“The world certainly was designed with a sense of humor….  Inside every truth and every appearance, there’s a bit of opposite tucked inside.”  Pindar in The Go-Giver

How comfortable are you receiving gifts from others?  Explain.

And I have been a constant example of how you can help the poor by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  (Acts 20:35, NLT)

Earlier this month, I highlighted the book The Go-Giver: A Little Story About A Powerful Business Idea (see 2/4/08 DG).  In that book are presented five rather unusual laws called “The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.”  For the last several DGs I have been looking at each of those laws individually.

The last law is the Law of Receptivity which simply states, “The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.”  As one of those radical Christians who believes the Bible should be interpreted literally, I strongly believe the words of Jesus as quoted by Paul in today’s scripture.

In fact, I daresay that most have grown up understanding that it is better to give than to receive.  Many of us have had that drummed into our subconscious so long that we don’t even know how to graciously receive a gift of any kind.  We sometimes even have trouble asking fair compensation for our labors.  

I have never seen a commentary nor heard a sermon that explores this from the point of view that for someone to give, someone else must receive.  To take it to the extreme, if everybody literally refused to receive because they were holding out for the blessing that comes from giving, there would be nobody left to give to.  It would all come to a screeching halt!  Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Quoting from The Go-Giver, “Receiving is the natural result of giving.  If you give and then try to stop the receiving that comes back, you’re like King Canute watching the tide roll out and commanding it not to come back in.  It has to come back in, just as your heart has to contract after relaxing.”  Continuing to quote, “…the secret to success…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.”  Remember, the more you have, the more you have available to give.  Don’t shut off the flow.

And that, dear reader, ends the series on the five laws from The Go-Giver.  I do hope you’re inspired to get this book.  It’s a very powerful read.

Prayer Power
Lord, allow us to see the deeper truth behind your words as quoted in Acts 20 rather than just that which lies on the surface.  Grant us the ability to be as gracious in our receiving as we are in our giving.

Link of the Day
The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea

Blessings to you as you remain open to receive from some unexpected source with a simple “Thank you.”
 

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”  Judy Garland

Why do we feel it is not OK to be who we really are?

How perverse you are! Is the potter no better than the clay? Something that was made, can it say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’? Or a pot say of the potter, ‘He does not know his job’?  (Isa. 29:16, NJB)

Earlier this month, I highlighted the book The Go-Giver: A Little Story About A Powerful Business Idea (see 2/4/08 DG).  In that book are presented five rather unusual laws called “The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.”  For the last several DGs I have been featuring each of those laws individually.

We’re now up to the fourth law, the Law of Authenticity which states, “The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.”  Yea…sure!  Not much of a gift.  I’d be a lot more of a gift if I were better looking, like Jim over there.  Or if I had more money like Frank.  Or a more outgoing personality like Mary.  Or have a better education like Ann.  Or if I could just play the piano like Tom.  Man, I’d be the life of the party!  If only!  If only!  If only!!!

The only real “if only” is if only I would start to celebrate the way God made me.  According to the Law of Authenticity, one of the keys to “stratospheric success” is being yourself…being authentic.  You have to believe that people will be more impacted by the real you than by the false you that you are always pretending to be.  Here’s some of what The Go-Giver has to say about this:

“Reaching any goal you set takes ten percent specific knowledge or technical skills–ten percent, max.  The other ninety-plus percent 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 s 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….  You want people skills?  Then be a person.”

For some of us, this law may well be the hardest to follow.

Prayer Power
Lord, forgive us for all our complaining and dissatisfaction about how You made us.  Grant us the grace to recognize that You made us perfectly and gave us the perfect set of gifts and abilities to accomplish those tasks You planned for us to accomplish.

Link of the Day
The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea

Blessings on you as you choose to lay down one of the many masks that you use to conceal the real you.
 

“Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”  Mark Twain

Who are some of the most influential people you know?  What makes them so influential?

But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being,  (Phil. 2:7; NJB)

Earlier this month, I highlighted the book The Go-Giver: A Little Story About A Powerful Business Idea (see 2/4/08 DG).  In that book are presented five rather unusual laws called “The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.”  For the next several DGs I am looking at each of those laws individually.  Last week, I highlighted the first and second laws, the Law of Value and the Law of Compensation.

Turning now to the third law, the Law of Influence which states, “Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.”  As a life coach, I love this law because this is the heart of a great coach…a willingness to make it all about the other person.

Ever heard that marriage is a 50-50 proposition?  Well, let me assure you…that’s a myth.  50-50 means you’re always keeping score.  I did this for you, therefore you owe me.  It’s a trap!  No, any successful couple will tell you that it’s a 100-100 deal.  I give you 100% whether or not you give me anything in return.  Here’s a Go-Giver quote to demonstrate how this same mindset leads to successful business dealings.  “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.”

Zowie!!!  How revolutionary is that?  With that kind of attitude toward others, you quickly amass an “army of personal walking ambassadors.”  It’s not money nor position that create influence.  Rather, it’s influence that creates money and/or position.  Just another example of how most people’s thinking is backwards…very similar to the idea that “I’ll start to give when I have more.”  As we pointed out recently, it never works that way.  Start to give more and you will have more.  Put the other guy first and you will quickly develop influence which will create the money and position. 

Folks, this book will rock your boat!  I can’t urge you enough to invest in yourself and read this story…again and again.

Prayer Power
Lord, this is hard.  Hard because it is so contrary to what we’ve been taught our whole lives.  Raise our sensitivities to opportunities to put the other person ahead of us and demonstrate a heart of agape love.

Link of the Day
The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business IdeaBlessings on you as you make a conscious effort to put someone’s interests ahead of your own this very day.
 

“Everybody can be great because anybody can serve.”  Martin Luther King, Jr.
 
Who do you know that is a true servant?
 
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35; NIV)
 
Earlier this month, I highlighted the book The Go-Giver: A Little Story About A Powerful Business Idea (see 2/4/08 DG). In that book are presented five rather unusual laws called “The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.” For the next several DGs I am looking at each of those laws individually. Earlier this week, I highlighted the first law, the Law of Value.

Let’s look now at the second law, the Law of Compensation which states, “Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.” The Law of Value determines a person’s potential value while this second law determines how much you actually earn. Quoting from The Go-Giver, “Your compensation is directly proportional to how many lives you touch.”

This helps explain the troubling disparity between what good teachers, nurses, et al., earn when compared to athletes, rock stars, and the like. Again, “compensation is directly proportional to how many lives you touch.” That doesn’t mean that teachers and other dedicated people servants are worth less…just that they are compensated less simply because they touch relatively few lives in comparison to rock stars and other highly visible people. Kind of a hard pill to swallow, but I believe that if you will stop and reflect on it a bit, you’ll see that, like it or not, it seems to hold up in real life.

On the flip side, two very exciting realities emerge from The Law of Compensation. Again, quoting from The Go-Giver, “First, it means that you get to determine your level of compensation–it’s under your control. If you want more success, find a way to serve more people….It also means there are no limitations on what you can earn, because you can always find more people to serve.” Note especially the Martin Luther King, Jr. quote above. “Everybody can be great….” That includes you!

Find a way, or ways, to serve lots of people. Given the astounding rise in the number of millionaires in this country each succeeding year, people are demonstrating that there are a growing number of ways to “serve more people.” And no, most are not rock stars, nor highly visible. Indeed, we live in exciting times.

Prayer Power
Lord, open our minds to new and innovative ways to serve more and more people in ways that provide them value beyond what we ask.
 
Link of the Day 
The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
 
Blessings on you as you seek to find ways to extend the “reach” of your serving others.

“You do not have to get something for nothing but can give to every person more than you take from him.”  Wallace Wattles
 
Who do you know who is a true giver?
 
A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.  (Prov. 18:16; NLT)
 
Earlier this month, I highlighted the book The Go-Giver: A Little Story About A Powerful Business Idea (see 2/4/08 DG). In that book are presented five rather unusual laws called “The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.” For the next several DGs I would like to look at each of those laws individually.

The first law is the Law of Value and simply states, “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.” Almost seems the antithesis of good business doesn’t it? That’s the point of the whole book. In a culture of distrust and “dog eat dog” as ours has become in many respects, the idea of giving more than you get paid for seems quite foreign and frankly, just bad advice.

In the dialogue in the book, it comes out that giving to get is not the proper strategy either, but rather giving out of the love of giving. In other words, giving to give is something you “do,” while giving because you love to give is something you are…who you “be.” As we’ve noticed in several of the past Daily Grams, you must be before you can do with any integrity. Quoting from The Go-Giver parable, “…but the point isn’t to [exceed people's expectations so they will] pay you more, it’s to give them more…because you love to. It’s a way of life. When you do, then very, very profitable things begin to happen.”

The author sums it all up by noting, “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.” Pretty significant shift in thinking, don’t you think?

Can you think of any modern day examples? I can think of a couple that Sharon and I have been blessed to be involved with over the past three or four years. The first that comes to mind is our web site guru and peer-coach, Dr. Randy Peck. I could give you story after story of how we’ve seen this working out in the way he approaches both business and friendships. Another is our good friend Tony Stoltzfus who taught us all we know about coaching, and who continues to be our mentor and encourager. A couple of others include our chiropractor and friend, Dr. Julia Trudeau, as well as a long distance mentor and colleague (whom I’ve never met face-to-face), Mike Klingler who lives in Portland, OR. There are others, but those four kind of rise to the top in my mind.

I’d like to encourage you to (1) get this book as it can change your life; (2) think of a couple of examples of people you know who embody the Law of Value; and (3) begin to look for ways that you can give more value than you expect to get in return. The stand back and watch what happens!

Prayer Power
Lord, let this law of value become a habit, a way of life for us. Grant us the grace to let that become who we “be” rather than just what we “do” as we happen to think of it.
 
Link of the Day 
The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
 
Blessings on you as you look for just one place where you can give more than you expect in return.

“You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”  Zig Ziglar

If nobody was listening, how do you really feel about giving?

If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving–large or small–it will be used to measure what is given back to you.  (Luke 6:38; NLT)

Sharon and I just finished reading together an incredible book that we heartily encourage you to read.  The book is The Go-Giver: A Little Story About A Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg and John David Mann.  When I say we read “together,” Sharon actually read a chapter or two out loud before we went to sleep each night until the book was done.  It’s a very short book…only 14 chapters over 127 pages of fairly large print.  A person could probably read it in a couple of hours max.  But don’t let the size deceive you — it is one of the most significant books we’ve ever read.

We’re not alone in thinking that way.  Here’s just a couple of the endorsements about the book:
“The Go-Giver hits a bull’s-eye on the subject of success in business and life.  Burg and Mann clearly understand how helping others succeed will help you succeed.  I highly recommend this book.”  Dr. Ivan Misner, founder of Business Networking International and bestselling author
“The greatest leader is a servant leader.  The Go-Giver tells a great story about how to serve your way to success.”  John Addison, co-CEO, Primerica Financial Services
“This terrific book wonderfully illuminates [the] principles of contribution, abundance, service, and success.”  Stephen M. R. Covey, bestselling author
“The Go-Giver is the best business parable since The Greatest Salesman in the World and The One Minute Manager.”  Pat Williams, senior vice president, Orlando Magic

As you can undoubtedly tell by the title and some of the endorsements, the book is about the value of giving.  It is told in the form of a parable which makes it a very compelling read, and through the course of the story unfolds five amazing “Laws of Stratospheric Success” as follows:
The Law of Value — Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.
The Law of Compensation — Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.
The Law of Influence — Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interest first.
The Law of Authenticity — The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
The Law of Receptivity — The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.

This book has just been published, and is already creating quite a “buzz.”  If you haven’t already heard of it, I can promise you that you will over the next couple of months.  I encourage you to get ahead of the game and read it so you can be an eager and knowledgeable  participant in those conversations.  As Cameron Johnson, author of You Call the Shots predicts, “It will flip your thoughts on business and life upside down and provide massive value for you throughout your career.”

Prayer Power
Lord, grant us the grace to better understand and live by the law of giving that you so clearly weave throughout the Scriptures.  In this “go-getter” culture that we live in, may this book be used to reach many who may never have been exposed to the clarity of Your teaching on this fundamental issue.

Link of the Day
The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea

Blessings on you as you give an unexpected gift to someone today.