Money for Motivation

Which job pays you $1,650 an hour, or $19,800 for 12 hours? Which job allows you to interact with the crème de la crème of industry? Which job involves mostly talking and playing games?

Lawyers? Doctors? Investors?

The answer is Motivational Coaches. These peoples are highly sought-after by high ranking executives, charge unimaginable fees, and aim to motivate executives to greater heights.

At first glance, their job scope seemed like something anyone could do. When I read about how much they were paid, I felt rather indignant that they were paid so much for doing so little. All they had to do was: give speeches, facilitate team building games, and organise the odd excursion. I had done all of the above and more as an organiser for our school's Leadership Camp. Their jobs seemed to be the ultimate 'dream job'. However, deeper probing on this issue allowed me to see what was wrong with my assumption.

Firstly, if their job is simple yet pays tons, many people will become motivational coaches. Motivational Coach David Tan declared that there is 'more paperwork required to be a hawker in a foodcourt than a coach'. If this is so, many people will want to be coaches. However, statistics prove otherwise: there are only 200 such coaches in Singapore. Here is my theory why this happens:

Many people have thought the same thing as me after seeing their friends earn big bucks as motivational coaches. They too will apply to be a motivational coach.

Executives are logical and clever people, and will not pay so much money to hire an incompetent motivational coach. Since motivational coaches earn new customers through word-of-mouth, if their customers are not satisfied, they will not get business. Coaches who are incompetent will not be profitable, and eventually switch back to a conventional job.

I believe that this is the force keeping the number of motivational coaches low. The low number of motivational coaches is one of the reasons why motivational coaches can charge exorbitant prices. (The supply-demand theory shows this)

My previous theory shows that the motivational coach market is a competitive arena, where natural selection will ensure only the best can remain. In view of this, are motivational coaches useful for executives? I feel that motivational coaches can be useful if the customer is eager to learn, and if the customer can find the right motivational coach to suit his needs.

'Changes your perspective, and you will change your life'. A correct perspective will affect our lives positively. If these motivational coaches manage to change the attitudes and mindsets of their customers, I believe that it will benefit their customers to a large extent. Executives wield the power to make their company fail or succeed, and having a correct attitude towards life equates to making the right decisions, which in turn helps their company to churn massive profits. Executives can consider the coaches' fees as a sort of 'investment', and by going for these trainings, they may be able to earn much more money.

However, what I am saying is on the assumption that motivational coaches can effectively motivate a person over the course of 12 hours. That someone's lifelong attitude can be corrected in 12 hours sounds a little spurious to me, but maybe that's why the coaches can charge so much!

Many Singaporeans send their children to tuition centres, but none of them can charge as high fees as these motivational coaches. This is because being a motivational teacher requires a certain set of skills only a few people are gifted with. I think that these skills include:

1. Understanding people well.
   
2. Having a broad knowledge base
3. Being creative. To stand out from the crowd, motivational coaches need to invent special games.

I believe that motivation is more of an art than a science, and that there are many ways of motivating people.

Actually, being a motivational coach encompasses more than an Ivy League degree; to be a successful motivational coach, one needs to be especially proficient in the above 5 skills.

Motivational coaches do charge a lot, but I feel that this is justifiable. This is because they provide a lot of value-add, and they have a set of special skills that allow them to do their job well.