Lessons learnt. The real motivation is personal

I bought my first property - a 2 bedroom flat - in 1997. It didn't take long before I was aware that rampant property price inflation meant it was seemingly earning more than I was - and it was doing it without any effort, and without paying any tax. I found this discovery demotivating - undermining the value of any effort I might put in to my career. (It took me several years to overtake that flat.)

And now, by strange coincidence, the FTSE indicates there's been almost no increase in the value of the economy since... 1997. This too is demotivating. Where, I wonder, is the evidence of all our collective effort? Have other (anonymous) people perfectly counter-acted it with their incompetence, or was it all simply less value-adding than we thought at the time?

There is a lesson here about the root of motivation, and the limit of benchmarks. The last 12 years have seen fortunes made, as well as lost (and I'm still a few paces ahead of that flat). Benchmarks, like economic forecasts, are substantially imperfect. They tell us what may happen (not what will) based on what has happened (not what might have happened).

Accretive objectives and KPIs (+2%, +3%) can only work so far. They need to be complemented by transformational objectives (milestones, category breaks, innovations). On a personal level these kinds of achievements, which cannot be taken away, can be far more motivating and rewarding. And on a business level they are the only true route to successfully serving shareholders - building platforms to capitalise performance as new businesses and markets, not just a little more ephemeral share.

When the only motivation for many is the fear of losing their job, extra thought needs to be given to targets. And when company valuations are based on extreme bearish assumptions about the overall market, there is more need, not less, for bold visions.

Are we brave enough, and bold enough, to have them?