Credit: Jerry Bauer
It was my honor to interview Daniel Pink on my radio show. His publicist sent great information for the interview and I thought to break down what was sent into snippets here. Until the end of August at least I will publish motivational type of articles. Some will align with what Pink says about motivation and others will be informational in nature. Enjoy it and use carrots for dieting and health and you will be more motivated.
Where did the idea come from for this book?
It came mostly from questions I got in response to my last book, A Whole New Mind, which argued that right-brain abilities—creativity, empathy, and so on—are the ones that matter most. Many of the questions, particularly from readers in the business community, were along the lines of, “How do you find people like that; how do you manage them?” That got me thinking about interviews I had done with men and women who work for themselves. I had a sense that what motivated them was something different than traditional motivations. In the course of doing further research I encountered the work of a number of behavioral scientists who, over the past half-century, have studied human motivation. As I continued to dig deeper I realized their work had resulted in a treasure trove of research unknown to most people outside academia—and certainly to most people in the business world—that called into question a lot of the conventional wisdom about human motivation. What this research was essentially saying, especially to business people, was, “you’re doing it wrong!”
Why did you choose “Drive” as the book’s title?
Because that’s exactly what this book is about. It’s well understood that human beings have a biological drive that includes hunger, thirst, and sex. It’s part of being human. It’s also understood that we have another long-recognized drive: to respond to rewards and punishments in our environment. We seek out the former and try to avoid the latter. One of the key arguments of the book is that that’s not all there is to being human. Scientists have also discovered we have a third drive—what some call “intrinsic” motivation. It’s the drive to do something interesting, something that matters.
Part of Friday series on Motivation. Series one will be quick posts with Daniel Pink, followed by a series of other motivational articles.
What motivates YOU?
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Listen to the interview here > Conversation with Daniel Pink. You can download the show to iTunes by clicking the icon on the player.
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What is death? http://bit.ly/9K3JQr
[FTC disclosure: Daniel Pinks publisher sent me a copy of the book, Drive and the Q & A materials I am using here as posts]
