How to have a Servant Mentality in Business and Life: Help yourself by helping others

From my years as a successful small businessman in printing, marketing, and business development in South Dakota, through my time as the CMO of a Fortune 100 company, and into my current work as a speaker, bestselling author, host of a national TV show, and creator of the C-Suite Network, people have asked me one question more than any other: “Jeffrey, how did you do it?” My answer is: “I think big and act bigger.”

Acting bigger means tying visions to actions—getting beyond the stories and excuses, the self-imposed limitations, preconceived notions, and constraining structures—and becoming the biggest, baddest, best version of who you are and what you want to be. Thinking big and acting bigger is all about action and attitude: being fearless and bold, steamrolling obstacles, ignoring perceived limitations, and even being a little irrational and pigheaded at times. It’s about putting yourself out there and making a difference for yourself and others.

And it is about hard work. I’ve gotten to where I am because I have outworked the competition and used every resource I have not only to survive but to thrive. But before the hard work started it was about trusting in who I am and doing things because I can. When people told me, “You can’t!” I refused to listen. I beat back the naysayers and pushed past people who told me “this won’t work.” Instead, I thought big and acted bigger.

I filled my new book, Think Big Act Bigger with stories of how I did that and from dozens of people I know and admire who serve as examples of how you act and rise above the odds. It may all start with you saying “Because I Can” but, the ultimate lesson in Think Big, Act Bigger is that I did not get where I am because I’m smarter or fiscally bigger than my competition. I got where I am in part because somebody mentored me, gave me advice, or guided me when I needed help. Thus, to think big and act bigger and move forward in the most open-hearted way, I never forget to pay it forward relentlessly in the smallest, most intimate way possible: helping others. Those people who helped me knew what I have now learned myself: we get ahead by helping others get ahead, too. The more I help people, the more it comes back to me in some way. Don’t lose sight of that, ever.

If you need help, ask. If someone asks, answer. Simply put, people serve people, not companies. Do you inspire devotion like that in the people you work with, and is the feeling mutual? If not, what can you do to change that? Ask them! Acknowledge their presence! Be aware of their existence and the stories they tell! My book and all our stories cannot be written without them.