Money Is The Only Thing That Really Motivates People

I. Introduction

Henry Fielding once said, "Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil".

Money presents in so many aspects of life. It seems that almost everything can be bought, with the high value attached to money. People are very addicted to money because of the idea that if you have money, you have the success, popularity, power and acceptance. But, there is always danger in losing values such as love for sports or being a hardworking person. A good example is the current trend in sports wherein top players in football or basketball are only interested in picking up their paycheques more than genuinely loving sports and achieving success in terms of being the best athletes they could be (Money is not the motivation 2004). There are nagging thoughts of what the real motivation is for entering a venture as the importance of money is becoming more and more hard-hitting these days.

As the quotation above says, is money society¡¦s new god? If so, can other values such as freedom, love, achievement or even motivation also be bought? This is precisely the topic of the paper. All of these things can be pointed back to money and see how people treat it today. Besides discussing the real functions of money, this paper will also attempt to answer not just the questions above but also investigate whether money is the only thing that really motivates people today.

II. Money as Motivation

¡§Motivation¡¨ derives from the Latin verb ¡§movere¡¨ which means ¡§to move¡¨. Beck (2004, p.3) defined Motivation as an internal state which is the driving force that activates behaviour or gives directions to thoughts, feelings and actions of an organism.

The accumulation of wealth has become an important facet of society because of the increasing materialistic ideology spreading in the world. In addition, there is a growing concern for people to move upwards in society through earning or making more money.

It is undeniable fact that people are bowing to the demands of money as almost everything is rationed, administered or valued in terms of money (Ventura, 1995). With the high value attached to money, it connotes an idea that money is a motivation for people. For this paper, it will be discussed thoroughly in three areas: Psychology, Management and Education whereas arguments are supported by good examples found in literature which demonstrate the use of money as motivation.

A. Psychology

The desire to have money is ingrained in people today as explained by Ventura (1995) when he said that money has become the absolute standard of access and status.