Making Others Successful
Have you seen Casino* ? Besides being filled with lots of shiny bling, fabulous music and amazing actors the film offers a particularly salient success lesson.
My favorite character in the film is Ginger, played by Sharon Stone. Ginger is, essentially, a beautiful hustler who schmoozes high rollers at the casinos by temporarily offering them some of her sexual glam in exchange for money. In addition to Ginger’s amazing hair and to-die-for clothes–if you are a vintage junkie you will love Sharon Stone’s outfits from the early 1970’s–there’s something else about her that is memorable. Ginger tips out everyone in her circle, like the valets at the casinos. And, she does it with a smile, not grudgingly or with resentment. As a hustler, she relies on others in the know to point her in the direction of the big spenders. The valets and the women who work behind the cages at the casino are people who help her become successful. And, Ginger is successful. Sadly, she hands over all of her money to her old boyfriend who is a total loser but the bigger lesson here is that Ginger is successful because she takes care of and makes other people successful.
Success works like this; it feeds itself. While it’s more than just a belief in spreading good karma so good karma comes back to you, it isn’t a lot more complicated than this. Making other people successful puts you in the powerful position of Resource. Being known as a Resource grants you two things: expertise and–you guessed it–success. You can declare yourself an expert in a certain area, and I strongly encourage you to do this, but you need to be able to back that up somehow. Having other people consider you an expert helps cement that status.
Take a lesson from Ginger: one of the most amazing things you can do for yourself and your career (or your karma) is to make someone else successful. This doesn’t need to be time-consuming or complicated. The next time someone admires the earrings you are wearing, tell them about your closet-jewelry making friend who gifted them to you. Mention her name and tell them that she does jewelry parties and custom pieces for people. Check! That’s all it takes. Or, give someone else part of the kudos for the sale you just made. Tell your boss that Miss Y had dealt with the client initially and was the one who sent the fabric swatches. Check again.
There’s no sure recipe to success, of course. And ingredients like creating continual learning opportunities and building a good support team are not to be discounted. None of these will make you Oprah-rich but they won’t certainly won’t bankrupt you either.
*Casino is a Godfather-type movie so you may want to watch the trailer here before watching the whole movie, especially if the sporadic, sudden violence turns you off.