Why giving is the most powerful business strategy - The Go Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann

**Graham Cochrane** (0:00)
Could it really be that the secret to success is giving? Oh man, you better believe it is. Today, my friend, in the 52 Book Challenge, I am unpacking my number one most recommended book of all time, that is The Go Giver, by Bob Burg and John David Mann.
I absolutely adore this book, and it's a little book you can read in about an hour. It's a parable, everyone should read it, no matter if you're in business or not. This is one that I virtually reread every year, so you knew it had to be on the list this year for the 52 Book Challenge. I've covered it so much, I have an entire review on my channel from years ago. Bob Burg endorsed my first book, How to Get Paid for What You Know. He's a gentleman and a scholar. And John David Mann and his wife wrote the incredible Go Giver Marriage book that I already reviewed on this series, which is fantastic. But this is the original one.
And if you're in business or selling or just wanna be successful in life, you've gotta read this book. But let me just pull out a couple of the quotes because they're so provocative, and we'll leave it at that.
The main character is a young man, and it's a parable, it's a story, fictional story. He's a young man who's struggling to hit his quote as a salesman. He gets introduced to this incredible, successful, older gentleman named Pindar, who everyone in town seems to know, who agrees to meet with him once a day for a week, basically teach him his trade secrets, which ends up being giving, but applied in five different ways.
He has this great line, most people just laugh when they hear that the secret to success is giving. Then again, most people are nowhere near as successful as they wish they were.
He says, you see, the majority of people operate with a mindset that says to the fireplace, first, give me some heat, then I'll throw on some logs.
Or that says to the bank, give me interest on my money, then I'll make a deposit. And of course, it just doesn't work that way.
So this is a beautiful moment of like, wait, am I doing things out of order? Am I waiting to get something and then I'll be a giver? Am I waiting to make sure that I'm taken care of and then I'll reach out to other people and mentor them or help them? What if it were the opposite? What if the thing you most desperately want or need in your business and the life would come after you give first? So I love this, that it's really about giving first and not even worrying about the results because he really believes that the success you want is a result. It's almost like the applause to the performance. So the main character in here is like having great honest questions like, well, is it wrong to like ask if you can make money or if we should be making money? Is it wrong to want to pursue money? Like I gotta pay the bills, I gotta take care of my family.
And he says in this one chapter, does it make money? It's not a bad question. If you're thinking about a business idea, it's a great question. It's just a bad first question.
It starts you off pointed in the wrong direction. The first question should be, does it serve?
Does it add value to others? If the answer to that question is yes, then you can go ahead and ask, does it make money? So I love this idea first. It's like, if you're trying to do anything and to expand your career or your life or just expand your network, we tend to ask and focus on what we want. I want to make sales. I want to be more connected. I want that opportunity. And what this book challenges me to do every time is, yes, I know what you want, Graham, but the best way to get what you want is to focus on giving other people what they want. And so to become indispensable, to become magnetic, to become attractive, to become someone that people just want to hook you up with opportunities or open doors or to buy stuff from you, you first got to give to them. So I do this in my business model. I put out free content on YouTube and a podcast every single week, and I have for 14, almost 15 years now. I teach everything I know virtually for free.
So that way you can try me out.