I watch this May morning in Ashgabat, with all the roses, spruces, poplars, people hurrying to work, kids going to school, laundry fighting with the wind, traffic of Japanese and German cars, while I seat in the back of a car parked by the road. I’m waiting for other engineers to join me for today’s task. I wonder why these people are hurrying to work. My career newsletter says that people are primarily motivated by money. But then most of us earn so little and afraid of life, many of us fail to cope and become alcohol or drug addicts.
One of engineers I know lives just two days per month; Salary Day and Advance Pay Day. Those two days he drinks good beer and goes to see a “girl”. He’s a married and is a respectable guy too. “Some dance to remember, some dance to forget”? If we assume he was somewhat happy until he turned 20 and he will live till 60, then he has about 40 adult years. Two happy days per month equals to 24 happy days per year. If cheating on your wife and drinking till you forget about her can be called a happy day…
Since I hate Soviet Union and atheism so much, materialistic motivation didn’t work for me. “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica is not just another nice song for me, so I couldn’t care less about social status either. You see I have a problem here; I earn enough and don’t care much about public opinion. This drag is going on for years and I need some truths to keep me floating. Otherwise I could drown, just like that poor bloke who drowned himself in my university.
Mevlana Jelaladdin Rumi in his much cherished and famous book - Mesnevi suggests that our needs are endless;
“Birisinin eşeği varmış, fakat palanı yokmuş. Palanı ele geçirmiş, bu sefer eşeği kurt kapmış. Birisinin ibriği varmış, fakat suyu elde edememiş. Suyu bulunca da ibrik kırılmış!”
There’s always a better car or a cooler iPhone that we need to get. Modern economic theory (by some Smith, if I’m not mistaken) has cleverly detected that resources are limited and there’s an economic pie that we eat together. Some greedy guy like me gets to eat Ulker cookies and drink Coca-Cola Light while typing a blog post on his PC, while poorer people are struggling to survive because of global food crisis in some countries. Am I worthy enough? Maybe that poor guy in Africa is smarter and better than me. Work doesn’t justify my existence, after two years of engineering all I can see is a meaningless mess of money, sex and low-level fights. No one here cares about beauty of Zen style coding.
If my needs will never be fully satisfied, if I will spend whole life chasing ideas and products, I might just as well cease to exist. My favorite actor Heath Ledger committed suicide at the top of his career, because his girlfriend left him (or so they say). So, money alone can’t do the trick? What in this universe can satisfy you, O ye person reading this post on Nahili.com?
The Theory of Grand Old Asian Motivation is nothing but expressing old truths in a modern language to a modern person. I’m not a genius, so it’s difficult for me to struggle with all the philosophy and conflicting ideas. There are many logical sequences and enough evidence for my average mind to accept the existence of a Creator. I won’t go into details here, because I’m not knowledgeable enough. But the core of old motivation is faith. This Motivation could keep people happy without drinking too much beer and seeing a “girl” in the past, I’m absolutely sure it can help me in the modern world too.
If there’s some worth in me, then it’s right here on this blog. This is the thing I don’t do for money or a social status. This is the thing I will be able to show Magtymguly, Yunus Emre and Gonubek when I die, in case I’m allowed to see them. Old Asian motivation: is something you do for the Afterlife. Having only a lousy blog to show in the afterlife is pretty weak huh? I agree, but I’m an average person with all the average problems of a modern life.
Asian motivation has a distinct pattern. A person who embraces faith starts learning truths, and truths consequently change her behavior. For example you learn that your piece of economic pie is given to you by the Creator, and not by other people, the truth slowly settles down, you see its manifestation in the real life. From my recent experiences; when my employer said he was feeding me etc. etc. he was wrong. He was only the middle-man, so I told him I will easily find another job, which I easily did. Who gave me this brain and all the chances for education? Who was feeding me all these years before I met your sorry company? It was nothing extraordinary or brave, losing a job is better than losing motivation and killing yourself. Eventually I will earn more if I don’t die, right?

Back to the pattern; this type of motivation is like renewable energy, there’s absolutely no way to achieve or get something final, like a million bucks or a flat on Manhattan. There’s no answer where you will eventually go; to Heaven or to Hell. And at the same time The Creator is the ultimate point for satisfaction of all our endless needs and wishes. What wouldn’t one do for eternal happiness?
From Anti-Scatterbrain point of view, Asian motivation provides very strong incentives for focus and concentration. Your time won’t be wasted on thousands of little “masters”, made-up problems and useless temporary goals. There will be one grand goal to bind everything into one beautiful and clear system. God forbid but nothing to stop you; illness, poverty, stress, anger, melancholy… Temporary slips, but never an addiction or a suicide, only a grand march towards awaiting Gara Batyr, Berdimyrat han, Alparslan and other heroes. Always light, never darkness.