so badly, why he has to achieve his goals above all else and he just looks at him, thinks for a while and says "I don't understand what you mean"

Again, that's another tangent, two tangents in one post, I think ive outdone myself this time for sure. But theres a point at play here for sure - understand the beast within because that beast understands you. or something like that.

My motivation has always been about money, but not in the way you would think.
The twist on the story is that I derive my business power from knowing that I am
helping people to save money.

My main motivation is to do well enough to achieve financial freedom for the rest of my life and to generate a source of income that's more sustainable and less susceptible to be deteriorated by crumbling financial situation of the country. If I achieve all of that then I can say that I have done well for myself

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Double F's. No not cursing LOL.

Fun and freedom.

I do what I do online predominantly for fun, and predominantly to free myself. Both intents keep me doing stuff for the joy and expression of it, which has kept me on course.

When you focus on any outcome outside of yourself - money, accolades, etc - you lose your true Power. Because all outside, outcomes-based stuff is fleeing. While intents from within are with you, forever. And really, we're all after the feeling anyway, right? The freedom feeling in money, and joy of expressing yourself creatively.

Experience those feelings now and you can enjoy the journey more freely.

Ryan

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This is a great discussion because it's easy to speak in CLICHE's and say to work on my own, be successful, live the lifestyle of our dreams, etc.

But are we really saying everything we learned as a child did not add up to what was being told to us as an adult? Once we grow up and realize we live within a society where many people, like people withing big business, could careless whether we live or die, are successful, or what are dreams are, most of the time they just want to use you so they can live out there dreams and have the time to enjoy life.

So there is a sense of jealousy when we see people being able to live free. Is that our Dream growing up? For the most part it's get a job, have a family, do good, treat people right, etc. Then along the way we run into the wrong crowd, are lied to over and over again, we get into bad relationships, drugs come into play and we lose focus on what we want. We may come back into focus and now where motivated to be successful and we start blaming others for our downfall. Now where ready to create a lifestyle similar to people who have the big cars, boats, pretty girls and boys, and then we embark on the road to get there. But we are still putting down the 9-5ers as if they aren't Happy with the life that they have created for themselves or the goals of moving up the ladder, or having other endevour's on the side etc. Then you have your volunteers or NON-Profits who are working there dream, living a minimal lifestyle, and could not be more happy as well.

If you are unhappy with Life don't put down other people or corporations just because it's not they way you like. Sounds childish to me. If we all looked in the mirror I am sure we will find many imperfections that people and corporations could write and talk about in a negative way.

You make an interesting point. I think that motivation is the goal you want to achieve. Like buy a house or travel or buy an investment. But i guess that is kinds of a my over all motivation. But if we are going to be specif and ask what is my my every say motivation, the things that keep me going, then i would it would be the same as you.

Both financial success (money) and freedom motivate me. I appreciate freedom from corporate politics; freedom to choose what projects to work on versus being assigned to them by a boss; freedom to choose my own clients and fire them.

In an online business I also appreciate the fact that your salary increase is truly dependent on your performance. You are not limited to a 10% increase but you can actually exponentially grow your salary in a given year.

The thing is, It's not how much money you earn, but it's the ability to earn without going to work 9 - 5. Yes you still work to earn, but you have a heck lot more time to spare, that's why internet the life-style is the best job in the world!

I can see you're set in your own way of thinking so I'll leave it at that. Maybe one day you'll 'get it' and start making money.

When I was younger I was quite motivated by money... but after working a job that tied me down although great pay that motivation slowly changed from money to freedom -- I would rather freedom over money.

I'm not sure what happened exactly, probably just the realization that money is quite literally "paper", and all the value that "money" holds is the value that the people place in it.

I recognized this in a big way. I turned my focus from chasing money to instead placing all the value I could into my customers / clients. Basically, I put a lot of value into the people I come in contact with and in return I get value back (not necessarily expecting value back, but that's the nature of humans.)

When you stop chasing the money and instead focus on providing as much value as you can to your customers / clients the money will begin to chase you.

To answer your question, I'm more motivated by success than money, but success is very vague. Freedom for myself and then my close friends is what really motivates me.

Yea I'm sure people are lining up to do business with a website like that. Maybe that's why you can't 'get it'. You're living in la la land like all the other 'wise' old 10k post sages around here.

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my why is my family.

I do not want them to go through the same struggles I had as a child.

When you find your WHY out, then you will do what needs to be done. Plain and simple.

I build business to have financial freedom which enables me to have more time with family and also more time to enjoy book and movies

None of that.

Being able to help other people, that's my own motivation.

My goal has always been to design and build a website that will have the WOW factor when I hand it off to my clients, also, providing them transparent site support/recommendations on an on-going basis. I'm now closing web dev deals ranging from $10k-$30k+.

Virtuous Success is measured partly by money.

So Yeh Money.

J

Success and Money are the same.

If you have success in the market, it turns in money.

Otherwise how can u calculate your success?

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My motivation in business is really the desire i have for success and how much i want the people around me to literally lack a thing

That's actually a really great question and I have answered it for myself on a piece of paper a couple months ago.

The question on it was: Why do you want to have a successful online business? (Basically 'what motivates you')

And I basically wrote down a number of reasons why:

-Proving that it is possible to make money not the 'traditional' way
-Have the ability to work from home, whenever I want
-Not having to work in a 9-5 job
-Making money every day, consistently
-Change lives by teaching others how to become successful online and gain financial freedom
-Be able to buy nice things for me, my family and my significant other
-Not having to worry about expenses
-Go on vacations whenever I want to
-Being that person that succeeds, one of the 3% (97% actually fail at IM)
-Prove to myself that I CAN do it
-Having the freedom and time to spend it with people and things I actually love and enjoy

This is basically my motivation! Printed out and hanging on my wall. (I can recommend that to everyone)

Great question, thank you!

-Robert

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please pursue passion, success will follow you

I'm motivated by having my own freedom. But I'm mostly motivated by helping others achieve their freedom. The thought of waking up in the morning with the dread of not being able to pay the bills or believing that life is the 9-5 grind and being stuck in the rat-race is just normal.
Helping people break of this trap and mentality is what really motivates me

This is an interesting question, and I have very much enjoyed reading all responses, both genuine and vitriolic.
Obviously there is a money component for everybody. Even someone that denies being motivated by money is inherently, as it takes some kind of currency to get along in this world. That being said, attaining success, whatever that may be, certainly seems a more challenging and noble goal.
But the real question is, what defines success?
I think my favorite template for what might be considered a successful life is outlined in a speech delivered by the late, prolific writer David Foster Wallace, entitled, "This is Water."
The speech was originally delivered as a commencement address, but carries a prolific message that has far broader applications and far deeper advice to lend than a typical speech of that nature.
In it, Wallace describes the monotony and drudgery of daily life. He details a dreary and inconvenient trip to the grocery store, characterized by oppressive fluorescent lighting, and irritating horde of additional tired shoppers. His point though, is that seeing this experience in this particular way is totally a matter of choice. You can view the same lighting grateful not to be in the dark, and you can see the other shoppers as sympathetic peers. He asserts, essentially, that the lens through which one sees the world is really malleable, and one does have the capacity to control it. This, of course, requires tremendous discipline, and Wallace himself admits to falling short of ever being able to reach this ideal. The aspiration to be in that kind of control of your own life and thinking though, is a truly admirable pursuit, and one that could, he says, lead to contentment.
I was struck by this, I think, because it seems to apply so well to the work that we do. A lot of freelancing work requires the discipline to manage your own time, to complete jobs on budget and on schedule. If you don't have a good grasp on directing your mind to a task, then you will be, as Wallace says, totally hosed.
I have linked the speech below, and would be curious if anyone likes it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhhC_N6Bm_s

When I got into online marketing it was all about making money, I started making some good money and started a mentoring program to make some more money but later it became about creating as many successful students possible. This is what motivates me now.

For, my motivation comes from a BIG WHY. I wish to achieve financial freedom to at least spend more time with my family, my 2 young kids and my ageing paernts.

Secondly, the next big motivation has got to be helping more people learn a system that I have been using to be financially free. It certainly makes my day if I can help create more success stories in this world.

That's my take of what motivates me.

Tim

Personally for me its the success. Of-course, the money is important for survival. But nothing can beat successfully executing your vision and changing the way things work.

That's your truth. But that's not necessarily other people's truth.

I could go through the story of my life and point out 8-10 major crossroads where I chose freedom instead of money. That's my truth, and I'm sticking with it.

Marcia Yudkin

Motivates me to help others to put them on right path share my 8 years online experience in IM

Well, ofcourse, those who say money was never their motivation are lying (unless you are a philanthropist).
But I really do think that with success comes the money and with money comes the motivation to do more.
One of my core motivation is to lift up the lifestyle of those around me; my family, my relatives and even friends too. Every now and then, I give preach them how powerful IM is...but sigh - IM is not for everyone.

So, I am aiming to establish some brick and mortar businesses too..and probably hand it over to those I care.

Thanks
-J

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1. The money, first, when you don't have much. It really changes your life.

2. When basic needs and everyday stresses related to money are taken care of, and after avoiding the trap of consumerism/materialism/hedonic treadmill, a sense of purpose becomes the driving force for further success.

For me personally...I am motivated by PAIN.

Because it will cause me more pain to let my self fail than the effort I have to put in 'daily' in order to succeed.

Dear Bloss Mart.

While i am just starting up in my Internet marketing Endeavor, I believe the biggest motivation for me, is similar to yours. If i could only earn, $ 4000 to $ 6000 per month, via Internet Marketing, i would be able to do away with my Day job, spend lot of time with my Family (specially WITH MY SON), to do the things i love to do in life (video shooting hindi poetries, etc).

Good post. Loved your work.
Keep it up.
Manish Shah

dont kid yourselves,

money is why we do it..


money buys your time back

money also motivates us to provide value..

-Ike Paz

I am being motivated by traveling, therefore money indirectly. Guilty!

I am motivated by the success I get in work what I do, and of course if you get money for your success then it boosts your motivation in doing work with sincerity.

Thanks for everyone's comments - I found a cool list online of key motivators - I'd love to do a poll to rank them:

Use the list below to explore possible motivations and determine what has the biggest impact on you and your desire to succeed.

Money: Is wealth, paying off debts, or living luxuriously a motivator for you?
Society: Are you driven by the desire to solve a common problem or improve the lives of others?
Family: Are you building a legacy you can pass down to your children? Are you starting a business to support or honor your family in some way?
Expectations: Do you worry about fulfilling the needs of others or what others will think about you if you fail? What are your expectations for yourself?
Consequences: Are you afraid of what may happen if you don’t start a business and become successful?
Pride: Pride in yourself and your work can be a powerful motivator for many. Is it for you?
Passion: Does love for what you do give you the fight to be able to work through the challenges?
Credibility: Do you look at this business as a way to solidify your credibility or establish yourself as an expert?
Challenge: Do you thrive on the challenge? Do you purposefully take on initiatives that will stretch you and provide learning opportunities?

Since I don't have much savings yet, what motivates me is money. I am not wasteful with money, nor do I have expensive taste but I want the freedom to buy all the things I need and what my family needs. But within me there is also the desire to make full use of whatever innate talents I have to contribute some value to the world. Ultimately, I want my life to have meaning and not be somebody that just lived to work and just did enough to get by. Is it egoistic to think we have a bigger purpose in life?

My motivation is to improve mine and my family's standard of living,
then show others how to do the same...

So yes my motivation is "money"

Have a great day...

The freedom is a huge motivator. Fear is another - I no longer have that monthly guaranteed payslip. The fact I'm doing it for me though, that's the biggest motivator I think.

For me it was the journey, to struggle and finally get traction, that's the best to me, and the fact of not quitting even though I thought of it so many times.

My motivation is money and freedom. I want to get retire soon, so I need to try hard at this moment.

Money and freedom. Both are tied for the top reason.

Doing what I love is a bonus, but if I didn't get paid, writing would be my hobby.

Financial freedom is my motivation - Because when I can create the passive income flow that enough to help me to make a lot of money and live a life comfortable then I can do whatever I want (that's what people call it freedom), improve the living conditions of my family and do charity/ to help our social/country better!

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