1 Chapter 1. What Motivates People? In this lesson, you get a foundation for recognizing what motivates people and understanding how people's motivations differ depending on their current needs. Let's start with the basics: What motivated you to pick up this book? You probably want to elicit certain kinds of behavior in someone and are unable to do it, right? That frustrates you. That chal- lenges you. Perhaps you're a manager with employees you want to motivate to enjoy their work more. Or, maybe you have a particular problem employee who you want to motivate to perform better. No matter why you bought this book or who you want to motivate, I won't kid you: Motivation can be a tricky thing. Not everybody is motivated by the same thing, and what motivates somebody one day might not motivate him the next. You can never rest on your laurels, either: One kind of moti- vation repeated many times becomes the expected behavior and loses its motivational quality. In this chapter, I'll provide you with an overview of motivation--what it is and how it works.