Is there a law for procrastination? I left off with the second law more than a month ago (and my beloved
Green Bay Packers were still playing football). But I'm back!
To bring you up to speed, I'm giving my best effort to apply The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success as described in
The Go-Giver. Hopefully you have already read (and applied) the previous two posts. If not, STOP! Start from the beginning. See
Stratospheric Success! Really? Stratospheric?LAW THREE OF STRATOSPHERIC SUCCESS
The Law of Influence
Your influence is determined by
how abundantly you place
other people's interests first.
I really like this law. I like it because it isn't always easy for me to execute. In fact, it is very easy for me to break. I understand how important other people's interests are, but put them first? In front of my own interest? Shouldn't I be making decisions and choices that put my interests first? The Go-Giver describes how the concept of win-win is all wrong. It describes how win-win means keeping score (I'll only do this for you if you return the favor for me). It goes on to describe that the focus should be 100% about the other person's win. My win is helping them achieve their win; and once that is done, I have somebody who "knows me, likes me and trusts me."
The condition... The day this happened, I almost fell off of my chair. And like Joe, I didn't realize that I was executing the law until it was over.
Like every business, it is important to acquire new clients. About a month ago, we started to develop a series of post cards to be mailed to businesses in our local market. When we completed the first card, I emailed an "almost final" draft to my peer group (HTG15). I was looking for feedback. All feedback was positive and one person asked if it would be ok for them to copy the idea. My response was not only could they copy the idea, I will send over the source files so that it will be easy for them to modify. We had an short email correspondence, I gave him everything that he was looking for and promised to include him as we developed new cards. I thought that was the end of the story.
In that short email correspondence, I mentioned our plan was to purchase a list of about 3000 businesses to send the cards to. I explained how we worked with a company who purchases hundreds of thousands of business leads a week and we should be able to get the list inexpensively.
Less than an hour later there was a sample list in my inbox. Without me knowing it, he had access to exactly what I was about to purchase. And he gave it to me! The thought had never crossed my mind that he would return the favor. I was focused 100% on his interest, and was blown away by his generosity.
I mentioned earlier, that this law is easy to break. However, it should be just as easy to execute. As we charge forward, it is vital for us to make choices and decisions that put other people's interests first. And as I mentioned in my last post, when we truly care about our clients and friends, the money (and everything else) will take care of itself.
Coming soon (and I promise less than a month)... The fourth law!
Thanks for taking the time to read.
Brian O'Shaughnessy
President
Green Bay, WI
