That said, the question of "motivation" now has a deeper subtext thanks to recent research on early childhood development and the impact of family and community on each individual's development and achievement.
Rather than an inherent personal quality (which is easily corrupted into a proxy for "worth" or "deserving"), we are learning that motivation is heavily influenced by factors outside a child's control, like how much loving attention they receive, how many words they hear per hour, the level of violence they witness or experience, the number of books in their home, the professional success of their parent or parents, the average socio-economic level of success in their school district, etc.
So, to say that maybe the answer is motivation, is not as much of an answer as it used to be. Now we want to know where motivation comes from, and what we can do to improve that.
Definitely. It's sad that these outside factors influence something so important, but that doesn't change the fact that some people are motivated and some are not, does it?
These can include, but are not limited to: violence and trauma in one's community and family, lack of reliable parents or positive role models in one's community, childhood economic pressure towards physical survival and meeting basic day-to-day needs.
These are all things that individuals born into poverty in the US face at disproportionate levels, and they can have a negative effect on motivation. We generally don't fault people for the very harsh circumstances they are born into.
But the fact remains, which sucks, but still.
Where do we draw the line? I was attacked by a dog when I was a child which was very violent and traumatic for me. I also grew up "are we going to eat tonight" poor. Do I qualify?
We learned that people need vitamin C to prevent scurvy; now we have government policies and cultural norms that make sure that every child gets enough vitamin C.
As our scientific understanding of brain development grows, we'll (hopefully) develop norms and policies to make sure kids get what they need there too. You can see today the early stages of that process with respect to exercise, and more recently, sleep.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/03/an-epidemic-of-laziness...
Lazy takers!
I'm not talking in absolutes. I'm just suggesting that the correlation that the article assumes is correct may not be the only reason based off of my personal observations, that's all.
I've seen a lot of people just "settle" with a crappy job which pays poorly just because they aren't motivated to go find something better or more challenging on a day-to-day basis. Some of these people have gone through college, some haven't.