Giving Before Asking
I watched an interview with Chris Sacca a few weeks ago wherein he talked about a number of topics of interest, including:
- How he got started in venture funding
- How he made (and lost) his first fortune by leveraging student loans for grad school
- What he looks for in entrepreneurs (It’s not necessarily what you think)
Chris is a very successful guy by most any measure, and this was really my first time listening to him being interviewed. I thought Kevin Rose did a fantastic job of asking good questions and then just letting Chris go. I highly recommend watching the entire thing. It’s about an hour.
One of the points that Chris made has stuck with me, not because it’s novel but because he managed to articulate what I consider to be a foundational principle in a way I had not heard it said prior. Somewhere in the first half hour of the video, he said “You need to create value before asking for it in return.” I stopped the video the first time I watched and just thought about that for a while.
There are (at least) two ways to work with people. You can try to sell them something, or you can let them buy something from you. They are two radically different approaches, and the first one is going the way of the dodo bird unless you are buying a used car. Customers have so many options to solve just about any problem these days, and what makes the difference is more often than not the person behind it.
Have you established trust with them by being willing to invest yourself in their problems without necessarily expecting anything in return? Are you genuinely concerned for their well-being, or only concerned to the extent that it affects you positively? I often find myself asking the question “Would I be involved with this opportunity if it makes me nothing in the short term?” If the answer is no, I probably need to re-think my involvement.
There is so much to be gained from simply being a resource that people can trust. I have seen time and again over the past year that by being willing to engage when the path to financial reward was not clear has paid off down the road in ways I could have never foreseen. It might be a new relationship, or an opportunity that comes about that is nothing like the original one. I rarely regret spending time helping someone.
To bring it back to Chris’ point, if I create value first, the conversation about asking for it in return is so much easier. It has me thinking about the value of selling yourself, and what that really means. To me, it’s more about letting someone figure out that they want to buy.
What has been your experience? Do I have this wrong? Is there more to it? I would love to know what you think. Watch the interview and drop me a comment below.
Foundation 07 // Chris Sacca from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.