Helping Each Other

“Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’” – Brian Tracy

“How can I help you?” What can I do for you?” “Do you need help with anything?” “What else can I do for you?”

These are some of the first phrases you hear when entering a store, calling customer support, or when dealing with any business, really. So how do you help people? Aesop once said, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” We can certainly start with small acts of kindness daily. Holding the door open for someone, volunteer work, complimenting someone – these are smaller simpler acts that are attainable and can easily be done once a day. And it will feel good to help someone else out.

Share the Wealth

It’s much more difficult to help others, however, when it requires you to dip into your own resources and share your own findings with others, especially in the business world. We have a tendency toward competition and a fear of trusting the wrong person and losing something that we have earned.

And it seems to make sense on the surface: why would I share my list of clients with someone else? I earned them and therefore I shouldn’t have to share them. While this mentality seems to be the default, it isn’t necessarily correct.

Perhaps the person who wants me to share my list of clients has a specialized service for them that I don’t have, just as I have a specialized service that he doesn’t have – if I share my list, not only will I be doing my clients a favor by creating new opportunities for them, but I will also make my clients and this business associate happier, making them far more likely to return to me for business and share business with me in return because I have built trust.

It’s possible that our trust in others can cause those who might not have been so trustworthy before to become inspired and start trusting a little more, allowing them themselves and others to reap similar benefits.

Life doesn’t have to be this cutthroat, lonely place that a lot of us have imagined it to be. We do an excellent job working with each other and have created some of the greatest achievements mankind has ever seen, not through the aversion to support each other but through embracing service to each other.

John Hall wrote a short helpful article on just how to help each other out in the business world. It’s well worth the read and does a wonderful job at explaining how sharing knowledge, giving feedback, and trusting others will fuel your way to success.

Don’t just take it from me, try it for yourself. Start helping and putting your trust in others, they might just surprise you!

Please, share your stories so that you might inspire others to do the same!