The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win

by Jeff Haden

After all, successful people do one thing. Unsuccessful people need to do a variety of things to make ends meet. If I’m a speaker and a writer and a photographer, then surely I must not be particularly successful at any of those pursuits. So no matter what their initial impression of me as a speaker, no matter how big the event, no matter how sophisticated the audience, they no longer see me as a successful speaker simply because I don’t speak on a full-time basis. In short, I must not be good enough to specialize. The same is true with ghostwriting. When I tell people I also do speaking gigs, they generally assume I have to take on those engagements because I’m a struggling writer forced to find other ways to earn money. To most people, professional “specialization” indicates accomplishment and success, when in fact the opposite is true. You, me, all of us—we’re too good to specialize. Venus is too good to specialize. She is capable of more than tennis. She’s too good to be just one thing.