Everyday most of us stop for a minute and asks ourselves: What is my goal in life? What direction am I following?

Most of people´s answers are somewhat related to money or “glory”( recognition).

Which of these two options is important to achieve, is a debate that can go through decades. Some people can value money more, while some have a higher value on recognition.

And that is why I want you to know about the situation of André-Pierre Gignac. Gignac is a French soccer player that currently plays in Mexico for Tigres de la UANL (the actual champions).  Andre has revolutionized the Mexican league, he has broken almost all the records and has won 2 championships in 3 years.

Mexican people are very passionate about everything and soccer is definitively something people go crazy about.  It is fair to say, that right now André is some kind of a god to fans of Tigres. In the following image we can observe Gignac in a painting they made of him.

(ABC,2016)

As you can imagine Gignac has the biggest soccer salary in Mexico.  Just recently a Chinese team made an offer to buy Gignac and to increase his salary by four times, which means 12 million euros per year.

André refused that offer because right now he is the king of the city. We can observe that he was influenced by intrinsic motivators (intangible rewards), he strives to be the best because he wants the recognition of Mexico and that gives him a very high personal satisfaction. Even though they offered a high extrinsic motivator (increased salary), he valued glory more than money.

Having intrinsic motivators makes André-Pierre to fit in Theory Y, he a self-directed person that likes to work effectively and is committed to the objectives. Hence, Theory Y employees are proactive, and they like to be challenged.

After reading this short blog I want to ask you these two questions:

What would you have done in his position?

What’s your key driver motivator to give your best in what you do?

References:

  • Flores, Roberto. “Vuelven Los Chinos Por Gignac.” Deportes – Grupo Multimedios. Multimedios6, 6 Jan. 2017. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.
  • “Gignac, Contento Por Mural Realizado Por Estudiante De UANL.” POSTA. Ed. ABC. Posta, 22 Sept. 2016. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.
  • Kohn, Alfie. Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.
  • McGregor, Douglas. The Human Side of Enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960. Print.