Give and Take

According to popular wisdom, successful people have three things in common: motivation, ability, and a good opportunity to put the first two into practice. In other words, to reach the top you have to rely on a combination of hard work, talent, and luck. However, there is also a fourth factor, which is essential, but often overlooked: the way you relate to other people. 

Every time you interact with a colleague or customer - even if they are only a potential customer - you are faced with a choice: try to get as much value out of them as possible – be it monetary or spiritual - or choose instead to contribute your own value, without worrying about what you will receive in return.

To make things easier, we can divide the world between the takers - all those who do their best to get more than they give - and the givers. We come across the givers much less frequently, especially in the workplace. They always put others' interests before their own, without getting lost in cost-benefit assessments: they are happy to help and do everything they can.

In fact, professionally speaking, there is also a third category of people: those who try to break even, only giving as much as they are sure they will receive.

The most interesting thing – which has been statistically proven - is that those who give are present both at the bottom and the top of the success pyramid. It has been shown that, if on the one hand they improve the conditions of others by sacrificing their own advancement, in doing so, they succeed at building a reputation that inspires others to trust them and, in some cases, these relationships assist them in becoming successful themselves.