How Giving Can Make You Rich

Build a Life of Value

Years ago there was a popular bumper sticker that read, "He who dies with the most toys wins."

Of course, that is not so.

What the bumper stick should have read is, "He who dies after adding the most value wins."

Let me explain in today's essay,

Craig Ballantyne

Be awesome. Take action. Attract others. Remember, other people want to be associated with positive people...people who are doing good things and allowing them to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

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By Craig Ballantyne

Not too long ago, I watched a fascinating presentation by the inimitable Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary was born in the former Soviet Union and his father brought their family to America where nine family members lived in a studio apartment while his father pursued the American Dream.

Gary eventually grew the family business, Wine Library, from $3 million to $80 million per year, and he now runs a social media company helping large corporations optimize the use of Twitter, Facebook, and other Internet marketing channels. Gary's latest book, "The Thank You Economy," argues that the new economy is being shaped by the use of real-time insights from social media.

The presentation I watched was Gary's keynote speech from last year's Inc. 500 conference, and while not for delicate ears (warning: excessive cursing), Vaynerchuk delivered a non-stop tour de force and extreme value in his hour. Usually I can't stand to watch video (I much prefer to read), but Gary's presentation held me spellbound in front of my computer because it was both entertaining and delivered "a-ha" moment after moment.

Gary will be the first to tell you that giving extreme value to your customers is an essential part of building your business or career (just read his book, "Crush It," for the full story on how he used the delivery of tremendous value to build Wine Library).

But where do you, someone who doesn't have a wine store or 900,000 Twitter followers like Gary, start delivering value in your 'just-starting-out' or 'have-not-even-started-yet' business?

Well, it's simple. Begin at the beginning and go on 'til you come to the end.

You start with one person. One reader. One viewer. One customer. You deliver value to them, learn lessons from the interaction, and you improve your system.

You write your first newsletter, asking for reader feedback on how you can make it better.

You create your first product by hand and sell on e-bay or at a local swap meet for a profit, getting constructive criticism from your customer on what you can improve.

You go to your first seminar, meet some people, share what you know to add value to their lives, and you leave them better off than you found them.

The next step is to write a second newsletter for the seven or twenty or thirty-five new subscribers you attracted. Or you sell your 5th, 10th, and 100th product on E-bay or at the next swap meet.

Or you go to another seminar, make more friends and contacts, help more people, and go home to find more ways to help those people.

You ride in, help a bunch of people, and leave them saying, "Who was that helpful person?" And then they talk about you - in a good way. You build a reputation as a giver, a value-adder, a problem solver, and you become the person everyone else wants to connect with. You're invited into deals. You're asked to be a guest expert on websites. You get collaboration requests. You are rewarded for delivering excessive value.

This is the mentality I had when I created myalmost daily free email newsletter from, InternetIndependence.com. Each day I would provide extreme value to readers, so much so that they kept on asking, "When are you going to sell something?" My email list grew almost exclusively by word of mouth, because I had no affiliates (there were no products to promote) and I wasn't buying advertising.

I also created something that I called, "My blog post of a lifetime," and you can do this with a speech, presentation, or report, too. In my "post of a lifetime," I delivered all the content and value my readers would need to get started, and I wrote it from the perspective that "if I could only write one message for the rest of my life, what would it be?" You can read that blog post of a lifetime here.

The surest path to success is to help others. Solve problems. Design your product to provide the greatest value in the marketplace. Add value to someone's life. Follow the golden rule.

As my friend and mentor Yanik Silver is fond of saying, "I firmly believe you cannot out-give the universe. Anything you give out comes back to you in kind multiple times."

Don't you think you could build successful business relationships with others by being the most helpful, giving, and caring person in your industry? It's so easy. Just help as many people as you can, starting today. The more you help others and the more they succeed, the more success you will achieve. Don't hold anything back.

Can you ever give too much help to someone? I doubt it. I've yet to be accused of helping too much, and my three main businesses reach over 450,000 people on almost daily basis with advice that helps people move forward towards their goals.That's why I give my Virtual Mastermind members everything I produce. It's my latest attempt at "out-giving the universe."

Here's what you need to do in order to start helping and giving value today.

First, identify that problem in your industry that you can solve.
Second, become part of the conversation, online through social media, forums, and your own newsletter, or offline through attending seminars, trade shows, or swap meets - wherever your marketplace congregates.

Third, deliver value. Prove your worth. Take action and attract friends, fans, and followers into your life.

Give excessively. Give dangerously. Give so much value that other people think you are crazy to be giving that much value away.

The world needs entrepreneurs and problem solvers today more than ever. It needs you to go out there and give value to people. Make the world a better place. I dare you.

You can do it.

And we'll be right here at Early to Rise to support you every step of the way.