Mr. Achievement - Stanley F. Bronstein - Personal Development BlogPersonal Development Blog of the Founder of the Achievement IQ Movement and Creator of the Laws of Positioning

Law #42

Position Yourself To Be Generous

We must give more in order to get more. It is the generous giving of ourselves that produces the generous harvest. (Orison Swett Marden)

Some Definitions

Must - To be obliged or bound to by an imperative requirement. To be under the necessity to; need to.

Give / Giving - To present voluntarily and without expecting compensation; bestow. To convey or transmit. To bestow.

More - In greater quantity, amount, measure, degree, or number. Additional or further. An additional quantity, amount, or number.

In Order To - As a means to; with the purpose of.

Get - To receive or come to have possession, use, or enjoyment of. To cause to be in one’s possession or succeed in having available for one’s use or enjoyment; obtain; acquire.

Generous - Liberal in giving or sharing; unselfish. Free from meanness or smallness of mind or character; magnanimous.

Ourselves - We; us.

Produce - To bring into existence; give rise to; cause. To bring forth; give birth to; bear. To make or manufacture.

Harvest - The result or consequence of any act, process, or event. A supply of anything gathered at maturity and stored.

Source: Dictionary.com

Giving Is A Counter-Intuitive Process

The universe is a funny thing.  When one thinks of a pie, and starts giving away pieces, pretty soon they will run out of pie.   In other words, their intuition tells them that they more pie they give away, the less there is that is left for them.

However, as a said, the universe is a funny thing.  The way things actually work is that the more you give away, the more you will get.  For example, I often send out referrals for legal work that walks in my door, but is in a subject matter in which I don’t practice.

For example, I do real estate deals.  I do NOT handle estate planning.  While I could handle estate planning, I don’t do it very often.  I would much rather send a potential client to someone who does nothing but estate planning, as they will quite probably do a better job than I could.  On the other hand, I’m an expert on real estate deals.  THAT is why I focus primarily on real estate deals.

I have probably sent out 25 referrals for estate planning to one attorney over the past 5 years.   Until recently, he had never sent me any real estate referrals.  In fact, I don’t really expect him to send me any real estate referrals as he doesn’t run into that kind of deal very often.

On its face, it would look as if I gave away at least $50,000 worth of business during that time period and got little or nothing in return.  The reality is that during that same time period, other real estate agents and other attorneys have sent me a ton of referrals for work that I was able to handle.

In other words, the more work I gave away that I didn’t want to handle, the more work I received that I did want to handle.

Why is that?

Nature Abhors A Vacuum

Abhor - To regard with extreme repugnance or aversion; detest utterly; loathe; abominate.

The universe does not like a vacuum.  By giving away something (in this example - legal work), I created a vacuum in my life.  The universe didn’t like this, so it had to do its best to fill up that vacuum.  It did that by sending me legal work that I did want to handle.

It really is that simple.

Every time I hire a new employee, they learn this lesson.  At first, they’re confused when they see me turn away a client.  They think I’m nuts.  I keep telling them that by opening up our schedule, I’m leaving room for good stuff to walk in the door.  It never fails.  Shortly thereafter, something good walks in the door that is in our area of focus.

Try It Sometime

Try giving sometime with no expectation of receiving anything in return.  You just might be surprised at what you wind up getting back.