The 4-Word
Question All Highly Successful People Ask
The most successful people I know live by this
simple phrase.
California has its share of famous streets: Sunset Strip,
Rodeo Drive, Hollywood Boulevard. But for entrepreneurs, the most famous is
Sand Hill Road. Lining this stretch of asphalt outside Menlo Park are a who's
who of elite venture capital firms. Nearly every top Silicon Valley company has
started here.
So I was understandably a little intimidated
back in 2009, on one of my first fundraising trips for Hootsuite. Would
investors give me the time of day? Would they share my enthusiasm for building
a social media management platform? Would I even be able to get in the door?
But something unexpected happened -- it was
almost eerie. Time and time again, inside conference rooms, at coffee shops, or
huddling in hotel lobbies, I heard the same four-word phrase from investors and
entrepreneurs.
How can I help?
VCs
like Geoff
Entress from Voyager Capital asked me. Angel
investor Dave
McClure asked me. Kissmetrics CEO Hiten Shah asked me. These were powerful and extremely
busy people. And yet here they were offering up their time and expertise, their
connections and critical thinking power, to a new entrepreneur.
Fast-forward
almost a decade and I heard that same four-word mantra last month while on
another trip to the Bay Area. At Startup Grind Global Conference, the
entrepreneurial all-stars onstage were using it. At Google, special projects
lead Gia Scinto sat down with me and asked the very same
question.
I had to stop and ask myself: What was so
special about this four-word phrase? And why were so many incredibly successful
people using it?
The power of "How can I help?"
The more I thought about it, the more it made
sense. If business is all about who you know, then this simple line -- How can
I help? -- might be the ultimate networking tool. At its heart, it's a powerful
way to fast-track relationships and build goodwill. By offering to help, you
cultivate instant rapport and establish an immediate sense of trust. Rather
than waiting for people to prove themselves to you, you take the bull by the
horns and prove yourself to them. A foundation is built -- with striking speed
and efficiency -- for future interactions.
It struck me that all these wildly successful
people had probably been offering a helping hand long before they were
successful. In fact, it was likely their willingness to help -- the connections
built and doors opened as a result -- that accounted in good measure for their
success.
The
key to cementing relationships isn't just offering help, of course. It's
following through and actually providing it. I've seen this throughout my
career. From our earliest meetings, for example, one of my investors has always
made a point of asking me how he can help out, with advice, employee referrals,
you name it. In fact, I owe half of my executive team to his Rolodex. John Ruffolo, incidentally, is one of the best-connected and most
successful investors around, with an uncanny track record. I don't think that's
a coincidence.
So how does it work?
What's the mysterious mechanism at work here?
How, exactly, does helping others help you? Well, you could equate it to
business karma. I truly believe that helping other people sets you up for
cosmic success at some level, whether that's in business or in everyday life
(in fact, the less distinction you make between the two, the better). What goes
around almost inevitably comes around.
But if you prefer more hard-boiled business
terminology, you could think of the help you offer as an investment. Like any
investment, it might pay off in the short term, you may have to stick around
for the long haul, or it might be a bust altogether. But I've found -- more
often than not -- that you do see a healthy return from the help you extend,
though usually in ways that are more complex, mysterious, and powerful than you
might imagine.
Close
to home, for example, I mentor more than a dozen entrepreneurs each year as
part of an initiative called the
Next Big Thing. Some of them need help bringing their
product to market; others are looking to find partners and collaborators. I try
to give my advice and time (at least the minutes I can spare) freely. I expect
nothing from this other than the satisfaction of seeing young entrepreneurs
find their path.
But over the years, these entrepreneurs have
gone on to start companies in my backyard here in Canada. They've done their part
-- in big and small ways -- to start building a new tech center in Vancouver.
Each year, the critical mass of talent and investment in the region grows.
Ultimately, we all benefit. The rising tide truly does lift all boats.
We
tend to think of business as calculating and sometimes ruthlessly Darwinian.
But the truth is that self-interest and a cold shoulder will only take you so
far. Regardless of how busy things are or how cutthroat the competition is,
I've found that real success often starts with four simple words: How
can I help?
By Ryan
Holmes
http://www.inc.com/ryan-holmes/the-4-most-powerful-words-you-can-use-in-business.html
No comments:
Post a Comment