YOUTUBE 📚 THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE 📚 PATREON

*Anyone who wants to learn how generosity and win-win business practices can help them succeed in the modern economy.

*Business owners looking for new, effective strategies for both increasing profits and increasing customer goodwill and satisfaction at the same time.

*People who are interested in living a more selfless, generous lifestyle, while still providing financially for themselves and the people they care about.

In the modern economy, mean guys finish last. There's been a complete reimagining of the possibilities for mutual assistance and cooperation that's transforming how we do business, and today, it's possible to "do well by doing good."

The Go-Giver is a wildly popular business book that demonstrates "The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success" through the parable of Joe, an ambitious young man who desperately wants success but has no idea how to get it.

Here are the Five Laws:

#1: The Law of Value

#2: The Law of Compensation

#3: The Law of Influence

#4: The Law of Authenticity

#5: The Law of Receptivity

Joe is still possessed by the belief that the world of business is "everyone for themselves" and that in order to get ahead, someone else has to fall behind. On the last day of the 3rd quarter, he's behind on his quotas, and with very little hope of not getting fired.

Side Note: In the story, he works at the Clason-Hill Trust Corporation, which is an amalgam of the names of George Clason (author of The Richest Man in Babylon) and Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich), both of which are absolute classic personal finance books in their own right.

Anyway, back to the story...

Desperate to avoid losing his job, Joe asks one of his co-workers for an introduction to Pindar, known to people in the company as the "Chairman," who Joe believes can save him from joblessness by the end of the week. Either by flattery or trickery, Joe intends to get what he needs from the "Chairman" and save himself.

As luck would have it, Pindar agrees to teach Joe the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success, one per day for a whole week, on the one condition that Joe applies each law by the end of the same day on which he learns it.

Over the next week, Pindar introduces Joe to a series of “go-givers”: a restaurateur, a CEO, a financial adviser, a real estate broker, and the “Connector,” who brought them all together. Each of them teaches Joe one of the laws, supervised by Pindar, and gradually transforms Joe from a "go-taker" into a "go-giver."

Since this book carries such an important message and really doesn’t take that long to read, I often insist that people read it for themselves, rather than simply reading the summary.

And not just businesspeople, either! It’s about giving generally, and how you can get anything you want in life as long as you help enough other people get what they want (h/t: Zig Ziglar). It's about helping instead of hoarding.

Those who work together, win together, and this “helping” thing isn’t just “a nice thing to do,” but it's actually the way that wealth and success are created in the modern economy. I suspect that this is how it has always worked, but sometimes civilization is slow to catch up.

The Go-Giver is simply studded with counter-intuitive ideas about the nature and power of giving, and its message is a timely one. The world is more interconnected and abundant than it's ever been, and there's more than enough success to go around.

The key is to give without expecting anything in return - to trust, knowing that what you put in is pretty much exactly what you get out. That's how life works!

You wouldn't expect to get heat from a fireplace without putting in a log, or expect to earn interest from your investments without making a deposit, so why would you expect to get anything before you're willing to give?

#1: The Law of Value

The most successful businesses and businesspeople always provide more value than they receive in compensation - the magnitude of their contribution far outweighs anything they take in the form of payment.

Your goal - if you want to maximize profits and stand out from the competition - is to make an offer that is so good that people would feel stupid for saying no. You just hit them with so much value for what they're paying that you become the obvious choice, thereby rendering your competitors irrelevant.

You can do this in many ways, and importantly, it doesn't always have to do with the product itself. Sometimes, what separates you from your competitors is the level of care that you provide, the experience that you create for your customers, and simply your genuine concern for their well-being and satisfaction.

It's funny: in our society, we used to notice when service was bad; today, we notice when service is good! Below-average to mediocre is the baseline expectation, but if you can deliver more value than that, then potential customers will start to take notice.

There's a ton of competition today for average, but almost none for excellent. Above and beyond - nobody seems to want to try and achieve that level of service and care. If you do, however, you will be rewarded.

#2: The Law of Compensation

The magnitude of your contribution will differentiate you in the marketplace, but so will the scale of your contribution. A heart surgeon provides massive value to just a few people, and he or she is rewarded for that, but their efforts don't scale. They can only operate on so many people per day.

However, a company like Starbucks makes just a small contribution to the happiness or life satisfaction of their customers, but they do it millions of times a day, all over the world, to a vast assortment of different people. The scale of their contribution is enormous.

This works together with the law of value, and your success is a direct reflection of how well you can provide value at a certain scale and magnitude. If you are the reason why a large number of people's lives are made better each and every day, then you will be massively rewarded in the marketplace. It's about service, at the end of the day.

Apart from that, operating in this way helps make for an incredibly meaningful life overall. A life of service is worthwhile and valuable, no matter what. If you can be of service to a large enough number of people, in a way they find valuable, then you will be rewarded.

#3: The Law of Influence

You become a person of influence to the degree that you become a person of value and character - the two are inseparable. You could have a million followers on Instagram or any other social platform, but if you aren't a person of upstanding character, then you can never be a person of real influence.

Givers also practice something called infinite horizon networking, a term discussed in detail in Dorie Clark's book, The Long Game. Short-term, selfish networking is all about "What can I get?" Whereas infinite horizon networking represents a fundamentally different stance altogether. It's a commitment to long-term growth, development, and mutual aid. And it's the future of networking.

Look for how you can help people achieve their goals and they will want to reciprocate. One of the most fundamental human needs is the craving to be appreciated, but right up there in importance is the desire to give back to those who have helped us in the past.

It used to be - decades ago - that the way you gained power in the corporate environment was to hoard information and resources and make sure the flow routed entirely through you; you made people come to you, therefore you were powerful. Not anymore.

Today, when you enter and meaningfully contribute to a network of people focused on mutual assistance and growth - a giving network - you are setting yourself up for real power and influence.

Besides, change happens too fast today to be able to hoard anything for long. A week from now, the information you've kept to yourself will be outdated and you'll be left behind.

The really effective strategy that will help you become a person of influence is to make yourself indispensable, due to the value you provide to your network. If you place other people's interests first, take a genuine interest in other people's success, and make sure the people around you are winning, then you will be rewarded.

#4: The Law of Authenticity

The story of humanity is the story of people consistently undervaluing their own contributions. Simply by virtue of being yourself, you already have an incredible amount to offer the world, and the Law of Authenticity demands that you stop hiding and step forward.

There is literally no one else on the planet who is better at being you than you are, and we each possess unique strengths that the world needs. There are no extra people on the planet; we each have something we are called to give, and if you don't step forward and give what you have, then the rest of us will be deprived.

Yet, most people don't believe that they even have anything unique or valuable to offer. They forget that they are capable of learning, and getting better over time; they are simply unaware of their long-term potential.

Sure, maybe your contribution doesn't have much magnitude or scale today, but 10+ years is a long time for radical accomplishment. When you keep upgrading your skills, keep showing up, and keep contributing what you have, where you are, then eventually, you will be rewarded.

#5: The Law of Receptivity

The final Law of Stratospheric Success was a major missing piece of the puzzle for me, as I suspect it is for a great many other people too. For whatever reason, we simply don't feel comfortable receiving what we've in fact earned.

The authors of The Go-Giver never suggest that we can sideline self-interest completely, or even that it's desirable to do so. Human beings will always be somewhat selfish, and that's fine! We would stand almost literally zero chance of survival if we didn't take at least some interest in ourselves. This is natural and good.

Luckily for all of us, though, giving and receiving are not mutually exclusive. Giving creates the possibility of receiving, just as there is no receiving without giving.

This paragraph is important too. You're even giving something when you're receiving: you're giving the other person a chance to feel good about themselves and to provide value. You're accepting a gift, graciously, and that's what makes gift-giving so special.

Receiving "completes the cycle," so to speak, in the same way that breathing out completes the cycle of breathing in. When you've done the work, when you've made your contribution, and you're open to receiving what's coming to you because of it, then you will be rewarded.

#6: Every Business is the People Business

Everything is about people. Relationships are everything in business, yes, but they're also everything in life. No one will remember your profit margins or account balance or whatever else, but they will remember how you made them feel.

Money is essentially an exchange of value between two people, and if you don't have customers, you don't have a business. 

So it stands to reason that if you want to grow your company by increasing the scale and magnitude of your contribution, you should always focus on the customer (the person!) standing right in front of you. They're the most important part of any business.

That doesn't mean that the customer is always right (man, customers can be so wrong!), but it does mean that whatever business you're in, you're really in the people business.

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