Own your business vision and get s*** DONE!

Ok. You are going to read this article and think I have lured you in under false pretences with the title. And I had originally written that title for effect to get you to read this. But then as I finished the article and reread it after, I actually realised it actually does teach you all you need to know about motivation. It’s just that it won’t have been what you were expecting!

I have been getting quite a few invites for speaking engagements lately, and occasionally in the line-up, I have been described as a motivational speaker. It made me think and look at myself as to how I actually want to be described – and a motivational speaker is certainly something I’ve never considered myself to be. And as I’ve thought more about motivation it made me realise why I didn’t want to be described as a motivational speaker!

I am a businessman. I can talk about my ideas, and I can talk about my experiences. But can I motivate the people listening to me? I don’t believe so because after 20 years in business and nearly 14 years as a parent, I have come to realise the real truth about motivation – there is only 1 type of motivation. SELF MOTIVATION!

Yes, self-motivation really is the only type of motivation. I say this from experience as I’ve finally realised that you just can’t motivate people! You can mentor them. You can bring out the best in them. You can coach them. But you just can’t motivate them. They have to do that for themselves! You can’t change people. I have found that out the hard way! They have to change themselves.

Last year I put a sales team together and said to myself ‘I’m going to train and motivate these people to be able to earn over £100k a year if it’s the last thing I do’. And guess what? It nearly was! I would show them how easy it was to make the money if they just followed the simple system and put in the effort. But I couldn’t have motivated them to actually do it if my life had depended on it!

So what have I learnt?

Good people are FOUND not changed. If you want good people then you need to find them.

And if you want MOTIVATED people then you have to find them.

And that, my friends, is the best answer I can give you!

Motivation is a mystery!

Why are some motivated and some not?

Why are some sales guys still emailing their prospects at 10pm at night while others treat the 5.30pm chime of the clock like a fire alarm?

Why do some people listen to a speech I give and walk out hungry to implement whilst others walk out yawning saying they have heard it all before?

Why do 100 people ask me to recommend the best books I’ve read about making money and achieving more, and 99 of these people will never read these books?!

I don’t know. But after 20 years in business I’ve decided the most productive answer is to chalk it down to one of life’s little mysteries and not try and fight it.

My job as a manager is to do a better job of finding motivated people. Because I have sure as shit learnt I can’t change them if they aren’t motivated.

That is just the mystery of life!

So if you’re recruiting, then you must go and find people who are already motivated – already hungry for what you are going to feed them.

And if you are looking to be recruited then you need to be self-motivated. Don’t be sat on the couch waiting for that person to come along and switch you on – because you will probably find they’ll never appear!

I like to surround myself with people who are motivated, hungry, enthusiastic and eager – and together we can make money…and great content too! You’ll see dozens of examples of this on my YouTube channel. I love meeting and picking the brains of as wide a range of people as possible – celebrities, business leaders, psychologists, young entrepreneurs and even an inspiring guy who’s founded his own religion. All of these people have one thing in common – they are super motivated and this has played a key role in their success. Surely that tells you all you need to know about motivation too!