Serve (don’t sell) Your Way to Success

You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
–Zig Ziglar

I am a big believer in serving your way to success for three reasons.

1) It’s the right thing to do.

2) It makes you feel great.

3) It comes back to you tenfold.

I’ve found the key to joyfully serving others is to forget about number 3, to forget about getting everything I want, to simply focus on serving others without expecting anything from them in return. When I do that, I am happier, and as a bonus, I get more of number 3. It’s so cool!

But, sometimes I get busy. I get distracted. I become selfish and totally caught up in my own stuff. I start trying to sell my way to success instead of serving. When I do that, things start to go poorly.

Does that ever happen to you?

There’s an old story that reminds me to serve others unconditionally.

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a diner and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

The boy looked up at her and asked, “How much is an ice cream sundae?”

“Fifty cents,” the waitress replied, a bit irritably.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the few coins he had.

“How much is a dish of plain ice cream?” he inquired. Some people were now waiting for a table and the waitress was beginning to lose her patience.

“Thirty-five cents,” she said brusquely.

The little boy again counted his coins. “I think I’ll just have the plain ice cream,” he said.

The waitress rolled her eyes, brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished his treat, paid the cashier and left.

When the waitress came back, she began wiping down the table and then swallowed hard at what she saw. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, was a dime and a nickel – her tip.

Everyone deserves our best service, regardless of their ability to pay us back. When we remember and act on that belief, we end up making a difference in the world. As a bonus, we end up being more successful, too.

It’s almost like someone created the world to be that way. Hmm…

You can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed. — Napolean Hill

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When you understand you earn more when you serve more, you can feel good about your efforts and your progress. You know you are providing goods and services to people that are enriching their lives. They joyfully line up to give you money for your efforts because you are providing great value. You are one of the good guys!

When you believe there is infinite wealth to be created in this life you don’t need to look at everyone else as competition. You can truly be happy for other people’s achievements because you know it does absolutely nothing to diminish your chance of being successful and might even help you succeed.

There is more than enough for us all.

So, let’s go create some great stuff and serve others with it.