This morning, I was listened to a Planet Money podcast interview of Freeway Rick Ross, a former big time drug dealer who talked about the economics of dealing illegal drugs.
Most of the podcast dealt with how making drugs illegal, also made them highly profitable, thereby leading to unintended consequences like violence and crime.
One striking admission by Freeway Rick was his joy in doing the job -- i.e., intrinsic motivation. Rick said, "I loved it...I felt like I was powerful...It was every man's dream to be free...I'd rather be doing that than anything else, almost."
Rick talked about how engaged he was in his job. He enjoyed cooking the drugs. He enjoyed the status it gave. He enjoyed being in control.
Of course, Rick's experiences and his view of the world are quite different from the average pharmacist, but we can learn from Rick.
To be intrinsically motivated, we need autonomy in our jobs. Autonomy encourages responsibility and meaning. We also need to maximize periods of "flow". Flow is a state where you are so engaged in your work that you lose track of time. Flow occurs when we challenge ourselves to achieve goals that stretch ourselves (but not so much that it leads to frustration). Finally, we need to seek mastery of what we do. Mastery encourages feeling so control and achievement. Rather than seeking to master the market for illegal drugs -- we need to master the medication use process for our patients. This journey toward mastery gives us a goal to work toward that can sustain us when our jobs dissatisfy us.
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