Serving and giving is success (4)

Chapter 3

Serving and giving is success

It will surprise some that feel God has called them to a life of success and growing of their assets, that the means of achieving success isn't that difficult. It's nothing more or less than serving people. That's it.

There are of course things like becoming very good at what you do and an expert in your chosen field. But you can have all of that and still fail if you're not committed to serving or giving to people.

The goal for the Christian is to seek to offer quality service. If that is efficiently done, the profits will without a doubt come. Those that forget quality service and focus on profits as their goal, will for the most part, fail. It's close to impossible to build a successful business over the long term if you aren't a person that is willing to serve. And if you're choice is to serve by working for someone else, the key to success is still the same: the best servant will usually rise to the top and be considered very valuable to the company. Since people don't always reward the people that deserve to be rewarded in the way they should, there are times when your efforts won't produce the desired results. But God is still in charge, and if you continue to walk in obedience to Him and quality service to those you serve, you will eventually be rewarded. Where you may have to be cautious is in a small business where nepotism may come into play. In that case no matter what you do you may never be placed in the position you want to be at the salary you hope for. In that case there is a need to take honest inventory of your circumstances, and possibly ask questions of the owner as to their plans for you in the business. That should be done without anger or aggressiveness, otherwise it could hurt you.

Service is attractive

Quality and efficient service is a tremendous power in the life of a business, and assuming the right sector or market has been chosen, it will ultimately lead to long-term success.

One thing about service is it is very attractive, and it attracts people or customers to your business when it is done in a successful way.

What is most important here is a person must accurately evaluate their skills and desires to be sure they line up with their long-term goals. Not only must you discover for yourself what your best skill set is and look where that may fit in, but you should also ask trusted friends who you know will give you objective feedback. Don't get into confirmation bias, where your buddies or girlfriends will tell you what you want to hear to make you feel good. That's a disaster, and the way to avoid that is to be sure to only include those who know you and are willing to give quality and accurate feedback to you.

When you're good at what you do and cultivate a servant's heart, it will eventually lead to success. The caveat there is you must choose a field that has growth potential and has a large enough client base to be able to build a business around. This isn't as important on the Internet if that's where you're primary business is done, as there should be a large enough pool of interested people to build a tribe or business around. Nonetheless, don't assume that. Do some research to make sure that's the case.

This is important because the quality of your service and its chances at being successful is tied into the specific business and market you choose to compete in. Without that, it won't matter how good you serve if you not competing in a market big enough to generate some decent revenue from.

The combination of the right market served with skills you are good at greatly increases your chance at success. Make sure you're correct in both of those areas.

What aren't you good at or called to?

If there is one thing I've learned through they years, it is a person can have a lot of areas of interest. It's important to know that even if you have an interest in a specific thing, whether or not that's a legitimate area for you to serve and compete in.

All believers have the Spirit of God in them, and are gifted and tasked for specific things. This of course isn't always related to a job, business or money, but when it is, it's just as important to know what you shouldn't be doing as it is what you're doing.

For some this may not be a problem because they've known what they're good at and called to do by God, and so the issue isn't as important. But for those just starting to search for a sector or market to serve in as an entrepreneur, it's vital to go through a process of elimination in order to reach your final decision.

This doesn't necessarily mean you'll never compete in an area you're eliminating, but it should mean for now, there should only be one segment of the market you serve. To attempt to do more than one is a sure way to get discouraged and frustrated, which will ultimately lead to failure. You can't serve two masters is legitimate in this area as well.

The point of this section isn't to encourage someone to look at numerous areas of service in order to eliminate them. The purpose is to identify areas of interest you have and see if you have some expertise  in them which would result in effective service. If there is more than one, you'll have to narrow it down to one in order to give yourself the best chance at success.

Over the years you can build out from there once the original business is on solid footing. But you must start in only one area if you want to build wealth unto the kingdom of God. Quality service is the key, and the right choice for the area you want to serve in at the beginning is the foundation of that service.

Giving

We've talked about service in this chapter, but let's call it by another name to give it perspective: giving. If you look at giving as a form of service, then you're close to what it takes to achieve success. Very few people resist someone that is giving their best on their behalf to make their experience with a product or service successful. There are of course a few cantankerous exceptions, but they are few and far between, and won't have an effect on your success other than making the journey occasionally uncomfortable. That's just part of doing business.

You can always fire a customer if they don't complain in good faith, based upon a legitimate issue. Be careful before you do that because complaints are actually opportunities for exceptional giving and service, and if it's handled properly and to the customer's satisfaction, it can result in a lifelong customer.

If you're serving and giving from a sincere heart, it overcomes initial resistance, and even if you have to try several times to resolve a problem, the relationship with the customer in most circumstances is enhanced, and word of mouth spreads about how you took care of them. The bottom line is quality and effective service overcomes resistance, and that's on the front end of the interaction as well, meaning when you attempt to make an initial sale. Service and giving with the benefit of the customer in mind throughout the entire process gives a good chance of being successful if you stick with it.

When building wealth via a business, you'll quickly find out that people are more interested in themselves and what they get out of a transaction with you; they're not interested in you. That is the place you must begin. Over time if you build a relationship with a customer that results in long-term profitability, it will come because you served them to the best of your ability. If you continue to do that you build loyalty, and loyalty creates fans or a tribe that trusts you, and which will come back time after time to buy what you're offering.

Not only that, but it can result in a powerful community built around the service or products you offer, which ends with the community helping one another in various areas as well. This increases the loyalty even more as they invest their time and lives into what you have built together. All of this is built upon giving and quality service.