Origins of Motivation

I have always wondered what is it that motivates a person to excel, to be the best and consider himself an "achiever". Its a fundamental question. Did the first man on earth just "know" that he had to work hard, just using primal instinct or did he realize after a certain duration of time that he had to become intelligent if he didnt want to get eaten up by bigger predators? And if he did realize it, then how did he go about the process? Cause the first man had no pointers, no teachers, mentors or examples to look up and imbibe from, he'd only observe other animals. And even if he did evolve over the years, how did he do it? Maybe the answer lies in Darwin's theories which i haven't read, but its still worth pondering over.

It has always been acceptable to be funny, to be introverted, to be unique....then why has it never been acceptable to be stupid, blunt or demotivated. I mean, an IIM selects only a brilliant/motivated person. Ppl may answer that only such people can make a difference to the world, but i disagree. At the end of the day, when a man dies, doesnt matter which man, its a great equalizer. Each one is laid to rest in the same way, each one's body decays, each one is forgotten and ppl move on with their lives.....then why such bigotry as to only those who are smart/intelligent are the best people in life?

As I pondered upon this question, i realized that survival is the name of the game. Each person has to be intelligent/motivated/successful for them to live, to be valued, to stay luxuriously, to be remembered for his contribution to society and to be honoured when he dies. But let me counter this with a fundamental question, if you knew you were always going to survive well, always be remembered and be honoured on your deathbed , would you do even half the things that you would do? I think a very small percentage of people would do what they do if the had such a security. Us engineers have a saying, "We only work when our butts are on fire, or in the process of being set on fire." For most of the human society, when they work, are their butts on fire all the time? Let me give you an example, if you could be Bill Gates's son/daughter today, would you remain the same person? If you can, then its nothing short of a miracle.

In Ayn Rand's book, "The Fountainhead", she says that man's ego is the gateway to all kinds of progress. But where has that ego been built up from - from dominating all the other living species for thousands of years, from building massive civilizations, from putting a man on the moon, from developing technology which can destroy countries in a microsecond and so on and so forth. Man has done a lot. The need to replicate that or go one step further is what every human is looking for or desires. It is the same reason why an IIM will reject a hard-working all-life cobbler for the newest IIT graduate who knows nothing about making his/her daily bread. Im not saying its wrong, cause the cobbler would probably not be the best student in the IIM, im just saying that capitalism has penetrated into every pore of the human mind and its essential that people retain their individuality before falling into the arena where these rat-races take place for eternity.