Are You a Front-Runner, a Reluctant Runner or an Also-Ran?

Having spent my entire life in sales, I find myself wondering why everyone makes such a big deal of motivation. I’ve always enjoyed working – some good days, some bad days, I just figured that was the norm.

Sure, I got upset once in a while when things didn’t go as planned, but things rarely go as planned. Most of the time I was just happy to have a job that put me in a position where I could help somebody and get paid for it. I got to meet a lot of nice people, made a few friends, learned a little bit about how a variety of products are made, how the products were packaged and sold and how different companies dealt with their production and people problems. After studying motivation and trying to become motivated for some 40 years, I learned all about motivation while casually reading an article about a local football team. In an interview the football coach, Dick Vermeil, told about a decision he made to cut one of the top draft picks. The player had all the credentials: top ground gainer in his conference, fewest fumbles of any running back in the country, under four seconds in the 40-yard dash, he had it all. Why did the coach cut him? “He only runs when he wants to run. I want him to run all the time and not just when he feels like running,” said Coach Vermeil. He went on, “I am not a motivator. I just surround myself with people who want what I want.”

With that sentence, Vermeil said it all. We cannot motivate anyone to do anything unless he or she possesses the gifts necessary to complete the task. We should stop kidding ourselves that we or someone have some magical power to instill in others the ardor, spirit or whatever you call it to push them over the top. Every human who occupies this planet has been blessed with one or more gifts. The fact that I can’t and never have been able to run a hundred yards in less than ten seconds does not diminish me. I can neither throw nor take a knockout punch but that hasn’t threatened my position among my peers. When I visit an art gallery, I don’t come away feeling inferior. I am special. I possess my own gifts.

We err when we try to change people by trying to get them to do what we did to become successful in a program they are not suited for in either interest or desire. It’s like hiring Mike Schmidt to teach your baseball players to hit home runs. If hitting home runs could be taught, every player in the game would be hitting a hundred a year. The only tools needed to write a great novel are a pencil and a paper.

If that were all there was to it, everyone would be writing like Milton. Then why can’t we duplicate the feats of Mike Schmidt or Milton? Simply because we were not born with those gifts.

Why don’t we stop trying to get people to excel at tasks for which they have no basic talent and, instead, spend our time and efforts locating the people whose inclinations fit them for the assignments? Let’s spend more time clearing away the hurdles in the path of the front runners and less time preaching to them. How do we find the people who want what we want? Ask them! Listen to what they say. Watch the way they act. Observe their success ratio. If they are not putting points on the board, they are not scorers. You won’t make them scorers. Put them in roles that are right for them. They will be more productive and happy and so will you.

Perhaps we should give greater credit for finding the right people and take less credit for turning them into superstars.