After the Bell: Purpose, paycheques and cold mornings

Daily Maverick

10-07-2025

Most people will rely on the money for their sense of purpose. It's easy, it's simple and you know how to assess what you are offering when compared to your competitors. But money might only take you so far.
I would imagine that if, like me, you live on the Highveld, you are finding getting up in the mornings a little difficult at the moment.
The first clue hits me every morning. As I reach for my phone, there is a blast of cold air under the three blankets that I've been under all night. And there is nothing about my phone that is intrinsically worth it.
What I really want from it is to find out what happened overnight. How the world changed (and what happened in Washington…).
I realise that I'm a little addicted to news. And while this can be problematic (my wife gets suspicious if I look at my phone for more than two minutes), generally speaking it's an addiction I'm happy to live with.
This is because I know I am incredibly lucky. I wake up with purpose every morning. I see journalism as a sense of mission, as something that is important.
I was reminded a little bit of that while I was speaking to Johann Kotzé, the CEO of AgriSA, on The Money Show on Wednesday night.
He told the most wonderful story about how he still remembers walking behind the plough on his father's farm. He was just five years old. And the smell of the earth, the soil that his father picked up for him to touch, all of that is still with him.
No matter where he is in the world, the moment he smells rain he is reminded of that moment.
When the disinformation about farmers and land is flying, it must be really useful for him. It gives him a reason to keep going, to keep up the good fight as he sees it.
I've often been struck by the sense of mission, of passion, that people who work for NGOs have. They will put in hours and hours of really hard work, often unpaid, because they have a sense of purpose.
Companies try to harness this, of course. They try to give their workers a sense of mission.
I know we are all motivated by different things, but I think there are some things many of us have in common.
Many of us will perform for a team. No one wants to be the person who lets a team down. It goes back to the moment you were no longer the person picked last to play soccer against the other side.
And that sense of a team can involve thousands of people. It's why so many companies spend so much time and money on workshops and get-togethers, and strangely dangerous Christmas parties.
If you're Shoprite, you want to feel like a winner. If you're Pick n Pay, you want to feel like the contender. You could have class, you could be somebody. And you get those things by working with the rest of the team.
I do wonder if some teams are harder to motivate than others.
I mean, if you're leading a group of people in the online gambling space, I'd expect it to be tougher to motivate them than say a group of pediatric nurses.
That said, money works.
There are millions of people, probably the majority of our workers, who aren't lucky enough to have that purpose at work. Instead, their purpose is about money.
They are working to live. But more importantly, they are often working for other people to live.
Nothing can give you purpose like family. I know so many people who literally work every hour of the day just to give their children a slightly better chance in life.
If I were a boss interviewing for positions, I might well favour single parents just for this reason. You know that they are going to add value to your company and won't cause any trouble simply because they will rely on their salary so much.
And it is obvious that this is what motivates the online gambling crowd.
I do think that some people are able to make work fun though. I've been in a position where I look forward to arriving at the office because I know there will be commentary and gossip about the events of the day.
And if you can harness that, you really can get a lot of value out of people.
Most people, though, will rely on the money. It's easy, it's simple, you know how to assess what you are offering when compared to your competitors.
But money might only take you so far. People will work for it, but you have to pay for it.
What you really want is people who will give you a lot more value than you pay for, because they believe in the cause.
You need something to get them out of bed in the morning.