The Go-Giver: Book Summary

"The Go-Giver - A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea"

by Bob Burg and John David Mann

The 5 laws:

1. “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.”
2. “Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.”, i.e., “Your compensation is directly proportional to how many lives you touch.”
3. “Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.”
4. “The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.”
5. “The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.”

Other Key Takeaways:

• “You can’t always get what you want. What you focus on is what you get.”
• “Everyone likes to be appreciated.”
• “People will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust.”
• A great service provider provides a higher quality and service (experience) than any amount of money could possibly pay for.
• “Exceed people’s expectations and they’ll pay you even more.”
• “Giving is a way of life, not a strategy, and doing so makes profitable things happen.”
• “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. And many of those great fortunes have been squandered by others who had a greater passion for what they were getting than what they were giving.”
• “To succeed, we’ve to make up a story in our head of how we’re be achieving what we want to.”
• Being relaxed gets more accomplished than being anxious or stressed.
• “Survive, save and serve: 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.”
• “Reaching any goal you set takes ten per cent specific knowledge or technical skills—ten per cent, max. The other ninety-plus per cent is people skills. And what’s the foundation of all people skills? Liking people? Caring about people? Being a good listener? Those are all helpful, but they’re not the core of it. 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 behaviour 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.”