What's the Key to Success? Giving. Giving?!
What if success wasn't about doing your best, and beating out everyone else? But about giving. That's the theory of Wharton professor Adam Grant, who believes that "givers (who help others without selfish motivation), takers (who take without giving in return) and matchers (who strive for equal trades) can affect our success – both as individuals and at the corporate level." Christina Hernandez Sherwood writes at smartplanet.com that "Evidence suggests that in sales, givers begin with 6 percent lower revenue than takers and matchers. But by the year's end, givers finish with 68 percent higher revenue." Why is this so? Grant tells Sherwood that he's noticed a funny thing about the students who come to him: they're not so concerned about making money as they are about doing something for the world. Giving back. "I started to notice that the most successful people I knew didn’t wait to start giving until they were successful. They ga...