In another study, seventy-two creative writers at Brandeis and Boston Universities were split into three groups of twenty-four creative writers each and asked to write poetry. Some were given extrinsic reasons for doing so—impressing teachers, making money, getting into fancy grad schools. Others were given a list of intrinsic reasons for writing haiku—enjoying the feeling of expressing themselves, the fun of playing with words. And the third group wasn’t given any reasons at all. On the sidelines, Dr. Amabile put together a group of a dozen poet judges, mixed up all the poems, and had the judges evaluate the work.
By far and away, the lowest-quality poems were from those who had the list of extrinsic motivators for doing so.
James Garbarino, former president of the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development, was curious about this phenomenon. He studied fifth- and sixth-grade girls hired to tutor younger children. Some of the tutors were offered free movie tickets for doing a good job. Some weren’t. What happened? The girls offered free movie tickets took longer to communicate ideas, got frustrated more easily, and did a worse job in the end than the girls who were given nothing except the feeling of helping someone else.
I was surprised by the studies, but they made sense to me.
I remembered writing articles for the Golden Words comedy newspaper at Queen’s University every Sunday for four straight years while in college. I didn’t get paid a cent but loved every minute because I got to hang out with a group of really funny people writing articles that made us all laugh. I loved it so much that I took a job working at a New York City comedy writing startup in my last summer at college. I rented an apartment on the Lower East Side and started working in a Brooklyn loft with writers from The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live.
Wow, I remember thinking. I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do what I love.
It was the hardest job of my life.
Instead of having creative freedom to write whatever I wanted, I had to write “800 words about the bright side of getting dumped by 5:00 p.m.” for a client like Cosmopolitan magazine. Instead of joking with friends naturally, finding chemistry with certain people, I was scheduled to write with others. Eventually my interest in comedy writing faded and faded and faded . . . and I decided I would never do it for money again.
When I started writing 1000 Awesome Things, I said I’d never put ads on the website. I would have liked the beer money! But I knew the ads would feel like work to me. I might start writing an article to get more views on an ad. And I would be spending time checking invoices. Looking at payment transfers. It would take away—or just hide—my reasons for writing in the first place. I was smart about that . . . but not smart enough to ignore the other extrinsic motivators that kept showing up. Stat counters, website awards, bestseller lists. It was all so visible, so measurable, and so tempting.
I started looking into this whole “extrinsic motivators kill intrinsic motivators” phenomenon and kept finding studies showing this to be true.
Professor Edward Deci of the University of Rochester had students try to solve a puzzle. Some were told they were competing with other students and some were not. Guess what happened? The students who were told they were competing with others simply stopped working once the other kids finished their puzzle—believing themselves to be out of the race. They ran out of reasons to do the puzzle in the first place. But those who weren’t told they were competing with others kept going once their peers finished.
When you don’t feel like you’re competing with others, you compete only with yourself.
You do it for you.
And you do more, go further, and perform better.
Want to hear an old joke?
An old man enjoyed sitting on his front porch every day until the elementary school bell rang and neighborhood kids walking past his porch stopped to taunt him from the sidewalk.
Finally, the old man came up with a plan.
He offered the children a dollar each if they’d return the next day and yell their insults.
They were excited, so they returned, yelled their insults, and he paid each of them a dollar.
He then said he’d like them to come back the next day and yell their insults, but he could pay them only 25 cents.
So they returned, yelled their insults, and he paid them a quarter each.
Before they left, he said that he could only afford to pay them a penny on Wednesday.
“Forget it,” they said. “That’s not worth it.”
And they never bothered him again.
5
The 3 S’s of success
How can I be successful?”
I smiled at the eager fifty-something woman beside me. We were sitting at Table 1 at a banquet dinner for SHAD, a nonprofit for which I sit on the board of directors, as students paraded across the stage winning awards. Me being a director, she being a sponsor, we would be sitting a foot apart for the next two hours. The chairman of the board introduced us with a big grin and said, “Neil’s a New York Times bestseller who’s sold over a million books! Nancy wants to be a writer! Enjoy!”
Now I was smiling at her bright and shiny face. She spent a few minutes telling me about the years she’d spent writing novels that she’s never shown anybody. Then came the big question.
“What’s your secret to success?” she asked.
I paused for a minute and thought about it.
“Do you have a pen?” I asked, grabbing a napkin. “Let me show you a scribble.”
“There are three S’s of Success,” I started. “I put them in The Success Triangle. It took me a really long time to figure this out. The first step is actually figuring out what kind of success you want.”
Sales success is about sales. Your book is a commercial hit! Everybody’s reading it, everybody’s talking about it, you’re on TV. You sell hundreds then thousands then millions of copies. Your book becomes an “it book.” A catchphrase. Dump trucks beep while backing into your garage to pour endless royalty payments.
Social success means you’re a success among your peers. People you respect. This is critical success. The industry loves you! The New York Times reviews your book. You’re short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. An influential author you look up to sends you a letter, which feels like gold.
Self success is in your head. It’s invisible! Only you know if you have it. Self success means you achieved what you wanted to achieve. For yourself. You’re genuinely proud of your accomplishment, you’re happy with your work, and, most important, you’re satisfied. You want nothing. You feel contentment. Some people believe without self success, no amount of sales or social success will ever feel meaningful.
The 3 S’s of Success apply to all industries, professions, and aspects of life. Success is not one-dimensional. You must decide what kind of success you want.
Are you in marketing? Sales success means your product flew off the shelves, sales shot through the roof, and your numbers blew away forecasts. Social success means you were written up in prestigious magazines. Nominated for an award. Recognized by the CEO at a company meeting. Self success? That’s the same. How do you feel about your accomplishments?
Are you a teacher? Sales success means you’re offered promotions. Asked if you’re interested in becoming vice principal or principal one day. Social success means you’re presenting at conferences, mentoring new teachers, and the principal talks about your work. Self success? That’s the same. How do you feel about your accomplishments?