I do not agree with everything here. But that is why I need to work on developing my own concept of the existential entrepreneur. Still, there are some very good point in this piece; the information about this study is especially intriguing.

…In a series of experiments at MIT and Princeton by Arieley and Glucksburg, participants were divided into two groups. The first was given a financial incentive, and the second was given autonomy, purpose, and an opportunity for mastery. The results were instructive. In tasks where problems had to be solved, the latter group outperformed the former group by a wide margin. In routine tasks, those with financial incentives outperformed the more creative group.

The researchers further found that financial incentives routinized tasks. It gave participants tunnel vision and made them less creative. The reward rather than the work drove them and disconnected them from other considerations. Too much of this and you get visions of rats trained to press a lever for food pellets. The second group, on the other hand, was infinitely more creative and productive. They were engaged in what they did and were fully conscious of its implications. When you’re constantly considering the impact of what you are doing, it’s less likely your moral sense will go to sleep on you…

via The Existential Entrepreneur.