Many moons ago, a guy named Ivan Misner decided to adopt a wonderful life and business philosophy. His ‘attitude’ or idiom was not ground breaking or indeed particularly original. He just decided to commit everything he had, to helping his network succeed, and I guess he hoped that this style of networking may catch on.
Ivan promised that if you followed his lead, and you too became as dedicated to helping others to succeed, it just may become THE most powerful way to help ensure that you make the most of your business relationships. It speaks volumes about the person who can some how find the capacity within themselves to be able to eat, live and breath those words. Givers Gain.
The proposition is rather simple. The more that you give, the more you stand to gain.
Give what? Anything. Time, business, advice, attention. The list is endless.
Gain what? Everything. Gaining could be help when you need it the most, business, advice, strong relationships. It is important not to question a givers motives, just accept the gift and make the very best of any opportunities which are offered to you. After all, you deserve it!
It is understandable though, that once in a while you may become disenchanted by the levels of dedication of those around you. Breathe deep and think positive thoughts…
Unfortunately though, you may still be guilty of feeling neagtivity towards certain benefactors of your charitable demeanour. They may not at first appear to be a fully paid up and subscribing member to the givers club… not yet anyway.
It is quite normal for you to have these niggling thoughts, and that reciprocation with certain folk may have already been called into question. Those doubts will play havoc with your giving nature. I call them your ‘Giving Gremlins’.
You will see that the motto of ‘Givers Gain’ is just that. No conditions attached.
It does not say ‘Givers Gain – but only when you get back directly from those you give to’. The message is way more elogant than ‘you scratch my back and i’ll scratch yours’. At the very least, the process has to be bought into by you, for it to absolutely make a difference to all of our lives. Attaching conditions, serves only to allow impurities to erode the potency of this very powerful life and business message. Keep your sentiments pure, and simply ‘give’ without looking for the ‘gain’.
You must trust that the system will take care of itself. Givers do gain, and gainers do eventually learn to give. It might not be the most obvious of reciprocating exchanges [like some kind of life-debt to be repaid - save that for Hollywood], but that person will eventually find other ways to give. If not directly to you, someone somewhere will benefit from your giving nature indirectly. That’s cool right?
Those gainers, will begin to ‘see the light’ too, and you will receive so much more than just cold hard business referrals. You will feel a burning pride in what you are doing, and trust me – others will see this aura too.
To answer the main question – it is never time to stop giving, but you can give smarter. You can give more. But stalling the process so that you can feed your self-centred fears of feeling taken advantage of will not end well for anyone.
There are business owners in the market place who already live Ivan’s mantra without any prompting. You probably already just thought of one or two.
I think they may deserve a call from you to show your appreciation, don’t you?
Giving is more than a way of life. It’s good for business too.
Glen is a Structural Engineer and first time business owner. Currently he is using his fantastic experiences whilst networking to help other engineers to adopt a more ‘giving’ and ‘innovative’ approach to the business world. His key aims are to remove the mystique around starting our own businesses, and to work towards providing career launch pads for eager engineering graduates.
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Hi! Incase you wish to contact me, please do so on my email address here:
glen@avatar-engineering.co.uk
http://buildingmadesimple.blogspot.com/
Looking forward to your comments
Glen
Giving is more than a way of life. It’s good for business too.. Well said Mr C!
Beautifully written:-)
Thank you Neil, thanks for commenting
Fantastic!
Often people are surprised to encounter someone who wants to selflessly help them. They are used to treating such behaviour as suspicious or too-good-to-be-true in this big bad world.
It only takes a couple of positive experiences for people to get beyond those scruples and become selfless givers themselves.
Thanks for a great article and here’s to Givers Gain continuing to spread!
Neil