Adonis - Motivation Hoax: a Smart Persons Guide to Inspirational Nonsense

Published by Nero,

an imprint of Schwartz Publishing Pty Ltd

Level 1, 221 Drummond Street

Carlton VIC 3053, Australia

www.nerobooks.com

Copyright James Adonis 2018

James Adonis asserts his right to be known as the author of this work.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior consent of the publishers.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

Adonis, James, author.

The motivation hoax: a smart persons guide to inspirational nonsense / James Adonis.

9781760640163 (paperback)

9781743820131 (ebook)

Employee motivation.

Communication in management.

Management Simulation methods.

Personnel management Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Cover design by Peter Long

Text design and typesetting by Marilyn de Castro

For my beloved Raz, a spectacular human being who probably disagrees with most of this book, but who I nonetheless cherish and adore.

INTRODUCTION

T his is not an anti-motivation book. Some of the people Im most in awe of are motivational writers and thinkers people such as Edward Deci, William Kahn and Carol Dweck, who developed theories about self-determination, personal engagement and the growth mindset, respectively.

Nor is this an anti-quotation book. Some quotes are quite profound. I always get a kick out of the famous words of Christopher Columbus (You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore), William Ward (Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it) and the immortal W.C. Fields (If at first you dont succeed, try, try again. Then give up. Theres no use in being a damn fool about it).

Simply, this is an anti-motivational-BS book. I wrote it to counter the pervasive non-wisdom of absolutist quotations and sayings that are either fundamentally untrue or full of holes.

Its important to note, though, that the critical and perhaps even cynical approach of this book is not an attack on those whose words it discusses. The individuals I write about are invariably more successful and brilliant than me. My arguments are strictly only with particular one-off statements they made statements that have been adopted by the motivationally privileged in ways that generalise, oversimplify or mislead, however unintentionally.

In fact I, too, am guilty of doing exactly that in the past. Ive included some of these quotes (and others) in articles and books and speeches and workshops. I, too, have shared the social media posts and put up the posters and changed my laptops wallpaper. Sometimes Ive diligently followed the advice, and Ive ignored it just as often. Ive done all that and more, neglecting the whole time my suspicion that something about these quotations wasnt quite right. And thats because many were actually quite wrong.

That, really, is what this book is about. Its not a sanctimonious self-help guide. Its not a patronising treatise on how you can live a better life. Its just an attempt to correct the incorrect, no matter how warmly and universally it has been embraced.

THE INDISPUTABLE ROLE OF LUCK

P lease dont believe Ralph Waldo Emerson that shallow men believe in luck; strong men believe in cause and effect. Youre not shallow at all for believing the inalienable truth that luck is at the core of a lot of cause and a lot of effect. And dont be disheartened by Thomas Jefferson when you stumble across his quip: Im a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. Or Samuel Goldwyns: The harder I work, the luckier I get. You can work as hard as you can and still be stuck on a treadmill, or you can be lucky and be lifted off it by a saviour of some sort. And please ignore Serena Williams when you hear her attributing her success to matters other than luck (luck has nothing to do with it). Luck has an enormous amount to do with it the body she was born with, the country she was raised in, the events that shaped her life, the people she met along with many more factors that no amount of practice and sweat could make up for.

Speaking of sweat, when you see a meme that glorifies Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds, for stating that luck is a dividend of sweat; the more you sweat, the luckier you get, always remember there are millions of people in this world millions and millions who have immense wealth, stellar careers and thriving businesses without sweating at all. Why? Because theyre lucky. Lucky to have been in the right place at the right time. Lucky to have thought of a killer idea while they were asleep. Lucky to be smart enough, healthy enough, safe enough, funded enough and supported enough to achieve what seems like overnight success. It is definitely not true, as Douglas MacArthur attests, that the best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.

Thats not to say that some success cant be attributed to cause and effect, or that hard work wont make you successful, or that sweating wont help you achieve your goals. Any of those things can certainly play a role. But to simply rule out luck as an influential factor often a massively and perhaps a decisively influential factor in your accomplishments is to have an inflated view of your skills and abilities. It is utter nonsense to think that what you have in life is only because of you and your actions.

Even Tiger Woods, arguably one of the most supremely gifted sportspeople of all time, concedes that every tournament hes won can be attributed, in part, to luck. That doesnt discount skill. It doesnt discount talent. But neither does it discount the logical conclusion that achievements in sport usually reflect varying degrees of skill and luck. The luck might be minor, such as the arrival of weather that creates conditions under which Woods performs more skilfully, or it might be major, such as an injury to a strong opponent.

Sport is not the only industry in which luck remains unacknowledged among the praised and hero-worshipped. The world of the corporate CEO is another. Many senior executives are praised for their strategic nous, their sound judgement, their leadership skills, their timely decisions. Theyre often interviewed about their tips for career success, their advice for influencing others, their insights on managing difficult stakeholders, their guidance on getting from good to great. Rarely, however, are they written about in the context of luck. The luck of having received a decent education. The luck of having an encyclopaedic mind. The luck of inheriting a booming business. The luck of being the beneficiary of lax regulation or government incentives. The schaudenfreudian luck of a competitor becoming insolvent, or a monopoly being protected.

That is, of course, unless its a question of bad luck. In one study, over 200 managers were asked to articulate the role of luck in their organisations success. In the event of poor performance, they were most likely to blame bad luck. In the event of good performance, they were more likely to attribute the success to other factors, such as cost minimisation, product differentiation or strategic planning. In other words, to factors they could personally influence. But heres the clincher. In that same study, which was conducted anonymously, the higher up the chain of command the managers were, the more likely they were to admit that luck had played a big role in their success. In other words, the more thoroughly a manager had understood their organisation, the more he or she realised how little influence theyd actually had. But hush lets not tell anyone, because that would ruin the motivational story of the wise leader who, by dint of hard work and/or genius, led the way to corporate victory.