Givers and takers, movers and shakers
We all have to walk our own road...
On these pages, I have sung the praises of Randy Travis and Kris Kristofferson, two country music superstars. In 1990, they came together on a duet called “Walk Our Own Road” for the Travis album Heroes & Friends.
It’s a powerhouse of an album. But the opening stanza of their effort goes like this:
There's do'ers and don'ters and I wills and won'ters
and them, that don't even try
Givers and takers, movers and shakers
And them that are just passing by
It’s been fun to listen back to this album as I already had a theme in mind for today’s epistle, and this song talks about it.
Givers and takers.
I want to talk about these people and the concepts of givers versus takers as it applies to life and business.
We all know the consummate giver—a total sap and pushover.
The typical taker is a selfish miser, concerned with the superficial aspects of life.
The “takers” always “win,” don’t they? They’re always the ones with the ostentatious cars and wear the latest fashion.
A stereotypical “giver” is the frumpy, basic fellow who has been walked over all his life. No self-confidence, but willing to do anything for anyone.
“Givers” are at a disadvantage across the wide spectrum of jobs and occupations. Think about it: these are the people who make others better off, yet they sacrifice their own success in the process.
When it comes to engineering, the “givers” make for the least productive and most ineffective engineers according to one study of more than 160 professional engineers on the West Coast. The results were objective: lowest number of tasks completed & drawings submitted, most errors and deadlines missed, and the most money wasted.
Givers, it seems, go out of their way for others to help them complete their projects, but do not often finish what it was they were supposed to do.
Take medical students in western Europe. In a 600+ person study, those with the lowest grades happened to be the ones who said things like “I love to help others.”
How did salesmen in the South Atlantic region do?
Survey says… givers brought in, on average, two and a half times less annual sales revenue. “What's best for my customer?” translated into paltry sales figures.
Too caring. Too trusting. Too willing to sacrifice their own needs for the interests and concerns of others.
Compared to “takers,” givers earn roughly 14 percent less money, are at double the risk of being victimized by crime and are considered 22 percent less powerful or dominant.
It's clear that givers occupy the bottom rung of the ladder of success.
Interrogative:
What kind of people end up at the top step of that ladder?
Takers?
Ironically, the data show it is givers who end up at the top as well.
Our newest offering, the Inner Sphere, is a virtual mastermind designed for the motivated and ambitious givers within my general orbit.
There are a lot of ways to look at it, but my philosophy is that contributing value is never a bad thing. On the other hand, trying to claim as much value as possible without at least offering some sacrifice is a poor strategy.
For Jordan Peterson said, “Choose your damn sacrifice because sacrifice is inevitable. But at least you get to choose it!”
In the end where it’ll end up, the Lord only knows…
More often than not, the “luck” then falls in our favor.
We’re here to make our own luck with the Inner Sphere program.
What our program is not:
Therapy
A social gathering of friends
A time to complain about what is wrong in your life or the world
A forum for negative thinking
A place to extract value for “free”
What it is:
Exercises in selflessness. Creating value where our concern is for the whole, rather than simply extracting value from others.
A collective specifically designed to brainstorm ideas, strategies, techniques, and concepts that will help others move forward.
A way to create or implement systems that will help you achieve your goals.
A place for positive, self-motivated, and proactive people with a desire to help others accomplish their goals.
People who take action. Massive action.
Coming from a background in athletics, this model is a good one if you are trying to craft a championship team or organization.
But we’re not doing that specifically. In the future, our plan is to help folks in all industries, but for our first session, we are focusing on communication.
The written word.
The spoken word.
The visual medium.
Other ideas and topics that revolve around these three pillars.
Smash the button to find out more and to be on the leading edge of this thing when it launches later this spring.
As always,
Brian