I had gone to a conference in 2010. I was really struggling to wrap my head around the validity of our company’s offering when a colleague suggested that I stop worrying about what it was and just learn how to give myself away. That comment stunned me. Aren’t we here to do business? I rely on commissions to pay my bills. The colleague-turned-mentor said something I’ll never forget, “listen, you’re a go-getter. But you’re also a giver. You’re trying to separate the two. Stop it. You need to learn to be a go-giver.”
Give and get… at the same time? I was lost. She said she had a book in her room that she’d lend me for the rest of the conference if I wanted to implement the one thing that had made her successful. I thought. ‘The one thing? This one thing was the one that made you so successful? I’ll take it.’
I read a little bit that night. But had to ask if I could finish it before we got together again the following month. She said that’d give us a chance to talk further. So I held onto it. I didn’t just read it. I devoured it.
The Go Giver is a parable-like story that shares how the main character learns how to give in order to receive. He meets a mentor that shows him the importance of being kind and giving what you do have in order to give enough value to others that they only want to consider you for doing business in the future. Stories are funny that way. They share implementable universal truths that help us become who we need to become in order that we can accomplish great things. It helped me produce better numbers. Numbers that meant more to clients than what I was selling. The numbers I gained was in humans who valued the things I was sharing with them. And yes, my numbers grew in how much I made.
Learning to give is one major step in learning how to be open to receive. You can even borrow it, I bought it on CD so I can hear it over and over again.