I just had the amazing time of reading this powerful book The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg, John David Mann. 

It is a captivating book that shines new light to the old adage “Give and you shall receive.” I highly recommend this book for those who are just starting their business, planning on starting one or even those who’ve been in the game for a long time.

The Go-Giver is the story of a young man named Joe, very ambitious and determined to reach the greats, who has always been on the lookout for success. Joe is a quintessential go-getter, though he felt like the more he reaches his arms out to achieve something and the harder he plays, the farther he seemed was in getting the results he wanted . Below are some of the key points I absolutely loved in this book. Enjoy!

Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.

THE Law of Value:   Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.  – The First Law determines how valuable you are.

The Law of Compensation : Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.  – the Second Law that determines how much you actually do earn.

The Law of Influence: You influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.

The Law of Authenticity: The most valuable gift you have to offer I yourself.

The Law of Receptivity: The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.

“Typically, the more successful they are, the more willing they are to share their secrets with others.”

Lesson: find successful mentors via books, blogs, YouTube or in real life when you can.

“But to get really, really big, to reach the kind of stratospheric success we’re talking about, people need to have something on the inside, something that’s genuine.’”

Lesson: let your genuine show, share your inspiration and interests     

The secret of “Giving” – give more value than people pay for.  In business you must give before you receive.  Must make and save money before you profit from money.

“So you’re saying, successful people keep their focus on what they’re…giving, sharing”

“Most of us have grown up seeing the world as a place of limitation rather than as a place of inexhaustible treasures. A world of competition rather than one of co-creation.”

“Here’s what you do get—you get what you expect.”

So make sure you have positive expectations for yourself, for others as well as for outcomes.

“Or put it another way: What you focus on is what you get. “

Go looking for the best in people, and you’ll be amazed at how much talent, ingenuity, empathy and good will you’ll find.

Lesson: once again change your outlook to change the outcome.  Look for the positives and the opportunities you want and you are much more likely to find them.  Change any negative outlooks into positive ones.

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

The Law of Compensation

“I need you to agree that you will test every Law I show you by actually trying it out. Not by thinking about it, not by talking about it, but by applying it in your life.”

Lesson: taking action in applying something you learn is the only way to change your life, your future.  And habits are only formed when you take action.  I look at sharing ideas with others as taking action.  Otherwise what good is it to have a lot of knowledge?     

“The guy radiates success,” he thought. “It’s not just money, it’s something far more powerful than money.”

“A very useful thing to remember: appearances can be deceiving.”

Underneath that jovial, bigger-than-life Italian chef persona there was a powerful sense of focus and intention.

“Everyone likes to be appreciated.”

“And that’s the Golden Rule of business,”

“All things being equal—”

“—people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust.”

“A bad restaurant, tries to give just enough food and service, both in quantit[...]

I recently listened to this amazing Mastermind Talks podcast with Jason Gaignard when he interviewed Joey Coleman about personal branding. Joey is a celebrated speaker and has done coaching in over a decade – mostly on personal branding framework.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re missing on a lot if your personal branding is unclear – it is of utmost importance to focus on your personal brand, its attributes and what really your business stands for. It will also get you clarity on where your business is headed.

Below are some of the best points spoken about in the podcast:

How you package and present yourself/your brand is hugely important.

What is a personal brand?

Personal brand is the image that is created in a person’s mind when they connect with your name, specific skills and reputation.

It is what people perceive – it’s making conscious choices. When you meet a person, you are instantly and constantly formulating opinions. By default, people judge and critique.

There’s 2 aspects: what you think of your personal brand and what others think.

Your personal brand enters the room the same time as you do. Are you happy about what other people have to say about your personal brand?

Philip McKernan – the more successful we become, the less we recognize how successful we are.

Getting outside perspective helps us identify the things we are great at that we often do not acknowledge.

All of us have natural skills – and now we have learned skills and you can be world class with our learned skills.

Being able to take complex ideas and make them simple, persuade people how to get things done.

A friend is not someone who tell you what you want to hear, a friends is someone who tells you what you NEED to.

Friends, mentors to give you feedback about your personal brand

Clarify and explore, look into what you want your personal brand to be.

What would do for the rest of your life even if you don’t get paid to do it? There should be a piece of your current job that you want to be part of your personal brand.

(Self-assessment) Strength-finders, DISC, Kolbe Test

There’s a voice inside you that knows what you are best at.

It’s the pursuit that makes it more exciting.

The most successful people I know have a lot of things they’re passionate about – they don’t go all in on one things because then you’ll be one-dimensional. Multi-dimensional people are more successful.

There is a skill you have you don’t have to lead with a particular skill. – just because you’re good at fixing things doesn’t mean you have to lead with that.

Be more specific, more clear about what you do and who you serve.

The human brain can only associate 2-3 areas in an individual we know.

3 Step Process – investigation, Refining, Packaging

Reinventing your personal brand every 5-7 years.

Philip McKernan – Where you’re busy seeking out opportunities we often miss the possibilities.

5 years – making a vision for your personal brand/business for 5 years is more manageable.

I want to go deep in dozens of different areas, I want to go medium in hundreds of different areas and I want go shallow or at least have a small understanding on thousands of different areas in life, because that’s what keeps it interesting for me. – Joey Coleman

As you are getting more comfortable with your personal brand, you get to make unconventional choices.

Recap of the 3 Step Process:

Investigate

What are the elements of your personal brand? All the things you love, all the things you’re fantastic at. What are these specific things you are world-class in.

Refine

Pick and choose which one you want to go after? If someone hears your name, they thing about these things?

Package

How can I share this with the world? How can I position myself with these types of project? How can I get it out? How can I make my brand unique?

If you are interested, subscribe to Mastermind Talks podcast on iTunes if you are an Apple user and Stitcher for Android.[...]

I came across this book The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance by George Mumford and in this week’s podcast, I will share with you the inspirational passages I highlighted in this book.

Now, if you are a basketball fan, you would know who Phil Jackson is – amazing coach of former NBA champions Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers. He brought in George Mumford to transform their game and start winning.

George Mumford had a very interesting beginning – he was playing basketball for the University of Massachusetts when injuries forced him to walk away from the game he was truly passionate about. Things at home weren’t helping as his dad was an alcoholic so George started doing drugs starting from marijuana to pain medications like heroin. Through meditation, he was able to kick the addiction away.

Now, George is a well-respected public speaker and sports coach and in this book, he shares his story and strategies. Countless of basketball players, even the great Michael Jordan himself, credited Mumford for changing the way they played the game. His proven techniques transform the performance of anyone with a goal, be they an Olympian, weekend warrior, executive, hacker, or artist.

Below are some of my best highlights in the book to guide you through:

A lot of athletes think the trick to getting better is just to work harder but there is a great power in non-action and non-thinking. Just be fully present in the moment. – Phil Jackson

Life is available only in the present moment. Thich Nhat Hanh – what matters is what we are doing now.

Learning about stress management.

We are all chipping away to get to our masterpiece even if we grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. – you can become whoever you want.

We all have divine spark within in us. – there is something in us that we should express. Slowing down and thinking, “What do I really want to do in my life?” Our passions may change.

Buddha – my teaching is not a dogma. It is a method to teach reality, it’s just a finger pointing at the moon.

He talks about Buddha’s Eight-Fold Path and his 5 Spiritual Faculties: Diligence, Faith, Mindfulness, Concentration, Insight

Each of us is a completely unique creature.

Open your funky mind.

No one told him when he was young that he can alter his mind – he turned to drugs.

We emerge into the light not by denying our pain but by walking through it. Joan Borysenko, PhD

The only way out is always through. Robert Frost

There might not be the right time to start. – it’s the journey, the first attempt might not work, the second might not.

But as many of us know, taking little steps into the right direction eventually you’ll dig results. – start taking baby steps even if you fall down.

Be inquisitive – ask questions

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to take the things I can.

Listen to your body.

If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has always been there waiting for you. And the life you ought to be living, is the one you’re living.

Read all the books available aligned to your passion and interests.

He talks about the five superpowers: mindfulness, concentration, insight, right effort and trust – the fourth power (right effort or diligence) is the energy that makes us steadfast in our practice

Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness by Sharon Salzburg

You can train your brain to focus

We have evolved to pay attention to dangerous things

The minute your mind is elsewhere, the present moment is gone.

The brain is a muscle, practice everyday.

Baseball is 90% mental, the other is physical, the other half is physical. – Yogi Berri

There are numerous motivational passages in this book that I haven’t covered in this podcast but I’ll leave it to you to discover. I highly recommend this book, it’s not just about sports – the things discussed and written here are applicable to both your personal and professional lives, may it be facing a career crossroads or just [...]