I recently finished reading "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg and John David Mann, recommended by a friend, and I was captivated from start to finish.
The book outlines five laws of stratospheric success. It teaches the principles of how to effectively serve your way to success.
The core theme of "The Go-Giver" is the concept of "giving." It unveils the pretty interesting nuances of how shifting from a "go-getter" to a "go-giver" mindset can lead to superlinear outcomes in life. Most of us often operate under the assumption: "First give me some heat, then I'll throw some logs."
People base their actions on three fundamental motives:
Most people live their life for the first one. Few focus onto second. But the rare ones who got success in all dimensions of life keep their focus firmly centered on the third one.
I’ll briefly lay down the 5 laws talked about in a book.
Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.
The discussion revolves around how different tiers of restaurants serve their customers. A bad restaurant provides just enough food and service, both in quantity and quality, to get by. A good restaurant, on the other hand, aims to offer the most quantity and quality for the price it charges. However, a great restaurant seeks to defy imagination! Its goal is to deliver a higher quality of food and service than what any amount of money could possibly justify.
We truly become exceptional when we exceed people's expectations. Anything that merely offers value equivalent to its monetary demand quickly becomes commoditized. The guiding principle here is, "Be so good they can’t ignore you." Ernesto, a character in the story who owns a chain of restaurants, began by selling hot dogs at a roadside stall. His exceptional devotion to providing an extraordinary "experience" to his customers quickly attracted several investors. This led him to become one of the largest real estate owners in the city and the proprietor of a restaurant chain.
Simple gestures such as remembering a customer's name or personalizing their dining experience can significantly distinguish your business, building trust and likability.
Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.
To put it simply, it's a law of scalability. To earn more and provide greater value, you need to reach a larger audience. Building leverage is a crucial skill that enables scalability. Those who have become wealthy in business are individuals who have mastered the art of expanding their horizons to add value.
Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first.
Interpersonal relationships start to take off when we change our focus from seeing what I can git to what I can give. Givers attract . Giving more, putting others interests ahead of yours creates the influence and it ultimately results into wealth creation.
Optimizing for a win-win scenario is crucial when dealing with others. Both parties should benefit from the interaction. When relationships are built on a tally of debts—on who owes who what—this isn't friendship; it's a creditor-debtor relationship. The best approach to creating win-win situations is to view interpersonal relationships as a positive-sum game. By prioritizing the other person's interests ahead of your own, your own interests will invariably be taken care of. Watch out for what other people need with the faith that when you do, you will get what you want.
The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
People often remember how you make them feel. Authenticity and the unique value you provide are what make you stand out. When you constantly try to imitate someone else, you lose the ability to genuinely connect with others. In interpersonal relationships, what you're really offering is yourself. People skills are essentially about being authentic. Authenticity is worth far more than all the techniques ever devised by the most ingenious communicators around the world.
The key to effectively giving is to stay open to receiving.
Humans are naturally inclined to expect returns; we often think about what we will receive.
An interesting anecdote in the discussion compares this to the process of inhaling and exhaling. Although exhaling is medically proven to provide more benefits to the body than inhaling, both are equally crucial. You cannot exhale indefinitely, regardless of any arguments presented.
Every giving can happen only because it is also a receiving. The secret to receiving is found in giving, and the secret to giving lies in being open to receiving. This balance is essential for a healthy, reciprocal exchange.
Lastly, Here are some compelling quotes I collected from the book...
"How does a person develop the mindset of giving? You give, give, and give why? Because you love to. It’s not a strategy, it’s a way of life."
"People will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust."
"Sometime you become foolish, you look foolish but you do the thing anyway."
"You just make it up. Being broke and being rich are both decisions. You make them up, right up here. Everything else is just how it plays out."
"What if you need a lot of money fast? Find a way to add a lot of value fast."