By now, you should know that I've been blogging about the genius described in the little red book known as The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. I had a good thing going. Five laws of Stratospheric Success make for five blog topics. No creativity required! But once that fifth blog entry was written, I didn't know what to do. I really enjoyed writing about the Go-Giver, but I ran out of laws. So I guess I need to start making up my own. Sounds dangerous to me.
LAW SIX OF STRATOSPHERIC SUCCESS
The Law of Longevity
Giving isn't something done occasionally
it is a lifestyle.
When reading a new book, it is easy to be excited about the message delivered by the book. It is also easy to execute that message as you are reading, or just after you finish. But often after a period of time, the message that was read about is forgotten or not fresh in your mind. You go back to being irritated by a sales call instead of listening to the sales person. You go back to walking by the piece of garbage on the sidewalk instead of picking it up. You go back to "trying to sell" instead of being authentic.
Being a successful Go-Giver isn't something that you can do once in a while or when it is convenient. Being a successful Go-Giver is something done every day. It is the way you think when you roll out of bed every morning. Being a Go-Giver isn't something you do for press or recognition. Although I've written five blog entries about being a Go-Giver, I've felt hypocritical. I don't think you can be a Go-Giver if you tell somebody that you are. Being a Go-Giver puts 100% of the focus on the other person. As soon as you look for recognition, you are redirecting some of the focus on yourself.
Being an IT service provider is frequently a thankless job. When we are successful, everything is working without interruption. When there is a problem, the client is unhappy. It isn't easy to keep that Go-Giver attitude after you get your butt chewed by that client who had the problem. But that is when it is most important. That isn't easy to do, we all get defensive and all fell unappreciated. Instead of being upset, that is the perfect opportunity to suck it up, swallow our pride and put forth extra effort to remind that client that we care about them more than ourselves.
It is easy to do something nice once in a while. It is easy to give when you think the recipient will "owe you one". The purpose of "law six" is to remind us that being a Go-Giver isn't something that we do when it is convenient. It is the way we live every day, indefinitely.
In closing, I'm off to Dallas, TX to meet with my peer group (HTG15). HTG is successful because every person in our group is selfless, we are all there to share. As usual, I'm nervous, excited and can't wait to get there.
Brian O'Shaughnessy
President
Green Bay, WI
