What motivates you? This could be one of the most important questions you could ever ask yourself. It's funny, but you know, until recently, I don't think I ever considered this question myself. But some interesting conversations happened when I did ask myself this question. What DOES motivate me? I never really thought about it, so when I did, it made me do some deep self-analysis.

Motivation may be the most misunderstood subject known to man. My guess is that most of us don't really know what motivates us. And if we don't even think consciously about what we are motivated by, thinking about what motivates others is probably going to be the furthest thing from our minds. And both of these oversights can stifle our career ascent.

Motivation is like fuel. It's what drives us. And if motivation is fuel, then fear is unleaded and love is super premium. Most people just assume that most of what we do is driven by money. But money is not a true motivator. It's the things that we can get in exchange for money that are the true motivating factors in our lives. And most of the things that we acquire with money are a subset of the base set of motivators like love, fear, respect, self-fulfillment, pride, wanting to win or hating to lose, just to name a few. For example, if you work hard because you want to make a lot of money so that you can buy that nice, new BMW convertible, the real question you should ask yourself is why do you want that car? Sure it's fun to drive with the top down and feel the wind blowing in your hair. But wouldn't riding a horse give you the same sensation? The truth of the matter is that having that car would give your pride a big jolt and maybe even improve your status in the eyes or your friends, family and loved ones. At least that might be your impression, anyway.

After giving it some thought, I came to the conclusion that like everything else, motivation is generally an inherited factor. That's probably why most people have a hard time climbing out of the socio-economic class that they were born into. If your father wasn't motivated by having a big house, a new car, a yacht, and a second home in the country, odds are you probably won't be motivated by those things either. And even if you are, your drive and ambition are probably inherited traits also, so achieving those things won't come easy. Therefore, when you fail to achieve them, your instinct kicks in and tells you that it's OK. If your father didn't need those things, then you don't need those things either. And maybe you don't. After all, everybody knows that happiness is much more important than money and of course, money can't buy you happiness. But that's not my point. What's important is to understand that we are all motivated by different things. And the more that we understand about what drives us, the easier it will be for us to fill our own tanks in order to help us to achieve the things that we really do want.

And what's even more important is that once we understand what motivates us, we begin to get a better understanding about what motivates others. Motivating others is how you really get things done. That's how leaders are born.

Hector Cadena is a 25 year sales veteran with a successful track history of building strong relationships with his customers. Cadena shares his proven sales knowledge with others on his web site at http://www.hectorcadena.com