

Ask HN: What motivates you to do well in your career? - solipsist

2011 has officially started and most people have to go back to their jobs in just a few days. What motivation, or even inspiration, do you have in your job or career? How can you find something new in the coming year to motivate you even more than you are currently?
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znt
Simple:

My country made me fight a war that I didn't want to take part in. I plan to
immigrate to a better country for my kids so they wouldn't get enlisted and
shipped to warzone without their consent.

A good career seems like the only way to achieve such goal.

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mindcrime
Honestly, for me, it has a lot to do with a general feeling of having
something to prove. Not just to other people, but to myself. I grew up dirt
poor in rural southeast NC, but never felt like I was any less capable or
important than anybody else. But I haven't _done_ anything to make a mark on
the world yet, so I feel driven to do something, to "be somebody" or whatever
you want to call it.

If you've seen that old movie "Vision Quest" I guess you could say that I feel
a bit like Louden Swaine did. Except I'm already a lot older than that
character was in the movie.

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mathgladiator
Well, the way I look at it is this.

We are born, and we are going to die. We (mostly) define what goes between the
middle.

I'm motivated to be better today than I was yesterday.

I'm inspired by a challenge. This year, i want to launch 12 companies. Am I
going too? unlikely. Is it going to be a wild ride? Oh yeah!! Am I going to
learn more and be more awesome next year? hell yeah.

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instakill
I can't really explain it. It's not the money, it's not proving others wrong
or even displaying my abilities to others. If I'd have to loosely describe it,
I'd have to say that it's a drive to be really good at the things I do, so
much so that I don't have to deviate from being myself when confronted with
new ventures or opportunities (ala Greg House).

