WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?

One of the important things to understand before an individual embarks into business is what is the person’s motivation. Motivation is very important in business because it is for the long haul. Not only that there are periods in business when situations would be quite stressful and challenging. Unlike in a job, when one could always walk away, in business, walking away from it means losses because it’s your own money. Most people think that being a business owner is a pretty easy job, i.e., big money, less menial work, etc. On the contrary, it’s the opposite. When the situation demands it, being a business owner requires you to take the lead and do it yourself. There is no day or night, no holidays even for those who venture into business. This is of course in addition to the constant worry in running a business like what should I do next? What the future holds and what should I do to negate the adverse effects on my business? Where am I going to get money to pay my supplier or employee? In business, the little stuff matters and could give you something to sweat about. Without some sort of vision, it would difficult for an individual to “stay”. For unlike in other fields when one could easily reap what it sowed, in business, the time for one to reap from what it sow could take quite a long time. So what are the motivations that individuals who started business usually have? Using the Maslow’s hierarchy of need, individual motivations could range from physiological and security need to self – actualization need. Typically, most start – up business owners are motivated by physiological and security need. These are what business thinkers called livelihood businesses. Livelihood businesses are as the name implies businesses whose main purpose is to earn an income to sustain a family whether fully or simply just to augment the main source of income. One could always hear these words from the business owners, “Thank God! I’ve managed to feed my family, clothe them, gave them a roof to live on and manage to send my kids to college and now they’ve finished and are working already. My task is done and I could rest now.” Physiological and security needs are a great motivator but they could only sustain up to when business owners have already satisfied his need. Livelihood businesses typically decline if not ends when the need that instigate it’s birth is met. However, livelihood businesses could evolve into an enduring business concern, the so – called “immortal businesses” when after a few years of operations, the owners manage to develop a “higher” thinking, i.e., a vision and intends and has passed that vision to the next generation. In livelihood businesses, most business owners are engage in businesses that have small capitalization, usually trading or service type businesses simply because investing in a capital – intensive business not only requires attention and years of insignificant personal incomes if not outright losses but the exit cost is also prohibitively expensive, i.e., the liquidation cost would just be a fraction of the original investment. Corollary to that, in livelihood businesses, the owners are usually hesitant in investing in the expansion of the business and reinvestments are always kept to a minimum since the reason is simply to earn an income. Another type of businesses are the so – called “lifestyle businesses” or the “self – actualization” businesses (By the way, the terms I used here are borrowed from an article written by my professor at BusinessWorld, which is in turn attributed to Peter Wooliams). This are the businesses wherein the owners are motivated by self – actualization. Marquee chefs who wanted to run their own show rather than cooking in a five star hotels, hot shot executives or professionals who felt that they could do better going alone instead of working for a boss or an artist who wanted flexibility to express themselves or celebrities leveraging their fame. These are some of the examples of a self – actualization businesses. A famous example of this kind of businesses is Steven Spielberg’s outfit, DreamWorks SKG. Wasn’t the name obvious? This type of businesses not only provides self – actualization to the owners but it is also intended to provide a means to support their existing lifestyle, hence, the name “lifestyle businesses”. Business owners in these businesses are quite aggressive by nature and businesses are expansive as a result but it is also short – lived by nature because it was never intended to be passed on to a successor. In fact, it could be somewhat impossible to pass on to a successor. Would people still patronize a famous chef operated restaurant when the said owner – chef is gone? People would probably think that nobody could replace the great xxxx and the business would never be the same again. Again, such businesses could also be transformed into an on – going concern or an immortal business provided that the intention for succession is present and that the “dreams” of the founder could be passed on. The last but not the least is the immortal businesses. These are the visionary businesses wherein the vision of the founder is passed on and carried over by the succeeding generations and in the process, is institutionalized in memory as something permanent. There is nothing patently wrong in choosing whether one would engage in a livelihood, lifestyle, or immortal businesses. What I’m stressing here is that individuals who wanted to start a business must “discover” his or her motivation and from there choose a venture that suits it’s needs and be able to sustain it until such time that either the individual close the business or pass it on to the next.

P.S. If you have some comment, I would like to hear it. Please don’t hesitate to post it except of course for blatant shameless advertisements. On the other hand, if you have a violent reaction to what I’ve written, never mind, keep it to yourself.