Motivation 101 by Guy Kawasaki
It doesn't matter what motivates you as long as you get motivated. I lay bare my insipid inspirations.
In the 2000 movie, Miss Congeniality, Sandra Bullock is an undercover FBI agent trying to prevent terrorists from blowing up the Miss America contest. She plays the role of a beauty contestant despite a lack of the stereotypical bubbly “contestant” demeanor.
When it comes to answering the “essay question” about what’s important to her, she goes deep and intellectual about criminal justice, and this doesn’t work at all. She has to pivot “world peace”—that is, something more along the lines of “changing the world.”
It seems that many people think that what motivates your is important—not just for beauty contests, college applications, and life in general. I beg to differ.
I’m near seventy years old, so I’ve been working a long time, and I love what I do which is evangelize Canva, host a podcast, make speeches, and write books. But in a moment of transparency, let me state that lofty goals were never my motivation.
My Checkered Past
Allow me to share the events shaped me a long time ago—probably before you were born.
In high school I lived on the wrong side of town and had to commute to the right side in order to go to a college prep school. This cross-town (and economic) journey necessitated riding the public bus. I was robbed twice making this commute. I can remember both times like it was yesterday.
High school, however, wasn’t all victimization. A family friend once gave me a ride in his lime green Porsche. I think it was a 911, but it could have been a 912 . At the time my family owned a Toyota Corona, and let’s just say that Toyota’s start in the US market was rough.
My college, like many others, had a parent’s weekend. My horizons were expanded when my classmates’ parent showed up in Ferraris and the like. I think one classmate’s father even gave me a ride in his 275 GTB.
One more college adventure: I visited the home of a classmate named Mike Boich. We shared a love of exotic cars except that his family owned them, and I wanted them. His father picked us up at the airport in a Rolls Royce. After a dinner, his mother asked me drive her home in her Ferrari Daytona. Mike’s car, by the way, was a Ford GT40.
Fast forward to my mid forties. I had a 911 by then, and one day I was stopped on El Camino Real near Kepler’s in Menlo Park, California. I look over to my left, and there is a car with four teenage girls making eye contact, smiling, and laughing. I thought I truly arrived—even teenagers knew who I am! The girl in the front seat motions to roll down my window. I do. She shouts, “Are you Jackie Chan?” Hilarity ensues.
The Bottom Line
It’s a good thing I never entered a beauty contest, undercover or not, because of the shallowness of my motivations would have eliminated, if not disqualified me:
I didn’t want to change the world. I wanted to change the car.
I didn’t want to end crime. I wanted to live where I wouldn’t get robbed.
I didn’t want to be a movie star. I just wanted Jackie Chan to stop at an intersection, see a bunch of teenagers in a car making eye contact, roll down his window, and get asked, “Are you Guy Kawasaki?”
Such are the circumstances that motivated me to embrace the growth and grit mindsets—aka, study and work hard. Things have worked out, and I tell you this because you may be wondering if your motives and goals are high-falutin’ enough.
The lesson is that it that what motivates you is less important than whether you are motivated at all, and if being confused with Jackie Chan doesn’t do it for you, there’s always world peace.
Don’t miss this week’s episode on Remarkable People!
I interview Allan Lichtman, the acclaimed political historian known for his accurate presidential election predictions.
Lichtman shares the story behind his "Keys to the White House" model, critiques conventional polling methods, and offers his perspective on the current political climate. He discusses the potential threats to American democracy, the media's role in shaping public opinion, and the importance of historical analysis in forecasting future events.
This conversation will provide you with a unique lens through which to view the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
Tune in here! https://bit.ly/alsoeifub
MAHALO,
Guy
I don’t give a rats ass about your checkered past. Let’s talk about the Grant family and why you are received by them. Let’s talk about Alan Grant and his relationship with Lucas. They were messing around on 10th and not much more back in the day. Then they decided to get onto race cars.
Eh voila ! Something to do. That’s fun ! So Wilbur funded that fun idea. So they raced all over Europe.
I think you are just as handsome as Jackie Chan