Former Stanford Business School Professor, Jim Collins, wrote the best-selling Good to Great, an analysis of the secrets behind the greatest companies and the leaders who helped them get that way. As he says in this recording on his website:
“One of the things we learned in Good to Great is that spending time trying to motivate people is a complete waste of time. Spending time trying to manage people is a complete waste of time. What you want to do is find people who are self-motivated. You want to create a climate in which you don’t do stupid things to demotivate already self-motivated people.”
Not all students who perform well in school are self-motivated. If everything you’re doing in high school is predicated on winning an admission to a prestigious college, your work ethic is admirable, but your motivation is dependent on outside sources. You don’t ultimately get to control whether or not a college says yes. And if one of those schools does accept you, where’s their guarantee that you’ll keep being that same engaged, hard-working student once you get your admissions prize?
Self-motivated employees don’t work hard just to impress their bosses, and self-motivated students don’t work hard just to impress prestigious colleges (even if they aspire to attend one). They do those things because they can’t imagine being any other way. Learning, working hard, and producing results they can be proud of is part of their make-up. They can’t shut it off. The right job—or college—just helps them put those traits to even better use.
Don’t wait for someone or something to motivate you. It’s called “self-motivated” for a reason.