From True Grit, Opinion piece in some business magazine:

The ability to tap into your determination and grit… you can teach yourself to get up everyday and keep a new business going despite long odds, partly by struturing your life and job to make sure you are working to your larger goals.

Mom feels that shyness is very selfish as it means you are only thinking of yourself and so she was very insistent that I look adults in the eye and shake their hands, and carry on conversations with guests- no excuses.

Dive into situations even if I wasn’t completely sure about my own abilities, and then solve the problems that came up as I went along. (Move fast and break things / done is better than perfect)

Put yourselves in positions that force the issue. (Back against the wall.)

Struggling to survive is a great motivator.

Student Magazine: Vietnam War, etc was a shared goal that meant a great deal to everybody involved.

Understand what your main motivation is so that you can focus your efforts on reaching those goals. Delegate whatever you can. (We probably don’t spend as much time clarifying this as we should.)

Challenge yourself. Keep challenging yourself. Life is one long university education, in place of the one I never had.

I learn a great deal from the people I meet, and some of them have inspired me. (Mick Jagger. Steve Jobs. Accomplished so much in their fields that spending time with them made me think about what I might do with mind.)

Above all, build a business you’re proud of. Never get into anything purely just to make money.

Once you know what your own motivations and aspirations are, talk to your employees and colleagues about theirs, if you haven’t already. Then structure their jobs in a way that allows them to tap into this energy too.