Money, Motivation, Success and Who?

Money, Motivation, Success and Who?



By Barry Maher





It was 7:30 on a Saturday morning, and I was setting

up to do the opening keynote for the conference. For some

reason--I have no idea why--the sound man thought his ten

year old daughter would enjoy my presentation. He'd brought

her with him to work.



Watching her father wiring this and plugging in that,

the girl was soon as bored as only a ten year old can be. Eventually, she sauntered over to me.



"So who are you?" she demanded.



"I'm Barry Maher."



Overwhelmingly unimpressed, she asked, "And who the

heck is Barry Maher?"



"I'm the speaker."



"Is that a big deal?"



I laughed. "Not apparently to you."



"Not if all you do is speak. Everyone speaks. Even

my little brother speaks, and he's an idiot." Sighing

dismissively, she spun and walked away, in search of

something--anything--more interesting.



"And who are you?" I don't want to get particularly

philosophical here, but obviously that's the most basic

question we all face.



So who are you? Aside from being CEO of Amalgamated

Amalgamates, that is. If your self worth is dependent upon

your work, I would suspect you might be heading for a fall,

sooner or--at the very least--later, when retirement comes.

There's more to you than what you do for a living. Or at

least there should be.



I'm not my job and neither are you. No matter how

successful or how unsuccessful we might be at those jobs.

We all know some big career successes who are very

unsuccessful people. And some who are very unhappy. None

of us should be surprised that there are some very

successful and very happy people--great friends, loving

spouses, wonderful role models for their children--who

have never cashed a big paycheck.



"His picture hangs on every wall," one self-

described peon said of the company's chairman of the board.

"His name is invoked in reverential tones. But aside from

making himself very rich, what does he really do for the

world? Besides making it safe for one more set of

unnecessary, environmentally devastating, energy wasting

products."



"He's helping to perpetuate a lot of jobs," I

answered. "Yours included."



"He is. But judging by the happiness the people

around here seem to be getting from those jobs, they may

not be eulogizing him at his funeral for that."



Tip: If you're not impressed by your own career

thus far, you might still be better off than you would be

if you were successful by the standard definition of

success. Especially if that's not really your definition.



A friend of mine once said of his business partner,

"He's given up his life in the single-minded pursuit of

wealth. And now, wealth is all he has. So he obsesses about

losing it. Since he never had a life, he has no idea of

what to do with his money, even if he had time to enjoy it,

which he doesn't because he's so accustomed to the treadmill

he can't even imagine getting off. Of course, the beautiful

thing about the pursuit of money is that you've never got

enough. So he keeps on chasing it, simply because he as no

idea of what else to do with his life."



I like money is much as anyone, more than many. And

a big title impresses. (It especially impresses small minds,

those we're least interested in impressing). But we should

never forget, this is business: quid pro quo. We always

have to measure the value of what we're getting against

the value of what we're giving up.



Who are you? And who do you really want to be?





© Copyright 2005, Barry Maher, Barry Maher & Associates,

Las Vegas, Nevada



Barry Maher is a great motivational speaker and an expert

communications, leadership management & sales trainer.

His books include "Filling the Glass," "No Lie; Truth Is the

Ultimate Sales Tool" and the cult classic fantasy novel,

Legend. Sign up for his email newsletter at

_www.barrymaher.com_ (http://www.barrymaher.com) .