Filling needs that people don’t know they have is hard. Earlier this week, I read a blog post that Seth Godin wrote about: Marketing to the bottom of the pyramid. It got me thinking that that’s what I’m trying to do, fulfill unarticulated needs. Needs that most folks don’t know they have. The average person doesn’t know that they could have a work-life that lifts them up and makes them feel great. For the last 100 years, we’ve been programmed to believe that work is a necessary evil, that we need to give up 40-60 hours of our week to purgatory, and that being happy, fulfilled, and engaged at work is more of a fairy tale than a reality.

A handful of companies are practicing new ways of managing companies and people that give people dignity, purpose, and self-determination at work. I know that the tenants of Motivation 3.0 work because of the success of these innovative companies. Companies like Semco with a 30-year track record of success. Yet most of the time, when I have a one-on-one conversation with someone about how companies are increasing productivity by way of empowering employees, what I get back is, “That sounds great, but it could never work at my company. “

There’s an upside and a downside to trying to sell ideas people don’t know they need. On the upside, it’s an untapped market with unlimited growth potential. On the downside, the market has to get created. This is in part, the purpose of this blog, to help spread the ideas of autonomy, mastery and purpose. At the bottom of my pyramid are the millions of workers who don’t know that there is a better way that they can make a difference, if not for themselves than at least for their children. It could take a generation for these ideas to find the tipping point. Like my dad always said, “Nothing good ever comes easy.”