It’s another month, which brings another book review. Special thanks to Kodie Yost for the recommendation. This month’s review is on The Go-Giver, by Bob Burg and John David Mann. overall the book getes a 3.75/5 stars.
Compared to other management and leadership books, a lot of the principles are the same, but how the Go-Giver presents the takeaways is unique, but polarizing. The Go-Giver is written as a fictional story.
The story follows Joe, a go-getter salesman who’s hustling for a big quarter-end close. But when his usual tactics fall short, Joe meets a series of mentors who introduce him to “The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.”
The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success as defined in the book are:
- First Law: Law of Value – Your worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.
- Second Law: Law of of Compen sation – Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how ell you serve them.
- Third Law: Law of Influence – Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interest first.
- Fourth Law: Law of Authenticity – The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
- Fifth Law: Law of Receptivity – The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.
Afte Joe meets the mentor for each of the laws he has to put it into practice that day. For example after he learns about the first law about value via meeting a man who used to have a hot dog cart and now has a successful restaurant real estate business he goes back to the office and refers someone else for a job he isn’t able to do instead of simply saying no. He added value to the situation.
The polarizing aspect of the book is how it’s delivered. Personally, i love the story that comes along with it. With non-fiction books, specifically in the business genre not being my first choice of book it was refreshing to get a story you could follow instead of the traditional approach most books take.
Some say the book should have found real-life examples of these laws being applied instead of creating a simplistic story. The entire novel is less than 200 pages, a quick read, and something that makes it easier to understand and apply in daily lives. The broad approach and sometimes cheesy situations does bring the book down from a top tier read.
The Go-Giver reiterates that that relationships, not rates, build long-term wins. The lessons are simple, but powerful: give more value than you take, serve first, and watch success follow.
This is one of the few books in this experiment I would actually recommend someone to read. It encapsulates a fair amount of what other books talk about at a broad level, presents it in a convenient and easy to read way. Some of the situations are a little less believable but overall it was a good read. I’d recommend it before i ever recommended someone read “Never Split the Difference.” This book is a much better use of time.
