Obviously it can be a bit of both. I’m sure a lot of those guys on Wall Street get off on the high stakes, competitive environment along with all of the benefits to being wealthy. On the other hand, some people choose jobs that don’t pay much but give them a high degree of satisfaction. But I surmise that most people, particularly men, are mainly motivated extrinsically in their jobs to provide for their families, to maintain a certain lifestyle, or simply to survive.
I’m a software developer of about 8 years, and I do genuinely enjoy software development, but I do not enjoy the “job”. The concept of working on something I don’t really care about to make money for a company I don’t really care about when I hypothetically could be doing literally anything else with my relatively short time on this planet is frequently soul crushing. The pay does keep my family afloat though. I’m hopeful one day to find a field of software development that genuinely interests me or provides some value to my community or the environment. Until then, I struggle.