What Everyone Wants in Life
If you knew the secret formula to give people what they want, what would that be worth? How would you be able to use that secret to get what you want?
The charismatic motivational speaker Zig Ziglar was well known for saying, “you will get all you want in life if you help enough people get what they want”.
The Neuro Leadership Journal (Issue 1 of 2008) published an article titled “SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others.”
SCARF is an acronym for the five words that describe “what everyone wants in life.”
Motivational coach, Tony Robbins, published an article on his website titled, “Discover the 6 Human Needs”.
There is a significant overlap in the content of the two articles. The result is a list of actionable items that, if deployed with the right intent, can significantly impact how you can help others get what they want and hopefully get what you want.
Tony Robbins’ list includes:
Significance
Certainty
Variety
Connection
Growth
Contribution
SCARF includes:
S = Status
C = Certainty
A = Autonomy
R = Relatedness
F = Fairness
Significance and Status amount to the same thing. Variety can be achieved by giving people enough Autonomy to do things their own way and make their own choices.
Connection and Relatedness are the same things. Tony Robbins refers to these as the need for love — a deep form of connection.
Fairness stands on its own; everyone wants to be treated fairly, even though life is unfair. Growth is about personal development and getting better at what you do. Contribution is feeling joy because what you do is meaningful to you and others.
Knowing the elements on the list is one thing; putting into action the techniques that help others get what they want is an acquired skill that comes from practice.
In future articles, I will explore how I use these human need elements to teach others about value creation and business performance. Over ten thousand hours of public speaking and educating managers and executives has helped me hone my skills in helping others get what they want.
Now the only thing left to do is figure out what I want 😊
Justin Spencer-Young
