Buy new:
$12.99$12.99
FREE delivery: Monday, Feb 6 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Mountain View Resales
Buy used: $7.21
Other Sellers on Amazon
+ $3.99 shipping
89% positive over last 12 months
+ $3.99 shipping
85% positive over last 12 months
+ $3.99 shipping
95% positive over last 12 months

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.


Follow the Authors
OK
The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea Hardcover – Deckle Edge, December 27, 2007
Price | New from | Used from |
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial |
Audio CD, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
"Please retry" | $27.29 | — |
There is a newer edition of this item:
Enhance your purchase
Over the next week, Pindar introduces Joe to a series of “go-givers:” a restaurateur, a CEO, a financial adviser, a real estate broker, and the “Connector,” who brought them all together. Pindar’s friends share with Joe the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success and teach him how to open himself up to the power of giving.
Joe learns that changing his focus from getting to giving—putting others’ interests first and continually adding value to their lives—ultimately leads to unexpected returns.
Imparted with wit and grace, The Go-Giver is a heartwarming and inspiring tale that brings new relevance to the old proverb “Give and you shall receive.”
- Print length144 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPortfolio
- Publication dateDecember 27, 2007
- Dimensions5.65 x 0.63 x 8.55 inches
- ISBN-10159184200X
- ISBN-13978-1591842002
Frequently bought together
- +
- +
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
- The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.Highlighted by 2,670 Kindle readers
- “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.”Highlighted by 2,373 Kindle readers
- “Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.”Highlighted by 2,135 Kindle readers
- “Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.”Highlighted by 2,000 Kindle readers
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
-- Darren Richardson, Science of Mind
This modern-day business parable, a quick read in the spirit of The Greatest Salesman in the World and The One Minute Manager, should do well with eager corporate-ladder climbers Over the course of five days, a restaurateur, a CEO, a financial advisor, a real-estate broker and the mysterious Connector teach Joe about the laws of value, compensation, influence, authenticity and receptivityconcepts that make more immediate sense in this fictional context than they would in a formal business book.
Publishers Weekly
The powerful business idea referenced in the title is that shifting the focus from getting to giving and putting the other person first is the key to business success and personal fulfillment. Explanations of these concepts and how to employ them are clear and to the point, and as with all successfully written business books, it will provoke thought and probably action as well.
Booklist
"Burg and Mann have crafted a business parable that is drawing comparisons with Dr. Spencer Johnson's wildly popular 1998 book Who Moved My Cheese?... How one receives this message may vary, but learning and understanding it is essential ... the world always needs a fresh approach to its most important messages. For this purpose The Go-Giver is a great way to continue to spread a positive and enriching message."
Soundview Executive Book Alert
Not since Who Moved My Cheese? have I enjoyed a parable as much as this. You owe it to yourself to read The Go-Giver and share its message with those who matter most to you. It is a beautiful book that will touch your soul and inspire your heart.
David Bach, #1 New York Times bestselling author, The Automatic Millionaire
The Go-Giver does everything I would wish a good book to do. Read it to the very end.
Michael E. Gerber, author, The E-Myth
This terrific book wonderfully illuminates [the] principles of contribution, abundance, service, and success.
Stephen M. R. Covey, author, The Speed of Trust
A lovely reminder to us all that the world is abundant and rewards those who act with a generosity of spirit.
Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D., author, See Jane Lead and Nice Girls Dont Get the Corner Office
Most people dont have the guts to buy this book, never mind the will to follow through and actually use it. But you do. And Im certain that youll be glad you did.
Seth Godin, author, The Dip
The Go-Giver is the best business parable since The Greatest Salesman in the World and The One Minute Manager.
Pat Williams, author, Souls of Steel, and senior vice president, Orlando Magic
Burg and Mann have demonstrated that adding value to peoples lives is the way to climb the ladder of financial success.
Fran Tarkenton, Hall of Fame quarterback and founder and CEO , GoSmallBiz.com
These five simple principles will help you achieve your goals and fulfill your dreams!
Brian Tracy, author, The Psychology of Achievement
This book is exactly what is meant by the phrase Great things come in small packages.
Tom Hopkins, author, How to Master the Art of Selling
"A cross between Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, The Go-Giver is a tale of transformation...For those who've stalled out on The Secret's emphasis on what we want, want, want, the Chairman offers another secret--his trade secret: giving...Bob Burg, who travels the world sharing the principles of The Go- Giver, and John David Mann, author of The Zen of MLM, collaborate on this uplifting, quick-read of a book that will appeal to customers who want to bring more heart and a holistic sense of mission to their livelihoods."
--Connie Mears, New Age Retailer
About the Author
Bob Burg is a highly sought-after conference speaker who teaches the principles at the core of The Go-Giver to audiences worldwide. A former top sales professional, he is also the author of Endless Referrals and Adversaries Into Allies. He lives in Florida.
Product details
- Publisher : Portfolio; 1st edition (December 27, 2007)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 144 pages
- ISBN-10 : 159184200X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1591842002
- Item Weight : 9.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.65 x 0.63 x 8.55 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #682,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,647 in Business Motivation & Self-Improvement (Books)
- #2,664 in Motivational Management & Leadership
- #7,747 in Success Self-Help
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Bob Burg shares information on topics vital to the success of today’s businessperson. He speaks for corporations and associations internationally, including fortune 500 companies, franchises, and numerous direct sales organizations.
Bob regularly addresses audiences ranging in size from 50 to 16,000 — sharing the platform with notables including today’s top thought leaders, broadcast personalities, Olympic athletes and political leaders including a former United States President.
Although for years he was best known for his book "Endless Referrals," over the past few years it’s his business parable, "The Go-Giver" (coauthored with John David Mann) that has captured the imagination of his readers.
"The Go-Giver," a The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek Bestseller, has sold over 700,000 copies. Since its release it has consistently stayed in the top 25 on 800ceoread’s Business Book Bestsellers List. It has been translated into 21 languages. It was rated #10 on Inc. Magazine’s list of the Most Motivational Books Ever Written, and was on HubSpot’s 20 Most Highly Rated Sales Books of All Time.
Bob is the author of a number of books on sales, marketing and influence, with total book sales of well over a million copies.
The American Management Association named Bob one of the Top 30 Leaders in Business and he was named one of the Top 200 Most Influential Authors in the World by Richtopia.
Bob is an advocate, supporter and defender of the Free Enterprise system, believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve.
He is also an unapologetic animal fanatic and served on the Board of Directors of Furry Friends Adoption and Clinic in his town of Jupiter, Florida.
John David Mann is an award-winning author whose writings have earned the Nautilus Award, the Axiom Business Book Award (Gold Medal), Taiwan's Golden Book Award for Innovation, and the 2017 Living Now Book Awards “Evergreen Medal” for “contribution to positive global change.” He is coauthor of the worldwide classic THE GO-GIVER with Bob Burg (more than 1 million copies sold) and 4 New York Times bestsellers. His books are published in 38 languages and have sold more than 3 million copies. His first novel, STEEL FEAR (coauthored with Brandon Webb) was released in July 2021; iconic author Lee Child called it “sensationally good—an instant classic, maybe an instant legend,” and it was nominated for a Barry Award. Jeffery Deaver hailed the 2022 sequel, COLD FEAR, as “one of the best crime novels of the year.” You can read John’s thoughts on entering the world of crime fiction at https://bit.ly/36ASxAa
John has been creating careers since he was a teenager. At age 17, he and a few friends started their own high school in Orange, New Jersey called Changes, Inc. In his teens he forged a successful career as a concert cellist and prize-winning composer. At 15 he was recipient of the 1969 BMI Awards to Student Composers, then their youngest award recipient ever; his musical score for Aeschylus’s “Prometheus Bound” (written at age 13) was performed at the amphitheater in Epidaurus, Greece, where the play was originally premiered.
His diverse career has made him a thought leader in several different industries. In 1986 John founded and wrote for Solstice, a journal on health and environmental issues; his series on the climate crisis (yes, he was writing about this back in the eighties) was selected for national reprint in Utne Reader. During the nineties he built a multimillion-dollar sales/distribution organization of over 100,000 people. He was cofounder and senior editor of the legendary journal Upline and editor in chief of Networking Times.
He is married to Ana Gabriel Mann, his coauthor for THE GO-GIVER MARRIAGE, and considers himself the luckiest mann in the world. You can visit him at www.johndavidmann.com.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2015
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
I hope this helps.
ONE DAY I HOPE IF NOT RETURNED IT IS SHARED AS WELL!
The ideas that: (1) nothing is as it seems; (2) success depends on being the right kind of person; (3) a person can and must be transformed by doing what he hears; (4) givers meet needs in ways that add value to whatever they are producing or selling or offering by way of service; (5) giving depends on an ongoing willingness to receive; (6) a 100% commitment to the good of others (not 50/50 compromise or keeping score) is the key to good relationships and influence, that (7) increasing the numbers of people you impact determines compensation, and that (8) success depends on interrelatedness (connection, network, “body life”), are all consistent with the goal of following Christ as described in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7. In summary, the idea that happiness, fulfillment and satisfaction are by-products of serving others—not the result of seeking these things for their own sake—is consistent with Jesus’ teaching that finding one’s life requires the willingness to lose it for Christ’s sake (Luke 9:24).
A major contribution that The Go Giver makes is its practical demonstration that possessing wealth and doing good are meant to go together, not be regarded as antithetical. This is consistent with 1 Timothy 6:17ff.
Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.
The authors assert that the principles that work for business are applicable for all of life. This is in keeping with the Christian idea that God’s existence means that He and all of reality that He created has a nature, a way of being that works accordingly. So the book, The Go Giver, is either a deliberate application (at worst, a conscious rip off) of biblical principles or, more likely, a pragmatic discovery of what works because of the nature of life and relationships—including business. Either way, two observations follow. One is that all truth is God’s truth whether people recognize Him as its original source or not. The other is that The Go Giver promotes superior principles for inferior (and inadequate) motivations: to be humanly successful in this life. The principle that it fails to recognize is this: “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:25).
The true “bottom line,” according to the Bible, is that life is to realize the meaning, purpose, and success of serving God for His glory. This requires spiritual life not found outside of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That many principles of this service can be profitably reduced to best practices in business, industry, and human relationships is not disputed and should not be surprising or disparaged. But temporary enjoyment of people’s individual kingdoms is not worthy to be compared to the privilege of entering God’s eternal kingdom now, and inheriting it forever.
I'm not sure why others try to say its MLM or a scam. I don't see that anywhere in the books or any of the resources (podcast, articles, network, etc). Its a change of mindset. Maybe its something that some people can't handle? Maybe its people who aren't familiar with successful networking?
I highly recommend this book to any small business owners or salespeople who are looking for a new approach. I'm going to keep buying this book and giving it away to other business people who I meet who have the potential for stratospheric success.
Full disclosure here. I am a coach and speaker with the John Maxwell Team, and as such, I am frequently recommending one of John's 73 books. However, "The Go-Giver" is the book that I recommend most to clients, associates and friends, often giving it as a gift, because it embodies the foundational thoughts behind the cutting edge of business in today's market place. (see Daniel Pink's excellent new book "To Sell Is Human" To Sell Is Human ) A simply told story constructed around powerful truths makes a dynamic case.
Some might argue that these "truths" are pie in the sky and while they sound nice, they just don't work in the real world of business. Tell that to Zappos, Caribou Coffee, Apple, Costco Wholesale and a slew of successful companies that operate on principles just like these.
THE FIVE LAWS OF STRATOSPHERIC SUCCESS
The Law of Value
Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.
The Law of Compensation
Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how you serve them.
The Law of Influence
Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place others people's interests first.
givers attract, they're magnetic
The Law of Authenticity
The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
Authenticity - it's who you are.
The Law of Receptivity
The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.
GOLDEN RULE OF BUSINESS: All things being equal - people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust.
Also check out Bob Burg's and John David Mann's follow up book "It's Not About You". It's Not About You: A Little Story About What Matters Most in Business
Give me a simple story any day - it's the one I'll remember!
Top reviews from other countries

This is one of those books you can go back to time and time again - whether you dip in and out of it, or read it cover to cover (I recommend the latter), it's just constant value.
The "Go-Giver" mindset should be applied at work, at home, with your neighbours, with the checkout attendant at the supermarket - it's a way of life. The law of reciprocity concept exists for a reason, and is the fundamental basis for this book.
Buy it, then subscribe to Bob's podcast.

Yes, the message of the book is embedded in story form, but it is also explicitly stated at the end of each chapter.
The principles the book offers are ones I live by so the book resonated greatly. I’ve now gone on to order the Go-giver sales version for my business!

Joe essentially gets taught the lessons and then all of a sudden is a billionaire… There’s no story on the chapters between the effects of the “giving approach” starting and the eventual success.
What seems to confuse most readers is the lack of focus on establishing what you really want - your definition of success (could be something other than money).
Quick and worth a read but reckon some other authors on the topic of giving have a bit more research into how successful people set their own goals while building up others.

He's bought over 100 of these books now, and it is brilliantly priced for the personal value you can get from it. Want to know how to live your life successfully? Read this book!!!

The 5 laws have fundamentally changed my life for the better. Yes some are obvious and it is hard to be all in on all 5. I am still learning things about myself and and applying the principles. It is a book i have read maybe 15 times and each time I pick up something new or interpret something in a different way.
Good luck on your journey.
![]() |