The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea

by Bob Burg

“Ultimately, the world treats you more or less the way you expect to be treated.”

You must apply each Law right away, the same day you first learn it.”

“It never hurts to be kind to people,”

“Everyone likes to be appreciated,” said Ernesto. “And that’s the Golden Rule of business,” added Pindar. “All things being equal—” Ernesto finished the phrase: “—people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust.”

great restaurant—ahh, a great restaurant strives to defy imagination! Its goal is to provide a higher quality of food and service than any amount of money could possibly pay for.” He

“Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.”

“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?’”

“Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.”

Your compensation is directly proportional to how many lives you touch.”

If you want more success, find a way to serve more people.

there are no limitations on what you can earn, because you can always find more people to serve.

‘Everybody can be great because anybody can serve.’

Being broke and being rich are both decisions.

What you focus on is what you get.

“They make up stories,” he mused to himself. “They sit here in this room and make up stories. They paint them and model them, and then go make them happen all over the planet—two hundred million dollars’ worth!”

“Changing my focus from seeing what I could git to what I could give was when my career started to take off. Started to. But in a business like mine—actually, in any business—you also need to know how to develop a network.”

“Stop keeping score.”

“Always look for the solution where you both come out ahead.”

“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.

“Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.”

“Because if you place the other person’s interests first, your interests will always be taken care of.

I care more about my wife’s happiness than I do about my own.

‘Whatever it is you sell,’ he told us, ‘even if it’s a mundane commodity that everyone else is selling, too, whether it’s real estate, insurance or hot dogs,’” and with a chill, Joe realized that Ms. Davenport was talking about the man sitting next to him, “‘whatever it is,’ he said, ‘you can excel by adding value. If you need money,’ he said, ‘add value. And if you need a lot of money, add a lot of value.’

how to be a friend. How to care. How to make people feel good about themselves. And that, my friends, is something the marketplace wants very much—always has, always will.

“The speaker at that symposium had said, Add value. I had nothing to add but myself.

“What I’m here to sell you on is you.

“Reaching any goal you set takes ten percent specific knowledge or technical skills—ten percent, max. The other ninety-plus percent is people skills.

The most valuable thing you have to give people is yourself. No matter what you think you’re selling, what you’re really offering is you.”

“You just love what you do. You love talking with people, asking them questions, learning all about them, finding ways you can help them, serve them, fill a need, share a resource . . .”

“Trying not to receive is not only foolish, it’s arrogant. When someone gives you a gift, what gives you the right to refuse it—to deny their right to give?

“Receiving is the natural result of giving.

every giving can happen only because it is also a receiving.”

“All the giving in the world won’t bring success, won’t create the results you want, unless you also make yourself willing and able to receive in like measure. Because if you don’t let yourself receive, you’re refusing the gifts of others—and you shut down the flow.

The secret to getting is giving. And the secret to giving is making yourself open to receiving.

“The point is not what you do. Not what you accomplish. It’s who you are.”