What Motivates Us...to do Our Very Best Work?

I recently visited the Museum of Flight in Seattle. I love museums like this where you can see so many generations of innovation and progress all at once. I have always appreciated the world of aircraft design and engineering.

I was particularly fascinated with a display for the "Corncob". This engine developed by Pratt and Whitney as the R-4360 Wasp Major, powered the F2G Corsair in the latter years of WWII. This engine marked a pinnacle achievement at the end of the piston engine era for fighter aircraft. There are four rows of seven pistons in radial arrangement. If the engineering and problem solving skills needed to make that kind of design work doesn't amaze you, then how about its weight of 3470 lbs with an ability to produce 3500 horsepower. This 1:1 power to weight ratio was tough to beat.

As I studied the detailed cutaway engine on the floor at the museum, I wondered about the people who designed it and built it. What motivated them to do this kind of difficult work...to do their very best work?