Fame, Fortune, Convenience, and Validation: Examining Your Motives
“‘Raison d'être’? Forget that and just show me the money!” ― Anonymous comment shouted aloud at a professional networking event
Deep inside your soul, there is an inner yearning that is waiting to answer a call. That yearning is the part of you that moves only when the right words and motivation are presented to you, the kind that motivates you to not just head towards your life goal, but to sprint towards it as long as it takes.
Everyone has a different yearning and an equally different call, and none are any better or worse than the other, yet both have their own inherent strengths and weaknesses. By recognizing your motives, their inherent strengths and weaknesses, you can better understand your role as a professional social entrepreneur or in the field of nonprofit organization.
1. Fame: Some people want attention for the kind of work they do, and while it’s usually assumed to be for personal recognition, fame is also a great tool to highlight issues and causes we care about. The challenge for people whose motivation is fame then is if they want fame for personal recognition first, or if they want that personal recognition to lead into the causes that they care about. It is the difference between Amber Heard and her claims for advocacy in Syria that she never talked about afterwards, or Greta Thurnberg, who does not care for her own personal image and instead wants governments and people of the world to simply listen to one of many disaffected youth in her generation for the issues of climate change that she cares about. The difference here is that Amber Heard never did more than a cursory advocacy for Syria, before it was quickly forgotten, whereas Greta Thurnberg has inspired people to continue talking about climate change. Fame is not bad, so long as you recognize which kind of fame you want and which one would help people in the humanitarian fields.
2. Validation: Similar to fame, people don’t necessarily need widespread recognition, or even external approval from others, what they need is an assurance that their decisions, actions, and beliefs are not wrong. Often, these are people who didn’t have support from friends or family, and need to pursue something that proves them right. The great thing about people seeking validation is that they are able to throw themselves into their causes and relevant organizations with such conviction that it can inspire others, while a possible weakness is that they may need extra support and encouragement so that they don’t falter.
3. Fortune: Believe it or not, there are people who jump into the nonprofit and social enterprise worlds for wealth, often because in larger organizations, higher level positions can live comfortably while having less worries about taxes. For smaller grassroots groups, it is not impossible to attain a comfortable income, but more commonly, people seldom expect to be able to afford an Audi while living off of a nonprofit salary. The inherent strength of people who are finance-focused is surprisingly not for accounting or budgeting, but for recognizing leaks in your organization, since not everyone can or will live purely on passion and idealism. They are reality checks for if you can have a sufficiently motivated and compensated team to do nothing less than excellent work.
4. Convenience: Some people take a position in a nonprofit or social enterprise not because they’re idealists, but because it's a job that accepts them. Most of the time, we will seek people for their personality and interpersonal skills, because professional skills can be taught, but people skills are often difficult to impart unless someone is both open to feedback and interested in improving, which is often difficult. When a position needs to be filled quickly, sometimes it is a difficult decision to take someone who is not passionate or doesn’t seem like they will grow to have the same passion and love for an organization and its mission, but certain duties need to be fulfilled on a day-to-day basis, especially for both tech and finance. Like people interested in fortune, this category of motivation is excellent for seeing how an outsider feels not just about the work culture, management, and environment and its weaknesses or strengths, but if the mission statement can inspire just as easily. This is a reality check for organizations who need stronger mission statements and causes so that it doesn’t remain niche, but is relatable to anyone who can go from having zero understanding to being quickly informed and resultantly interested in making it a universal issue for everyone and anyone to advocate, such as helping improve conditions for animal shelters.
When you can identify some of these motivations for people working with you or your own motivations, you can find the right fit for your organization, for yourself, or for the individuals you work with and improve.
