What motivates people?

What motivates people.. culture or money? this is a question that i have been thinking about lately. Ambition is an obvious answer, but ambition itself comes from something or other. I have been thinking of this recently as I am currently living in Denmark, where the differences between the poor and the rich, the educated and uneducated is not so visible. The poorest parts of Copenhagen still do not resemble the council estates of the UK - so if there is not much financial reward for effort what motivates them to get educated..?