On a weekly basis, The Ethics Newsline raises some intriguing questions and includes some fascinating statistics.  Recently they included the chart shown on the left with the caption, “Free Time Is More Important Than Money.”

People familiar with direct sales would have no difficulty agreeing with the obvious conclusion that people work for something other than money.  I don’t think it is quite that simple.Very few people start in direct sales for reasons that don’t include money.  If you were to ask, you would hear descriptions that sound like:

• “I could work part time and make the same money as . . .”
• “I didn’t have to pack my baby off to a sitter every day and so the income matched my regular job.”
• “I needed a part time job to pay some credit card debt and had to work around my regular job.”

Filter through all of these rationales, and the conclusion becomes a little more complicated.  They wouldn’t have signed up for a sales job if the money wasn’t there. 

Think of it this way:They don’t join the direct sales profession for the money, but they wouldn’t do it without the money.  John Stuart Mill would call money a necessary but insufficient cause.  As a parallel, oxygen is necessary for fire, but the presence of heat and a combustible material provide the sufficiency for a fire.

Let’s face it.  Engaging in sales activities is pretty scary for most people and money, in and of itself, is not enough of an incentive to get people to sell.  On the other hand, the money to be found in sales can attract beginners, and the other benefits—the free time, success, family time, and so on—can keep them there.

What do you think?  Money may light the sales fire, but can it keep the fire burning?