You probably have heard about this book already in the media many times, and much has been already said and written about it since it was published in 2014, so I won’t take your time with long persuasive speech. I enjoyed the book thoroughly, learned a lot about how people grow to be good leaders, and recommend if you haven’t read it yet and want to improve your leadership skills to set time aside and read it.
I promise you, you will feel wiser and better person at the end, and will treat your team with more respect and integrity.
In his bestselling little book “The Dip”, the famous business marketer and author Seth Godin proves that winners are really the best quitters. Godin helps us understand that winners quit fast and often, and without feeling guilty – until they commit to beating the right Dip.
Every new project, job, or hobby starts out exciting and fun until … it gets really hard, and not much fun at all. You might be in a Dip – a temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing. But maybe it’s a total dead-end. What really sets the superstars apart is the ability to know if it’s a dead-end or temporary setback.
Winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can beat the Dip to be the best, you’ll earn profits, glory, and long-term security.
Do you quit often? Can you handle “the dip”?
If you haven’t yet, consider reading it:
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist, who has researched the different personalities of employees and determined that in the office environment, there are three basic kinds of people:
Givers,
Takers &
Matchers
According to the research, the majority of people are Matchers and we all have our moments of giving and taking, but we most probably are inclined to be either a Giver or a Taker.
You can figure out for yourself by acknowledging which of the following two questions you will most often ask yourself when you interact with your colleagues: What can you do for me?or What can I do for you?
Many studies have proven that in order for a company or an organization to prosper, there is a need to have a culture of generosity, where people, willing to teach others are encouraged and the knowledge and skills are safely carried over from person to person, without fear of being judged or laughed at.
In my experience with a company for more than 3-4 years, I have seen a high percentage of turnover of staff, and in many of these cases, the knowledge and wisdom these people possessed were lost for the organization once they left. This lack of learning is not always acknowledged by the company but has a significant impact on the new employees. The newly hired employees inevitably start from scratch and build proficiency, mostly based on own practice and errors, and lack the wisdom of mentors or senior associates.
For making any organization successful, Adam Grant offers simple strategies to promote a culture of generosity and keep self-serving employees from taking more than their share. The three simple steps are:
Protect Givers from burnout – Make sure Givers provide quick tips and don’t just do most of the work themselves.
Encourage help-seeking – Make it easy and safe to ask for help.
Get the right people on the bus. Keep the wrong people off the bus – having Takers in the team, poisons the atmosphere, where any and all collaboration is difficult. In such an atmosphere, even the Givers are discouraged to help.
Read the Entire Book
If you haven’t read it yet and you are interested to hear all about Adam Grant’s research on the matter, please read the book. The full title is Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success and you can order it from your favorite online book store or get it from your neighborhood library, where it is available in multiple formats: printed version, e-book or audiobook.
The book has been translated into 30 languages and named one of the best books of 2013 by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal—as well as one of Oprah’s riveting reads, Fortune’s must-read business books, Harvard Business Review’s ideas that shaped management, and the Washington Post’s books every leader should read.
Are you wondering if you are a Giver or a Taker?
Assess yourself. As Adam Grant explains, the assessment is using state-of-the-art methods in organizational psychology. For each question, give the answer that comes naturally to you. Your results will only be as accurate as you are honest—and self-aware.
This book should be on everybody’s nightstand! It contains so much wisdom and truth, extracted from the author’s experience and knowledge, accumulated through the years and written with a fantastic sense of humor.
Reading this book made me feel a lot better about myself and my life journey, accomplishments, and my perception of being happy.
Scott Galloway is the New York Times bestselling author of The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google and a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
The curve of Happiness thought the life journey
Just some of Scott Gallaway’s pieces of advice for Living a Happy Life:
If you find you are stressed, recognize this is a normal part of the journey and just keep on keeping on.
Lack of balance in the twenties and thirties, sweat and work translate into balance later. Get busy while you are young.
The definition of “rich” is income greater than your burn rate.
In 50s married couples have 3x the assets of their single peers. Why? Sharing expenses, streamlining decisions, buying assets that increase in value instead of things that rust, rot, or depreciate.
Career advice: A less sexy job equals more professional fulfillment. A sexy job equals less fulfillment. A boring company equals a good investment. An exciting company equals a bad investment.
Serendipity is a function of courage. Nothing wonderful will happen without taking a risk and subjecting yourself to rejection.
Drink less, think long term (compound interest), and spend money on social andexperiences.
Give somebody a good death. Provide comfort to a loved one that is terminally ill.
Get the easy stuff right: show up early, have good manners and follow up.
Things vs Experiences – Studies show people overestimate the happiness that things will bring them, and underestimate the long-term positive effect of experiences. Invest in experiences over things.
Susan Cain is a former corporate lawyer and negotiations consultant — and a self-described introvert. At least one-third of the people we know are introverts, notes Cain in her book QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. Although our culture undervalues them dramatically, introverts have made some of the great contributions to society — from Chopin’s nocturnes to the invention of the personal computer to Ghandi’s transformative leadership.
One remarkable book everyone should read!
Quiet Quotes
“The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamplit desk. Use your natural powers — of persistence, concentration, and insight — to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems. make art, think deeply.”
♥ ♥ ♥
“So stay true to your own nature. If you like to do things in a slow and steady way, don’t let others make you feel as if you have to race. If you enjoy depth, don’t force yourself to seek breadth. If you prefer single-tasking to multi-tasking, stick to your guns. Being relatively unmoved by rewards gives you the incalculable power to go your own way.”
♥ ♥ ♥
“Indeed, your biggest challenge may be to fully harness your strengths. You may be so busy trying to appear like a zestful, reward-sensitive extrovert that you undervalue your own talents, or feel underestimated by those around you. But when you’re focused on a project that you care about, you probably find that your energy is boundless.”
♥ ♥ ♥
“Introverts need to trust their gut and share their ideas as powerfully as they can. This does not mean aping extroverts; ideas can be shared quietly, they can be communicated in writing, they can be packaged into highly produced lectures, they can be advanced by allies. The trick for introverts is to honor their own styles instead of allowing themselves to be swept up by prevailing norms.” ― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
If you haven’t read it yet and you are interested to hear all about Adam Grant’s research on the matter, please read the book. The full title is 
“The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamplit desk. Use your natural powers — of persistence, concentration, and insight — to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems. make art, think deeply.”
Nadia Karaboycheva 