I was recently asked a question by a great friend and creative entrepreneur, Liam Swift.
In recent years he has created a hub, known as Helm. A place for aspiring entrepreneurs and creatives to go and meet other like minded people. This space has been a fantastic location for new start ups to launch, for people to learn and be inspired, even just to get your head down and do some solid work. Whilst speaking with Liam about his plans for Helm, he mentioned he was receiving a lot of questions from the people involved with his hub. One of these questions was about motivation.
"How do you keep motivated after a start up is no longer a start up? It's like constantly trying to keep a match lit!"
This really interested me, because I rarely struggle to find motivation (at work). My first response was that he was using the wrong analogy. A match will ALWAYS go out eventually, so before you have even started, you have capped the possibility to maintain motivation. This mindset alone can prohibit motivation, as we all know you can do more if you "put your mind to it". My second response was to talk about motivation in work: How can you not stay motivated!? You can do anything you want!
For me, I love the thrill of starting something, and it's the same for a lot of people. So when the thrill starts to wear off, and the motivation drops, start something else. And I DON'T mean give up on the thing you're already doing. What I mean, is find aspects within what you do, that you can focus on, maybe a new product or service, or even looking into how to make a product or service better!
I have an obsession with improving, and this allows my motivation to be maintained constantly. I love to look at what more can be done, and analysing my businesses for areas that can be improved.
My current project is improving staff happiness at work, despite not having unhappy staff, I feel it can be improved to the point people wake up excited to come to work. I also love working on new products, and how we can do things other brands don't even think of. Because I am obsessed with these things, it means my motivation as an entrepreneur is constant. And the great thing is, anyone can do the same. By focussing on how you think about business, you will realise that finding motivation is not what the goal is, it is what the outcome is.