On this page: Prosperity Principles, Creating Agreements, Compassionate Communication & Tips

"The Go-Giver" is a book co-authored by Bob Burg and John David Mann¹. It tells the story of a young man named Joe who is struggling to achieve success in his career. Joe learns the “Five Laws of Stratospheric Success” from a famous consultant and a few other go-givers. These laws emphasize value, compensation, influence, authenticity, and receptivity. By embracing a giving mindset, Joe discovers that success isn’t just about taking, but more about providing value to others.

This is my favorite business book. It's good to read the whole story yourself (The Go-Giver, Expanded Edition: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea (Go-Giver, Book 1: Burg, Bob, Mann, John David: 9781591848288: Amazon.com: Books) however this summary of the major topics in the novel is helpful too:

Value 

A good apple, as one example, has value for anyone hungry and needing its nutrition to do their best.

Importantly, the value of what we do is independent of any passage of time requisite for it.

If we could do artisan or expert quality work in half of the amount of time we previously did we could earn twice as much in the same month or year.

We should strive to not hold back any of our talents and skills, our virtuous efforts that could help someone, especially if it is our (professional) duty to do so. Yet we should also be compassionate to ourselves, not straining ourselves to burn out and thereby doing less over time.

By the same token we should wisely reward ourselves for good work from time to time too (to accomplish more for others, ourselves).

Compensation

As we could give the production of our work to anyone willing to acquire it at an agreed upon price, choosing to give a single work to one person engenders the preclusion of others from this same work (lest they divide and so share it). Therefore, it is fair to ask for, to demand compensation for our contributory efforts.

Influence

Influence is "the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways : sway" (of Google search results). We could influence one another, so 'tis best to do this with the very best of our skills, knowledge, integrity, maturity and so on, doing "for others as we wish for others to do for us"

Authenticity

To be genuine, we must live in accord with wisdom (and not what only seems to be so).

To be authentic, we must accept our past, our yearnings, values and needs and our accomplishments and failings.

Receptivity 

We, people, have needs as may vary even from one moment to the next. It is critical to gauge, to discern whether someone actually needs our services, products, etcetera, and if needed then when.

We must have willingness to be rejected, told "no", to experience a genuine "yes!" to our good works, to possibly fruitful endeavor.

You may read more about satisfying needs here: The Common Needs of People | Aware Learning

Creating Agreements

A generalized example of this for added clarity of understanding (whilst keeping agreed upon confidentiality) from my own life coaching career (I've been certified as an Elite Life Coach by Mitch Matthews and David Nadler).

Upon becoming sure or certain about a desired future that both a possible client and I concurred would be worth striving to achieve, I sometimes made an offer to support them in a scheduled way such as with a phone or Skype call every week.

I was paid for this and learned to ask for feedback to be sure that my clients were at least somewhat satisfied. Many times they were!

I didn't use overly verbose, ten page contracts; I relied upon verbal agreements (from one to three hour conversations on average) summed up with a sentence or two in an email or PayPal comment.

Once when someone did not want my services and I had already spent her money on much needed rent and groceries, I worked for months to pay her back.

It was difficult to do so yet I knew I would have to refund her be self-respecting at a minimum. Eventually did refund her in full after a year of saving.

Compassionate Communication is a vital part of creating good agreements.

Each party of any agreement should arrive at factual concurrence, feelings relatability (as surely may include emotional relatability) and espousals of moral and authentic yearnings to then make genuine requests of each other.

Here's an example:

"We agreed to work together in a client-and-mentor type of relationship for three years whilst you strive to succeed, with my  ongoing and involved support, on the revisable vision for your future (family and friends included) which we discussed (saved in the attached mind-map) unto particularity during our second phone call."

Additionally, a few things I yearn to share with you that have been personally helpful are these:

• The Pareto Principle - Essentially, most of the desired results of any venture have tended to come from those acts that are on the "straight and narrow", actions that we may be afraid of yet are the best opportunities. We can know which is which amongst extant options by logical reasoning and spiritual discernment: logical and critically helpful reasoning regarding intuitive faculties (which all people have inherently):

  1. clairsentience - communication by feelings and sensations

  2. claircognizance - recognition because of the gifting of God

  3. clairvoyance - perception of visions from God

  4. clairaudience - hearing sounds from God

  5. clairolfaction - smells from God

• "Pomodoros" - if you have to do mundane work, try working for about twenty-five minutes at a time and then try to enjoy a five minute break before doing any more (of the same or closely similar) work (company policies and procedures permitting)

• Study Breaks - One of my university professors, Dr. Vines, studied for about 15 minutes at a time whilst writing notes and then took a break.