Are you setting your own limits?
Now I’ve really gone around the bend. After a year and a half of blogging I am going to explain where we have been and where we are going—and what it means to you—in the space of one article.
Human potential has a three part history. Most of human history took place in phase 1, where your potential was fixed at birth and nothing you could do would change that. For the last five hundred years or so, we have been in phase 2, which has been an ongoing struggle for the liberation of human potential. We are now poised on the verge of Phase 3, where personal potential is potentially unlimited.
Phase 1: In which everyone knew their place
In the beginning and long after, the world “potential” would have been meaningless because people knew their place in the world. They all lived in a Great Chain of Being, with God at the top, down through the angels to kings to nobles, to commoners, to peasants, and down to slaves. You looked up to others or down on others according to your natural place in the world, and the circumstances of your birth determined the arc of your life. It was not an easy or comfortable world to live in by any means, but at least you had the comfort of knowing you were part of a plan and didn’t have much choice in the matter.
Phase 2: The great struggle
In the second phase, beginning about 500 years ago, the Great Chain of Being began to unravel. We figured out that the universe does not revolve around the earth, books became more widely available, religious dissension opened the door to questioning sacred beliefs, and a few smart people began using scientific methods of thinking to form their own opinions and explanations. But despite astounding leaps in human knowledge the standard of living remained stagnant, and Malthus proved mathematically that things would never get better, because as even as output grew, population would always expand faster than production.
And yet, the seeds were planted for the idea that maybe there was a way out. 1776 was a miraculous year, as Jefferson told us all men are created equal, Adam Smith explained how free markets create abundance, and James Watt finally got his improved steam engine working in commercial enterprises. Freed from dependence on animal power, the standard of living began to take off. Not everyone was better off, because people had to leave the glorious countryside to work in dark satanic mills, and slaves had to grow and pick the cotton that fed those mills. Yet, people began to eat better and live better, got better educated, and realized that their own efforts and abilities could take them to heights their ancestors could not even dream about. This second phase seemed to promise that no one had to accept any limits placed on them by the circumstances of their birth.
Unfortunately, science can be used to shackle as well as to liberate. No sooner did Darwin publish his theories than his cousin Francis Galton used science (or at least something resembling it) to claim that intelligence is hereditary and to propose social engineering based on eugenics to improve its well-being. Intelligence tests were introduced in the early 20th century and some leading early proponents advocated using them to allocate peoples’ places in society. Eminent scientists such as Charles Spearman told us we could no more improve our given intelligence than we could train to be taller. A version of the GCB still existed, this time with a scientific veneer.
But not all scientists believed this. Alfred Binet, who invented IQ testing, said, “A few modern philosophers…assert that an individual’s intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest against this brutal pessimism.”
Many unscientific voices also chimed in. The proponents of a positive mental attitude told us there are no limits on what we can achieve. They infused a can-do attitude and inspired millions to great efforts and unexpected accomplishments. Simple belief can work wonders: Carol Dweck, among others, showed that just believing that you can accomplish far more than you are currently able to accomplish, as long as you work hard, keep learning, and persist in the face of failure, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s called a growth mindset.
The only problem is that not everyone has that belief; according to Dweck, approximately half of us still have a fixed mindset—we believe fundamental abilities like intelligence are inherited and unchangeable. We limit ourselves and others.
Phase 3: From belief to certainty
We are now entering the third phase of our history where we don’t have to take it on faith anymore. A tremendous amount of scientific evidence has been gathered to show that many of the qualities we consider to be innate and genetically determined are substantially within our control. Studies of identical twins raised apart show that environment can cause a swing in IQ between 12 to 18 points, which could be the difference between a career as a professional or a more modest position. MRIs have demonstrated that acquiring large amounts of knowledge and skill can physically affect the size of various structures in our brains. Anders Ericsson has showed us how “natural genius” can be produced with lots and lots of deliberate practice. (I could go on and on, but I would exceed my limit.)
Speaking of limits, the evidence shows that most are self-inflicted. There is no need to accept natural limits, and certainly no excuse at all for anyone in a position to influence impressionable young minds, to allow this pernicious belief to take root in their minds.
If we can give everyone a growth mindset, we will liberate and energize the energies of half of mankind, and imagine what that will mean to our future. Imagine what it could mean to your future.
When five o’clock rolled around after work one day last week, I was not motivated at all to do my evening workout. After a full day of proofreading and editing my new book, I was motivated to crack open a Heineken and relax.
Yet, despite my lack of motivation I still ended up doing a hard and productive workout, because even though I was not motivated, I was determined.
And that got me thinking, why do we always spend so much time focusing on motivation, when the real work gets done by determination? Why do so many of us listen to motivational speakers but don’t seek out those who tell us how to improve our determination?
I read a lot of biographies, and the thought struck me that when you read about the accomplishments of great men and women, the word motivation almost never appears. So I put it to the test, using the trusty Google Ngram viewer, which tracks the frequency of words in English language books, and this is what I found:
The word determination traces back to 1374, but in the meaning I’m using it here, as the quality of being resolute, it dates to 1822. Looking a little further, I traced the word motivation to 1873, and its use in the psychological literature to 1904, meaning “inner or social stimulus to action.”
And that’s the key word, stimulus. A stimulus will get you moving, but when things get tough you need a lot more than stimulus. Motivation gets you to the starting line, but determination gets you to the finish line.
Motivation is a state, determination is a trait. Motivation is about preferences, which can change at any time; determination is about character, which is a part of who you are.
Maybe that’s why the word determination started losing favor around 1960. Using the word implies a value judgment, and the sixties roughly coincided with the rise of political correctness in which words like character became embarrassing and judgmental. I don’t know for sure, but I’ll bet 1960 is roughly about the time that kids’ sports leagues started giving out prizes to everyone—not just the winners. They did that to keep kids motivated, which is an admirable goal.
But if no one ever loses, how do they develop the character that keeps them going when things get tough? How do they learn to hate losing and quitting so much that they stubbornly refuse to let it happen?
We need determination because we’re all pretty bad at predicting how we’re going to feel about a situation before we’re in it. For example, smokers underestimate the cravings they will feel when they’re trying to quit. We know we will be tired in the last lap of the race, but the reality feels worse than we imagined. Determination keeps us on course even when reality is worse than anticipated, and it often is.
So much of achievement depends on the patient and consistent application of the right process and method to achieve a long term goal. The goal motivates, but sometimes when the pain, fatigue and boredom speak louder than the eventual payoff, it’s easy to cut corners. That’s when you need determination—the unwillingness to quit and the firm resolution to keep going. Determination in some ways is a negative word: not quitting is more important than keeping going.
Motivation without determination is fragile and fleeting—compare the attendance at any gym in America in early January and early February to see how far motivation alone will take you. Motivation prompted Roger Bannister to dare the four minute mile; determination kept him doing the laps and the intervals even while pursuing his medical degree full-time.
Motivation with determination scales mountains, breaks the four-minute mile, paints the Sistine Chapel.
- Motivation contemplates the future; determination focuses on the here and now.
- Motivation is fragile and flighty; determination is strong and steady.
- Motivation is Red Bull; determination is red meat.
- To paraphrase Mike Tyson, “Everyone is motivated until they get punched in the face.”
- Motivation soars in the clouds; determination slogs grimly through the mud.
Determination is not a guarantee: on Everest, Mallory and Hillary both had it. But it’s that lack of guarantee which makes it so much more meaningful and so much more noble.
By the way, that Heineken I wanted? It made for a great recovery drink after my workout.
Your next sales star?
I just read an article about a fascinating Silicon Valley company called Palantir, which is in the business of mining huge data sets, primarily for national security clients. If you recall the 9/11 Commission Report, which found that many of the clues about the terrorist plot were missed because of a failure to “connect the dots”, Palantir designs the systems to connect the dots, and apparently they are very good at it. As the article relates, a Special Forces member stationed in Afghanistan said “It’s like plugging into the Matrix. The first time I saw it, I was like, ‘Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap.’”
There are a number of interesting practices the company follows, but the one I want to focus on is their approach to selling. They don’t use traditional salespeople. Instead, they have what they call forward deployed engineers, “the sometimes awkward computer scientists most companies will avoid putting in front of customers.”
I’ve been in the training and consulting business for twenty years, but in many ways the past year has been the most exciting and gratifying time of my career, because of a huge lesson I’ve learned about friends, colleagues, and even competitors.
When I began my sales training career, I was unknowingly infected with a terrible attitude. The founder of the company I worked for was extremely protective of his intellectual property and egotistical enough to believe that his way was not only the best way but the only way. Competitors were enemies and there was nothing to learn from industry peers. And of course, you never gave anything away—no one but paying customers would ever get a chance to see your materials.
Even though I left the company 15 years ago, I carried that attitude lodged in my bones and have only recently taken the steps to cure myself. I’m happy to say the attitude is in remission and hopefully gone for good.
Two steps I took put me on the road to a cure. First, I began blogging and second, I reconnected with Dave Brock, a colleague from the early years.
Blogging taught me that exposing my ideas to a wider audience only helps make them better. It taught me that giving value to others (and I hope I have) is reward enough in itself, but also plants the seeds for future rewards if you’re patient.
When I reconnected with Dave, he was incredibly generous in offering his time and advice, and most importantly his connections. I at first thought it was strange that the people he seemed most connected with could be considered competitors to him and to me, but I quickly learned that his openness and generosity were not unique in the community of sales experts that he introduced me to. I’ve received advice from many of them, served on a few panels with others, and have had some graciously agree to review my new book.
Probably the most important lesson I’ve learned from hopping out of my tiny pond into the big ocean is that in fields such as sales, persuasion and communications, there really is no such thing as “intellectual property”; we’re all just stewards of the knowledge we gather and the best we can do is refine it, maybe add a little to it, and most importantly, pass it on.
From them, I have received three gifts for which I am very grateful this Thanksgiving week:
- I’ve learned more about myself and my profession. I’ve learned that my ideas and expertise are solid, but that there is always more to learn and different and—yes—better ways of saying and doing things.
- It has made me more useful to my own clients, because now I have a vast pool of resources to draw on to refer to them when it’s outside of my sweet spot.
- It has been a lot of fun dealing with driven people who love and respect knowledge and are fascinating to interact with.
I would like to thank some them here below, which is always risky because of the chance I might leave off someone. If I have left off an important name, it’s a memory problem, not ingratitude.
Dave Brock, of course. John Spence–Grasshopper, the pebble you snatched has become a boulder. John Jantsch, whose book, the Referral Engine was the catalyst that stopped my procrastination. Clients Alex T., for your support—it didn’t work out this year but, as the Dolphins say, there’s always next year…Bill D. for all your help—I’ll raise one of my greenies to you this Thursday. Thanks also to those who agreed to read my book and give me their honest opinions: Jill Konrath, Charlie Greene, Andy Rudin, Anthony Iannarino, Jim Keenan, Andy Blackstone, Chip Bell, Spencer Penhart, Dan Waldschmidt, Paul McCord, Mike Weinberg, Dave Stein, Reg Nordman.
Happy Thanksgiving!
