Also a good question. Thanks for asking!
I have never been the kind of person who was motivated by external factors... grades, money, etc. So, when my students... or anyone else for that matter... ask me why I am not "opening up a store" I find that I do not really even have an answer. Of course I could use the extra money... and I'd be lying if I said I have not seriously considered it... but that's really not WHY I am doing all of this.
I love to learn new things, I am passionate about education, I love creating things and I love the feeling that I have inspired someone (even just one person). I find that I can relate almost anything "fun" that I learn, do or make to curriculum... and I like proving that I learn more by doing stuff... and using the Internet and my friends and family than I could ever learn just because someone "said" to. This is fundamental to my entire philosophy of what education should look like. Let's do stuff, create stuff, solve stuff... stuff we like... stuff we're interested in... and we WILL learn.
Dan Pink's book Drive might actually explain it better than anything I can write here.
Google, Wikipedia, etc... Let's learn because it helps us do cool things! Let's feel good about giving something back, about contributing to the greater good!
If you think it is not possible... take it from a guy who literally turned away from traditional education to learn stuff he liked or wanted to learn. Look what happened as a result... are you using one of his products right now?
