Career Success Lessons from “The Thank You Economy”

I’m a big fan of Gary Vaynerchuk.  I loved his first book, Crush It!  I was extremely flattered when Jason Sadler, the I Wear Your Shirt guy compared my book Straight Talk for Success to Crush It!

I’ve just finished reading Gary’s new book The Thank You Economy.  At first glance it’s not a career advice book, it’s a marketing book.  But Gary’s advice on marketing is all about making human connections.  I love one of his sayings, “Remember, that behind every B2B transaction there is a C.”  The Thank You Economy is about how to build relationships with those C’s.

Relationship building is one of my seven keys to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  So I found that Gary Vaynerchuk’s marketing book has a lot of great information on career success.  It begins in Chapter 1…

“No relationships should be taken for granted.  They are what life is all about, the whole point.  How we cultivate our relationships is often the greatest determinant of the type of life we get to live.  Business is no different.  Real business isn’t done in board meetings; it’s done over a half-eaten plate of buffalo wings at the sports bar, or during the intermission of a Broadway show.  It’s done through an enthusiastic greeting, with an unexpected recommendation, or by offering up our cab when it’s raining.  It happens in the small, personal interactions that allow us to prove to each other who we are and what we believe in, honest moments that promote good feelings and build trust and loyalty.”

Way to go Gary!  You get it about relationships.  And while in The Thank You Economy you’re showing business people how to scale one to one interactions to thousands or millions of customers and potential customers, your ideas about relationships are true for anyone looking to create life and career success.

I have three pieces of career advice for relationship building that I share with all of my career success coach clients…

First, get to know yourself.  Use this self knowledge to better understand others in order to build strong relationships.

Second, pay it forward.  Go first.  Build goodwill by giving with no expectation of return.

Third, resolve conflict positively and with little or no damage to your relationships.  Be counterintuitive.  Focus on where you agree with another person, not where you disagree.  That will help you build a creative solution to your differences.

Several tweets in my career advice book Success Tweets reinforce these three points.  Check them out and you’ll see what I mean…

Success Tweet 121 – Get genuinely interested in other.  Help bring out the best in everyone you know. 

Success Tweet 123 – Use every social interaction to build and strengthen relationships.  Strong relationships are your ticket to success.  (I think Gary would echo this one.)

Success Tweet 124 – Everyone has something to offer. Never dismiss anyone out of hand.  Take the initiative.  Actively build relationships.

Success Tweet 128 – When meeting someone new ask yourself, “What can I do to help this person?”  You’ll build stronger relationships by thinking this way.

Success Tweet 129 – There is no quid pro quo in effective relationships.  Do for others without being asked or waiting for them to do for you.

Success Tweet 131 – Be happy to see others succeed.  Use the success of others to motivate you to greater career success.

Success Tweet 132 – Trust is the glue that holds relationships together.  The more you demonstrate trust in others the more they will trust you.

Success Tweet 134 – Settle disputes and resolve differences quickly.  Don’t let them drag on.  Engage the other person in meaningful conversation.

Success Tweet 140 – Social networks allow you to help others.  Give value; and you’ll be able to build some great online relationships.

The common sense career success coach point here is clear.  As Gary Vaynerchuk points out in his great new book The Thank You Economy, “Everything has changed, except human nature.”  Humans crave relationships.  If you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve you need to get good at building relationships.  You can do this by following three simple principles:  1) Get to know yourself.  Use this self knowledge to better understand others in order to build strong relationships.  2) Pay it forward.  Go first.  Build goodwill by giving with no expectation of return.  3) Resolve conflict positively and with little or no damage to your relationships.  Be counterintuitive.  Focus on where you agree with another person, not where you disagree.  I stand with Gary Vaynerchuk here.  Strong relationships lead to your career success.

That’s the career advice I found in Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thank You Economy.  What do you think?  How do you build strong relationships?  Please share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my musings on life and career success.  I value you, and I appreciate you.

Bud

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