A few months ago, we received word that in the September edition of Knoxville magazine, the lead editorial mentioned The Go-Giver. We were intrigued. We got a copy of the magazine, and lo and behold, there it was.

Here is an excerpt of Janet’s editorial:

At graduation we were presented with a book: The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea. In the land of motivational, inspirational and “feel good” books, I think I’ll rate this one right on toward the top. Laid out simply is the “Trade Secret” for success: Giving. While the thought seems broad, trite, surface, practically overused and far too generic to apply, administer the book’s Five Laws of Stratospheric Success, and the concept of “giving” is suddenly invigorated with purpose and applicability.

Now, I’m certainly no motivational speaker and have a whole lot more work to do on the giving part. (The pressure I put myself under every day for not showing more gratitude for so many generous gestures that have come my way is truly exhausting.) But I grasp the book’s pivotal point that “you get what you expect, and ultimately the world treats you, more or less, the way you expect to be treated.” In other words, you teach people how to treat you.

During our Leadership Knoxville year and through many e-mails since graduation, I continue to see the genuine respect and sense of cooperation among classmates. We walked away with confidence, knowing we could largely depend on each other for ideas, solutions, feedback and support on a cause or passion one of us might be championing. We bought-in that concertedly we can have a bigger impact, and, like several of Knoxville’s non-profit leaders wrote in this issue, “all of us is better than any of us,” and “individually we take small steps, but collectively we can make real progress in enriching others’ lives.”

As a Go-Giver, the authors’ edification is “changing your focus from getting to giving — putting others’ interests first and continually adding value to their lives – ultimately leads to unexpected returns.”

Therein lies the road to wealth. Cash in.

Needless to say, now we were really intrigued. We investigated further, and found that Janet’s experience at Leadership Knoxville owed its lineage to Lorie Huff, the program director at Leadership Knoxville.

We got in touch with Lorie, who wrote this reply:

I love The Go-Giver and have enjoyed sharing it with others!

I previously worked at a wireless company, U.S. Cellular. While there I was privileged to work alongside two consecutive Regional VPs, who were wonderful servant leaders. As their executive assistant, I did a lot of reading and research on relevant “culture-impacting” books and ideas that would be beneficial to developing leaders in our values based culture.

I picked-up The Go-Giver in the airport while on a trip.

At the time, I knew I might be leaving U.S. Cellular for Leadership Knoxville and thought it would be the perfect final message to leave with our executive leadership team. I gave one to each member on my final day at U.S. Cellular.

As our program year drew to a close last spring, I again had an opportunity to leave a final message with a group of leaders who had been considering servant leadership for the year. The Go-Giver again provided the perfect message I hoped would inspire that group of community leaders to go influence their world.

I was very proud to see Janet’s article and glad that she shared it with the broader community.

Thanks for the email and for the message of The Go-Giver!

Thank you, Lorie, and thank you, Janet!