Incentives

I was listening to a podcast about Charlie Munger and he was talking about how you must think about incentives first and foremost. If you have forgotten to think about Incentives, you maybe want to turn around and revisit the topic. The example that he mentioned was of a shipping company that was having trouble wrapping an early morning shift. The hypothesis was that the problem was the fact that they were paying the employees by the hour. They made a change to pay them by the shift and suddenly they started finishing on time, no problem.

I wonder where this topic is relevant in my current situation. I work a 100% commission job, so I must figure out how to sell if I want to be successful. How could I incentivize myself to be more effective? Consequences are something that comes to mind. If I am not hitting my numbers I need to lose something. We are much more emotionally affected when we lose something rather than gaining something. What would I not want to lose; coffee, money, people, vacations, free time?

I wonder if I should consider stickk? it is a website that will give money to a charity that you are resolutely against if you don’t do what you are pledging to do. This seems like a potentially good and necessary course of action that I may need to take.