Category: Inspiration & Motivation

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How To Appeal To People’s Self Interest

How to appeal to people’s self interst At some point in our lives, we all want something from someone. Maybe you need a colleague’s help or you come up with a beautiful idea and you tried to sell it to people only for them to turn it down. You wonder why they are not interested in such a great idea. After all, this idea will lead to the creation of thousands of jobs. It will bring in lots of money. It will elevate the society. Who cares? Let’s take away the fact that your idea might not even be great in the first place which could be a possible reason why they don’t show interest. I don’t care what you need from people or what kind of idea you’re trying to sell. Maybe to start a business, to form a drama group, to establish a charity foundation or you want to run for a political office and you need someone’s support. When you go to meet someone and try to convince them to buy into your idea. The first question on their mind is ‘what’s in it for me?’ Why should I buy into your idea? Why should I give you my money? Why should I give you my time? Why should I abandon my own project and support yours. Why should I risk my life for your cause? These are some of the questions anyone will ask when you try to sell your ideas to them. Mind you, most of the time, people will not ask you these questions directly. This is when you see someone turn you down without giving you a reason. This is because you failed to answer the obvious questions that they did not ask you. They don’t have to ask you. But you must give them the answers anyway. That is where you must make your research before you approach anyone. Find out what motivates each person so you don’t approach the wrong target. Below are some of the things to consider before approaching anyone. 1. Money Money is one of the biggest motivations in the world. Everyone wants to make money. At the same time, you should understand that we want it more than each other. While everyone wants money, some people get fired up the moment they hear there’s lot of money to be made. Money is what drives them. When you know this kind of people, then you understand you should not go and sell your charity idea to them. They’re most certainly not interested. If your idea has to do with business and there is high probability that money will be made, this kind of people will have your ears more than anyone else. 2. Publicity/Praise Some people just want people to talk about them or praise them for what they’ve done. They do not care how much they’re giving away to your cause as far as their name will be attached to the success of the idea. These kinds of people are best sold the idea of a social project. Something a community will benefit from. Something that will bring praises to the benefactor. Just remember, people must know the man who made it happen. 3. Power & Title Some people are motivated by power. Often money is not their problem. They most certainly already possess money. Now they want their money to bring them power, well, which can still bring them more money in the future, just on another level. These are the kinds of people you want to approach with a political ambition. But you should understand that there is one thing people like this don’t take for granted; loyalty. After all, how can your success bring them power if you’re not loyal to them. 4. Love Love is definitely one of the top motivations for doing things. Can you remember how many times you’ve done something for someone out of love? Take away money, take away power, take away humans’ greed, take away ambition. What else could make someone do something for someone if not love. This applies to everyone, partners, siblings, children, parents, even leaders. Why love is so strong as a motivation for doing something is because love itself is self-interest. After all, the subject is the one feeling the love. They want to help you because they love you, not because you love them. Can you possibly go and meet someone to do something for you because you love them. No. It’s the other way round. They do it because they love you. Learn to appeal to people’s love for you and you will be surprised at how willing they are to be of help. 5. The Need To be Successful You should know that some people just want to be successful and they will jump onto any project you brought before them, if only you’re convincing enough. Go beyond the big picture. Show them the pictures but break down the figures. These kinds of people are result oriented and you must convince them that you know what you are doing. 6. Passion Passion, just like love, is natural and it is a big motivation for doing something. When people do something they have passion for, they feel happy. This is what you’re appealing to. Look for people who have passion for what you want to do and there is high probability they will come on board. The more you appeal to people’s self-interest, the more you will convince them to buy into your idea or to do something for you. You should understand that everyone has something they want for themselves. Nobody does anything for free. It could be money, fame, need for success, happiness or power. You will only be deceiving yourself to think that some people do not want anything. After all, there are several religious people who will render help to you and not make it public. They don’t want to publicize it, saying they did it for

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Why You Fail To Act On Your Ideas

Why you fail to act on your ideas Ideas are great. Ideas made the world what it is today. Think about all the great inventions in history. They are all products of ideas. While ideas are so great, one would expect ideas to be something rare and difficult to get, like a gem. Fortunately, ideas are some of the cheapest things in life. We all get them every day. They are nothing until we bring them to life. As surplus as ideas are, many of us fail to act on them for various reasons. Maybe your idea will solve a problem facing people or it will add value to mankind. Remember it is nothing until you bring it to life. Here are the reasons why you fail to act on your ideas. 1. Doubts With every idea comes a doubt. Maybe it’s not a good idea. Maybe it won’t work. But how will you know if it will work or not. How will you know if it is a great idea or not if you refuse to act on it? The only way to confirm if your idea is good or not is to get up and work on it. 2. Procrastination Procrastination is one of the reasons why many of us fail to act on our ideas. While there is a difference between procrastination and being lazy, the two lead to the same result which is a lack of result. There are different reasons why people procrastinate. On top of the list is lack of motivation. If you lack motivation to act on your idea, maybe you should revisit why you came up with that idea in the first place. Did you intend to start a sea food restaurant because your community lacks one? That may be a reason but at the same time, it might not be motivating enough for you to act on the idea. Maybe you can’t do without eating sea food in a day. You spend a lot of money transporting to another community every day so that you can get your beloved sea food. At the same time, you noticed there are lots of people like you who enjoy sea food in your community. From this, there is more than one motivation. If there is a sea food restaurant in your community, you won’t have to waste money transporting to another community every day. You will save more money. Meanwhile, it is obvious there is a market for sea food in your community and there is zero competition. This is a great business opportunity. Revisit your idea. Ask yourself why you came up with the idea. Look for motivation. Even if there was no motivation when you first came up with the idea, begin to look at every possibility. Find motivation in it. The motivation will be the fuel you need to start acting on your idea. 3. Fear of failure A lot of time we refuse to take action because we are afraid of failing. Nobody enjoys failure. We all want to win. But if everyone should be afraid of failure, then none of the amazing inventions in history would have been possible. Look at the invention of electricity, aircraft and every other great invention. They all are products of many try and failures. Without failing, there can’t be winning. Looking at our sea food restaurant idea? Maybe you’re asking yourself, what if people don’t patronize me. What if I lose my money? Well, you won’t know till you try. Start small and validate your idea. You can decide to make a list of ten persons you know who travel to the next community to buy sea food. Tell them you can deliver them their beloved sea food at a very small fee. You go and get the food and deliver it to them. From ten persons, you can increase the number to fifteen, twenty and above. You can do this for a while before you decide to open your own restaurant in the community. Take away your fear of failure. Begin to work on your idea. If you fail, you will learn and improve on it. The more you fail, the more you get better and the more your idea comes to life. One of my most admired role models Elon Musk said, if you’re failing, you’re not trying at all. 4. Lack of knowledge Every idea requires some degree of knowledge to enable us execute on them. Without the necessary knowledge, you might not be able to bring them to life, or at best, you might end up with a mediocre product. But this shouldn’t stop you from working on it. Before you get started, find out what kind of knowledge is required to execute your idea. Is it a knowledge you already have. Do you need to acquire new knowledge? Or maybe your idea is bigger than you. In that case, you might want to consider looking for people with the right knowledge or skills to help you bring your ideas to life. The internet today has also made learning extremely easy. You can find several courses on different learning websites. You can watch unlimited educational videos on YouTube. For our sea food restaurant idea, you might enjoy the food but don’t know how to prepare it. What if you volunteer to work for free at your favourite sea food restaurant to gain some idea? I promise you they will be glad to take you in. From there you will gain the experience you require. You can also get potential partners who will be interested in joining your proposed restaurant. The most important thing is that you get started. Mark Zuckerberg said, if I had to know everything about connecting people, I wouldn’t have started Facebook. Most of the time, the little we know is sufficient for us to get started. As you work on your ideas, you will figure things out. 5. Listening to others While it is