Helping Others Succeed
My good friend Tim Sanders has just released his third book: “Saving the World at Work”.
I met Tim in 1992 while he was the front man for his band Code 4. At that time I owned a garment printing business and we were printing Tim’s band shirts and gear. Being a fan of rock music I was instantly drawn to Tim and his success in the local Dallas music scene but I quickly found there was more to Tim that just being a rock star.
Tim was VP Sales at Criterion productions, the largest privately owned studio in the country. He soon left Criterion and went to work for Mark Cuban, now the audacious owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and then owner and founder of Broadcast.com which he sold to Yahoo for 6 billion dollars. After that Tim landed at Yahoo as Chief Solutions Officer and founder if Yahoo’s ValueLab.
Tim has had a great career. I can’t say I had anything to do with his career but Tim has had a profound effect on mine.
I had lost contact with Tim for a few years and one day I picked up a copy of the business magazine Business 2.0 and on the cover was Tim with his new book “Love is the Killer App.” The writing style instantly reminded me of Tim and it was true to form. The book was about loving people enough to help them with building their business by offering your database to them. It made perfect sense.
I think many times in our careers we tend to focus solely on ourselves and then wonder why we aren’t more successful. I instantly took the business article and blew it up to 6 feet high and mounted it and sent it to Tim to celebrate his success with him.
Tim and I don’t talk much these days. He’s busy traveling the globe sharing the stage with Dr John Maxwell (“21 Laws of Leadership”); Dr Stephen Covey and many others.
The one thing I take from all of Tim’s book…is love. To steal his words; he’s a love cat.
He reminds me of the movie, “Big Fish” where there’s a statement of; “he was never a wealthy man but he made others rich.” Tim however has done both; become a wealthy man by helping others become wealthy…and not just in money but in spirit.
If we all concentrate on Dale Carnegie’s statement “Help others get what they want then you’ll get what you want”; this has been the premise of my business ever since reading Tim’s books.
Think about who you can help today. Open your database without asking for anything in return. If you do this one thing in business, you’ll not only make some serious lifetime friendships, you’ll also see your business grow over the years by people reciprocating in kind.
Go love someone today. Help them grow their business and I promise they’ll help you with yours.
(You can find more about Tim Sanders at www.timsanders.com)
Michael J Gilbert is a small business expert having started 12 businesses in 22 years. His direct approach and no nonsense dialogue with business owners make him a sought after coach and consultant for small businesses. He runs free roundtables for business owners in the Dallas area and nationally via teleconference weekly for business owners using other business owners to help solve their problems. You can reach Mr. Gilbert at www.streetlevelconsultants.com.