An Opportunity To Be Nice Is Just That: An Opportunity

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I just finished the book, Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg and John David Mann. It’s the follow up book to their bestselller, The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea which I have not read (after reading this book, I put The Go-Giver on hold at my local library). I’m not in sales but my husband is and I bought the book for him. Although selling is not my main focus, I found the book fascinating because I believe anyone in any industry and role can benefit from this book. In fact, I wish my son’s school would assign the Go-Giver books as mandatory reading. What could possibly be wrong with teaching middle-schoolers on up the art of giving and creating value in other peoples lives?!

The day I finished Go-Givers Sell More, my father told me about an experience he had earlier that day when he and my mother delivered a dresser to my sister’s house while she was at work. It was in the back of my father’s SUV and my mother had hurt her back helping my father load the dresser into the SUV.

As they pulled into my sister’s driveway, my mother spotted some men next door fixing the neighbor’s windows. She suggested to my father that he offer one of the men $10 to help him carry the dresser into the house. Since that was the only way the dresser was going to make it into the house, my father offered one of the men the money to help him.

The man said with a smile that he would help but refused the money. He said, if you wouldn’t mind, just remember my company if you ever need windows; we are a family-owned business. My father thanked the man for his help. When my father relayed this story to me, I asked him the name of the man’s company because guess what? I need new windows!

I truly don’t think the man thought he would help my father because he would get something out of it. What are the chances that my father needed new windows now or anytime in the near future? In fact, the man didn’t give my father a business card or write down the name of his company for possible future reference. He just told him the name of his company. However, the good deed the man did had an impact on my father and he remembered the name of the man’s company and passed it on to me.

Also on the same day that this happened, my husband had taken his car into be serviced by a local Nissan dealer. It was during the week so my husband was going to be late going into the office in order to have the work done on his car. The service rep was explaining to my husband that it could take up to two hours to have everything done and asked him if he wanted to wait, or rent a car for the day. My husband works in Philadelphia which is about a fifty minute drive from the dealership. He was laboring over his decision when the manager came over and asked if he could be of some help. My husband explained to him that he needed to get into the city and a two hour wait was awfully long, and if he decided to go ahead and rent a car for the day, he didn’t know if he would be able to get the rental car back in time that evening before they closed.

The manager said he would see what he could do. He disappeared for a couple of minutes and came back. He explained that his top technician came in early that day and agreed to get started on my husband’s car right away so it could be done in less time–no need to rent a car if he could wait about an hour. Sure enough, the car was done on time and my husband was able to get into the city and get to work with limited time lost.

My husband was so genuinely thankful that the Nissan manager went out of his way to make him happy, that he plans on writing him a quick note of appreciation. Did it cost the manager anything to make his customer happy? No. Did it pay dividends by making his customer happy? Yes!

The point of these stories is not to tell you to go out and be nice to people because you will get something in return, but doesn’t being genuinely caring and nice and offering someone something of value usually pay off some how and some way? Yes. Plus, it makes you feel good inside!

Have a nice day and consider doing something nice for someone just because you want to and check out The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea and Go-Givers Sell More. I truly believe these books could change the way you think and act–in fact, they could just change your life!