How to Stay Motivated and Passionate

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A Story of Passion

It was 1979. A young boy - left arm spinner and a right-hand batsman was really passionate about cricket and wanted to pursue it as a serious career. He played well and was appointed the captain of his school and college teams. In September of 1979 while playing a match in Kanga League at the iconic Azad Maidan of Mumbai, the young lad got hit on his head with the ball while running between the wickets. He had to be immediately operated to stop the hemorrhage post which he was bed ridden for a few months. With this incident his dream of playing cricket came crashing down. It also meant a year of college missed.

This boy came from a upper middle-class Gujarati family in Mumbai, 60 members of which lived under the same roof in a big house. The family had a business of trading cotton and agriculture commodities. However, he soon got bored of the traditional business and wanted to do something on his own. His father sensed the impatience and trusted him enough to provide a 300 sq-ft office space for “whatever he wanted to do”. The boy had two passions – Cricket and Mathematics. He could not pursue the former so he wanted to done something in a related field to latter. During his MBA he developed a passion for finance too. Combining his passion for Mathematics and Finance seemed to be the most logical thing to do.

Hence in early 1980s he started a finance and bill discounting business with a seed capital which came from family and friends. The major part of his investments came from his best friend Anand Mahindra. Hence the financial agency which he started was named Kotak Mahindra. The boy in the story is none other than Uday Kotak, Chairman of the Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Today, Kotak Mahindra Bank is India’s fourth largest private bank and Uday Kotak is one of the most respected stalwarts in the Indian Industry.

How to Stay Motivated

Financial industry as they say is for the brave hearts. It takes a long time to trust another with your money. Uday Kotak started off when people in India largely used to trust Public sector banks for all their transactions. For private lenders it was a tough period to operate. Yet he not only survived but thrived in business. In his words “Don’t make the wrong choice between shortcut growth and a sustainable career, and character is what will get you there.” His fascinating story is a lesson on passion, character and motivation and persevering against all odds.

Why do some people stay motivated to reach their goals and can continuously pursue them whereas others falter away? Some people are prepared to put in years in their work and others give up easily in little time? What is the difference? Where is the gap?

While Motivation and staying motivated to follow one’s passion is a fascinating subject to study and philosophers, psychologists and scientists have been studying it since time immemorial, the subject remains intriguing even today. However, in all studies done in the past, one finding does stand out – people are self-motivated to do tasks for which they have the skills and find it only “slightly” hard to perform. If the task is out of their reach in terms of skills or too tough to achieve, they lose motivation to finish the same.

This leads us to the The Goldilocks Principle

As in the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, a small girl Goldilocks accidentally enters the home of three bears while the bears are away. The home always has everything in three sizes for - Papa Bear, Mamma Bear and Baby Bear. She tries everything but finds things of the Baby Bear useful or the “Just the right fit” for her. Other things she finds out of her reach / comfort.

Similarly, people do get excited with challenges. However, if a challenge is too tough for them or “out of their reach”, they lose motivation to carry on and finish the task. But when the challenge is “Just within their reach” i.e. only a little tough, they get motivated to put in a bit extra to achieve the target and find success. Additionally, if the task or the challenge is too simple, then also people lose motivation as they find the task boring and sometimes “beneath their level”.

Hence, finalizing Job Descriptions and Key Performance Criteria is such a tough job. If you make it too easy or too difficult, you know there will be a problem. It has to be “Just right”. A bit challenging yet achievable. Also, this needs to be adjusted on a quarterly basis. Once the task is completed, it will be easy the next time. Hence a slightly tougher challenge needs to be given.

Uday Kotak’s career path seems to have followed the Goldilocks Principle. He kept on taking new challenges as the old ones became a passé. This kept on motivating him to achieve higher goals. If you have enough wins to keep you motivated, you will automatically be charged up for a higher challenge ahead.

Let’s all take a clue from the Goldilocks Principle and get motivated by the passion and perseverance of Uday Kotak to pursue our own goals and stay motivated in business and in life. 

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