I just had the amazing time of reading this powerful book The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg, John David Mann.
It is a captivating book that shines new light to the old adage “Give and you shall receive.” I highly recommend this book for those who are just starting their business, planning on starting one or even those who’ve been in the game for a long time.
The Go-Giver is the story of a young man named Joe, very ambitious and determined to reach the greats, who has always been on the lookout for success. Joe is a quintessential go-getter, though he felt like the more he reaches his arms out to achieve something and the harder he plays, the farther he seemed was in getting the results he wanted . Below are some of the key points I absolutely loved in this book. Enjoy!
Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.
- THE Law of Value: Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment. – The First Law determines how valuable you are.
- The Law of Compensation : Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them. – the Second Law that determines how much you actually do earn.
- The Law of Influence: You influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.
- The Law of Authenticity: The most valuable gift you have to offer I yourself.
- The Law of Receptivity: The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.
“Typically, the more successful they are, the more willing they are to share their secrets with others.”
Lesson: find successful mentors via books, blogs, YouTube or in real life when you can.
“But to get really, really big, to reach the kind of stratospheric success we’re talking about, people need to have something on the inside, something that’s genuine.’”
Lesson: let your genuine show, share your inspiration and interests
The secret of “Giving” – give more value than people pay for. In business you must give before you receive. Must make and save money before you profit from money.
“So you’re saying, successful people keep their focus on what they’re…giving, sharing”
“Most of us have grown up seeing the world as a place of limitation rather than as a place of inexhaustible treasures. A world of competition rather than one of co-creation.”
“Here’s what you do get—you get what you expect.”
So make sure you have positive expectations for yourself, for others as well as for outcomes.
“Or put it another way: What you focus on is what you get. “
Go looking for the best in people, and you’ll be amazed at how much talent, ingenuity, empathy and good will you’ll find.
Lesson: once again change your outlook to change the outcome. Look for the positives and the opportunities you want and you are much more likely to find them. Change any negative outlooks into positive ones.
“The world treats you more or less the way you expect to be treated.”
The Law of Compensation
“I need you to agree that you will test every Law I show you by actually trying it out. Not by thinking about it, not by talking about it, but by applying it in your life.”
Lesson: taking action in applying something you learn is the only way to change your life, your future. And habits are only formed when you take action. I look at sharing ideas with others as taking action. Otherwise what good is it to have a lot of knowledge?
“The guy radiates success,” he thought. “It’s not just money, it’s something far more powerful than money.”
“A very useful thing to remember: appearances can be deceiving.”
Underneath that jovial, bigger-than-life Italian chef persona there was a powerful sense of focus and intention.
- “Everyone likes to be appreciated.”
- “And that’s the Golden Rule of business,”
- “All things being equal—”
- “—people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust.”
“A bad restaurant, tries to give just enough food and service, both in quantity and quality, to justify the money it takes from the customer. A good restaurant strives to give the most quantity and quality for the money it takes.
“But a great restaurant— ahh, a great restaurant strives to defy imagination! Its goal is to provide a higher quality of food and service than any amount of money could possibly pay for
“Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.”
Questions
- “The first question should be, ‘Does it serve?
- Does it add value to others?’
- If the answer to that question is yes, then you can go ahead and ask,
- Does it make money?’”
“Exceed people’s expectations, and they’ll pay you even more.”
“But the point isn’t to have them pay you more, it’s to give them more. You give, give, give. Why?” “Because you love to. It’s not a strategy, it’s a way of life. And when you do,” he added with a big grin, “then very, very profitable things begin to happen.”
This is what many of the successful people online are doing these days, they give away lots of advice and content for free and in many cases most of their content and advice for free and this leads to opportunities.
What would you do for free? Give for free?
“All the great fortunes in the world have been created by men and women who had a greater passion for what they were giving—their product, service or idea—than for what they were getting”
THE LAW OF VALUE Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.
5: The Law of Compensation
“True worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment “
“The First Law determines how valuable you are,”
“Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.”
“Or to put it another way, your compensation is directly proportional to how many lives you touch.” And the impact your make on those lives
Lesson: so if you are trying to make more money how can you server more people? This is obvious to those of us in business and is usually the question we all try to answer to get more sales.
This makes me think of all the new ways to attract customers which include:
- free content on YouTube
- free or cheap ebooks or whitepapers which explain what you do
- growth hacking strategies where you build growth into your product or offering
“If you want more success, find a way to serve more people. It’s that simple.”
“It also means there are no limitations on what you can earn, because you can always find more people to serve.”
If you are a personal coach you can reach more people when you record your coaching and offer it online. You record it once and thousands or millions of people can learn from you.
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘Everybody can be great because anybody can serve.’
‘Everybody can be successful because anybody can give.’”
THE LAW OF COMPENSATION
Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them. Some of these tasks she enjoyed more than others. However, she approached each one as though she loved it. She did this by reminding herself that, regardless of how much or how little she cared for the task itself, she relished the opportunity to survive, save and serve. 661
“Survive, save and serve?” 664
“They are the three universal reasons for working.”
- Survive—to meet your basic living needs.
- Save—to go beyond your basic needs and expand your life.
- And serve—to make a contribution to the world around you.”
“Changing my focus from seeing what I could git to what I could give was when my career started to take off. Started to. But in a business like mine—actually, in any business—you also need to know how to develop a network
I don’t necessarily mean your customers or clients. I mean a network of people who know you, like you and trust you
This could be a spouse, an accountability partner, a business partner, parents or friends who all want to see you succeed or as the book says they always have you in the backs of their minds. And you feel the same about them.
They might never buy a thing from you, but they’ve always got you in the backs of their minds.”
“They’re people who are personally invested in seeing you succeed, you see? And of course, that’s because you’re the same way about them. They’re your army of personal walking ambassadors.
“You want to know what makes that kind of network happen? Stop keeping score”
“Just that. Don’t keep track. That’s not networking—that’s poker. You know how people say ‘win-win’?”
“Always look for the solution where you both come out ahead.”
I often want others to succeed so there are other people to hang out with during the working week! So a win-win could be to help others find financial freedom so they can spend more time with you. This can be applied to a spouse as well.
“That’s right, and it sounds great—in theory. But most of the time, what people call ‘win-win’ is really just a disguised way of keeping track. Making sure we all come out even, that nobody gets the advantage. Even-Steven. I scratched your back, so now you owe me.” He shook his head sadly. “When you base your relationships—in business or anywhere else in your life—on who owes who what, that’s not being a friend. That’s being a creditor.”
“You want to know the Third Law of Stratospheric Success?”
“Watch out for the other guy. Watch out for his interests. Watch his back. Forget about fifty-fifty, son. Fifty-fifty’s a losing proposition. The only winning proposition is one hundred percent. Make your win about the other person, go after what he wants.
“Forget win-win—focus on the other person’s win “
The Third Law, the Law of Influence: “Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.”
“Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.” 751
“Because if you place the other person’s interests first, your interests will always be taken care of. Always. Some people call it enlightened self-interest. Watch out for what other people need, with the faith that when you do, you’ll get what you need.”
What creates influence? Putting other people’s interests first.
- Helping
- Encouraging
- Teaching
Givers Attract “They love to give. That’s why they’re attractive. Givers attract
“Givers attract,” … “And that’s why the Law of Influence works. Because it magnetizes you.”
The next part of the book is referencing an interaction between a husband and wife where they each get 30 minutes to talk about their day with each other:
Fifty-fifty’s a losing proposition. It was Sam, of course. Even-Steven. I scratched your back, so now you owe me…that’s not being a friend, that’s being a creditor.
The Law of Authenticity
A genuinely sound business principle will apply anywhere in life—in your friendships, in your marriage, anywhere. That’s the true bottom line. Not whether it simply improves your financial balance sheet, but whether it improves your life’s balance sheet.”
“I believe there is one reason, and only one reason, that we have stayed together so long and are as happy together today as we were forty-eight years ago—more so, in fact. That reason is this: I care more about my wife’s happiness than I do about my own. All I’ve ever wanted to do since the day I met her is make her happy. And here’s the truly remarkable thing—she seems to want the same thing for me.”
The next part of the book is when a lady is speaking at a conference, she recounts when she came to the conference as a down and out real-estate agent.
“… importance of adding value to what you sell. ‘Whatever it is you sell,’ he told us, 942
‘Whatever it is,’ he said, ‘you can excel by adding value. If you need money,’ he said, ‘add value. And if you need a lot of money, add a lot of value.’
‘What if you need a lot of money fast?’ … ‘Then find a way to add a lot of value fast
“I learned something that day. When I said that my life as a mom, wife and household manager left me with nothing the marketplace wanted, I was wrong. There was something else I’d learned over those years, and that was how to be a friend. How to care. How to make people feel good about themselves. And that, my friends, is something the marketplace wants very much—always has, always will.
Reminds me of the saying people will always remember how you made them feel.
“The speaker at that symposium had said, Add value. I had nothing to add but myself. “And, apparently, that was exactly what’d been missing.” 975
I’m here because I have the awesome responsibility and honor of selling you something far more valuable than a house. “What I’m here to sell you on is you.
“People, remember this: no matter what your training, no matter what your skills, no matter what area you’re in, you are your most important commodity. The most valuable gift you have to offer is you
“Reaching any goal you set takes ten percent specific knowledge or technical skills—ten percent, max. The other ninety-plus percent is people skills. “
The core of it is who you are. It starts with you. “As long as you’re trying to be someone else, or putting on some act or behavior someone else taught you, you have no possibility of truly reaching people. The most valuable thing you have to give people is yourself. No matter what you think you’re selling, what you’re really offering is you.”
“You want people skills?” she repeated. “Then be a person.” She looked around from face to face. “Can you do that? Will you do that?”
She looked to the left and to the right, again, meeting the gaze of dozens of individuals. “It’s worth ten thousand times more than all the closing techniques that ever have been or ever will be invented.
“It’s called authenticity
Authenticity.
The Fourth Law THE LAW OF AUTHENTICITY: The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
The Law of Receptivity
How many of us have heard it is better to give than receive? How many have taken this to heart and accepted it as true?
This was very interesting to me since I’d rather give than receive, this chapter points out how that really doesn’t work. Also I realized that if you are a giver you need to only give to those who are open to receive and in many cases those who are going to receive help and multiply it with their own work.
“It’s not better to give than to receive. It’s insane to try to give and not receive. “Trying not to receive is not only foolish, it’s arrogant. When someone gives you a gift, what gives you the right to refuse it—to deny their right to give?
“In fact, every giving can happen only because it is also a receiving.”
Every giving can happen only because it is also a receiving….
“All the giving in the world won’t bring success, won’t create the results you want, unless you also make yourself willing and able to receive in like measure. Because if you don’t let yourself receive, you’re refusing the gifts of others—and you shut down the flow.
This makes me think of the law of attraction. If you are not open to receiving then you will not have as many opportunities to receive.
Because human beings are born with appetite, nothing is more naturally geared toward being receptive than a baby, and if the secret of staying young, vibrant and vital throughout life is to hang onto those most precious characteristics we all have as children but which get drummed out of us— like having big dreams, being curious, and believing in yourself— then one of those characteristics is being open to receiving, being hungry to receive, being ravenous to receive!”
“So the secret to success,” Joe went on, “to gaining it, to having it, is to give, give, give. The secret to getting is giving. And the secret to giving is making yourself open to receiving
“The Law of Receptivity.”
The Fifth Law THE LAW OF RECEPTIVITY The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving. 1190
“The point is not what you do. Not what you accomplish. It’s who you are. 1217
