In this solo episode of the Founders Journal audio diary, Alex Lieberman, co‑founder and executive chairman of Morning Brew, explores the question “What motivates you?” He begins by recounting a conversation with a senior Morning Brew leader who asks every interview candidate the same question to identify people with a “chip on their shoulder” – a drive to prove others wrong. Lieberman reflects on the personal cost of such an externally‑driven motivator, noting its emotional and happiness trade‑offs. To broaden the inquiry, he polls his social‑media followers (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn) about their biggest career motivators, receiving common answers such as money, competition (self vs. others), vision, helping others, and impact. He categorises each motivator by three dimensions: (1) strength of motivation, (2) ease of losing it, and (3) size of personal trade‑offs. After weighing these factors, he concludes that a love of learning and self‑improvement is the most effective motivator with the smallest personal cost, though it is harder to cultivate than fear‑based drivers. He invites listeners to share their own primary motivator and its trade‑offs via email, promising to feature responses in a future episode. The episode ends with acknowledgments to the production team and a sign‑off.
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What's up, everyone? This is Alex Lieberman, co-founder and executive chairman of Morning Brew. Welcome back to Founders Journal, my personal audio diary, where I give you, the business builder, the tools you need to think better in order to build better, whether that's building a business, a team, or a new product. Today I am talking about what motivates each and every one of us and why we need to think really hard about it. Let's hop into it. So recently I was having a conversation with someone on the leadership team at Morning Brew, and specifically we were talking about how they interview people. And because they've been in their career for a long time, they have a very structured process for interviewing. And one of the things that they said is they always ask the same one question to every single person they interview, irrespective of role. And that question is, What motivates you? Now, the reason they ask this question is because they are looking for people just like them, people who have a huge chip on their shoulder. The reason that this senior leader has a chip on their shoulder is because they want to prove something to the people that they have been wronged by earlier in their career. The logic makes a lot of sense, right? They see how much They are motivated by a desire to prove others wrong. And so they want to hire people who have that same fire under their ass. At first, I thought to myself, wow, this question makes so much sense. And looking for people who have a chip on their shoulder makes so much sense, right? I see how hard this senior leader works. And also, when I think about in the early days of Morning Brew, part of my motivation was absolutely me having a chip on my shoulder. I wanted to prove to others that had discounted my abilities, specifically in middle school and high school, that I was enough and that I could achieve. But as I thought more about it and I reflected on the conversation, it got me thinking, what is the cost of having a chip on your shoulder? Here's what I mean. It is obviously an incredible motivator, but there is an emotional slash happiness price to pay for being driven because you felt like you were wronged by others, which is what a chip on your shoulder is, right? It's an externally driven motivator that is based on the actions of others, which, while being incredibly effective professionally, it can be super limiting personally. And it was this thought about the limits of certain motivations that got me thinking more about all of the things that motivate us, not just a chip on your shoulder, what the tradeoffs are of these different types of motivations and asking myself, is there a singularly, quote unquote, best motivator? And so I wanted to figure out what is the most effective form of motivation and specifically the one that has the least or lowest tradeoff on your fulfillment or your happiness in your personal life. And so what I did is, as I always do, I polled my social followers. I went to Twitter. Instagram, LinkedIn. And so I asked people, what is the singularly biggest motivator in your career? And some of the answers I got were, you know, the usual suspects: money, competition with myself, competition with others, vision for a better life, helping others, creating an impact, and a bunch more. Now, none of these motivators are good or bad. I want to set the stage. They are all effective in their own way, but they also have their own unique tradeoffs, like I was mentioning around the tradeoffs of having a chip on your shoulder. So, for example, competition with yourself. The tradeoff can be uninhibited pressure and lack of balance in life. Or if you have competition with others, it can breed resentment and an individualistic mindset, which can be an issue if you're working in a company where you have teams. Or something like being driven by money. It can create a world in which happiness and fulfillment constantly evade you. And as I thought about all of these different motivators, I kind of mentally bucketed them based on 3 different spectrums. The first was how strong of a motivator is this one that I'm thinking of, from very weak in motivating you to very strong. The second was how easy is it to lose this form of motivation, from very easy to lose to very hard to lose the motivation. And the third was, How large are the personal tradeoffs of the given type of motivation, from very small tradeoffs to very large tradeoffs? And as I weighed all of these motivators through the lens of what is most effective and least costly on my personal happiness and fulfillment, I landed on one, one specific motivator, and that is a love for learning and growth. AKA self-improvement. I believe self-improvement, if harnessed right, can be wildly motivating while creating the space and permission for you to find balance and joy personally. Now, I absolutely believe it is harder to build self-improvement as a motivator as opposed to fear of failure or having a chip on your shoulder. But I do believe that it can be a motivator that is wildly powerful, yet productive when honed properly. So now I want to hear from you. What is the single greatest motivator in your career? And also, what are the tradeoffs of this motivator being your driving force? Remember, there are no good or bad motivators, just tradeoffs. Shoot me an email to alex@morningbrew.com and I'll share a few of the best motivator responses in an upcoming episode. Now, before we go, I have to thank the team behind this awesome show. Our show is produced and engineered by Dan Bauza. Our associate producer is Bella Hutchins. Brian Henry is our executive producer. Alan Haberchak is Morning Brew's director of audio. Holly Van Leeuwen is our fact checker. Noah Friedman is our video producer and editor. And I'm your host, Alex Lieberman. Thanks again for listening, and I'll catch you next episode.
