Are you Stuart Smalley? And what's the definition of insanity, again?

I was just reading a comment at LinkedIn, questioning how a particular post would “uplift someone or how it’s beneficial to someone in a professional environment,” and it got me thinking. Is that LinkedIn’s primary purpose? I’ve been going over in my mind whether it would be appropriate to open an honest, non-judgmental discussion about the overwhelming number of posts here that are meant to act as motivation, or personal reinforcement. I only see a sliver of what’s posted overall, but if LinkedIn were suddenly to block motivational or religious posts, I suspect there’d be no content at all.

So, let’s discuss, again in a non-judgmental way, this whole motivational business (and I mean, business). I have never understood why or how having someone say something reassuring is supposed to improve your attitude or work product. It’s almost as if you don’t believe in yourself and need to be told you’re ok. Again, I am not belittling those who start the day listening to motivational CDs in their car. But I don’t quite understand why or how someone needs help to be motivated from someone who knows nothing about them, reciting or posting bromides about how happiness/success/that big sale/etc. are right around the corner. Obviously, a lot of this is directed at people in sales, since they deal with a lot of rejection. But, unless you’re really, really bad at what you do, your non-customer is rejecting your product or service, he or she is not rejecting you. This seems rather obvious. I recall the first time I attended a sales training, the speaker said how he looked forward to being told no, because he knew that for every 20 no’s there’s a yes waiting for him. I was reminded of the old joke about seeing a large pile of poop on Christmas day and knowing there had to be a pony in there somewhere. I raised my hand and asked if it wouldn’t be better to start with the yes, so the next 20 no’s wouldn’t seem like such a waste of time. Smart aleck. Then later, when it was time to pull out another salesguy cliché, he said, “You know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” You mean like cold calling? I was clearly the class clown at that point.

But the real question is, why can’t you motivate yourself? Is the very idea of sales really that intimidating? Do you think of yourself otherwise as an insecure person? Do you really need someone to tell you, Stuart Smalley-like, that you’re good enough, and smart enough, and doggone it, people like you? I know, this could be viewed as a put-down, but I honestly don’t mean it that way, at least not toward you. It’s just that I see these characters (some of them charlatans) out there writing books and doing lecture tours, making obscene amounts of money rattling off cute plays on words and bromides, and I wonder. I’m not an arrogant person (well, not all the time), but I do have self-confidence. If someone doesn’t buy something from me because I screwed up, I learn from my mistake, but if I make a good presentation and someone still doesn’t buy something from me, I figure that’s their mistake. Please, those of you who swear by motivational speaking and motivational books and motivational posters (maybe even those of you who do it for a living), what’s the secret and what’s the point? I have to wonder if those who make a living motivating people aren’t just taking advantage of them, but I’m sure that those of you who rely on external motivation would find this entire article to be like a pile of poop without the pony.