Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success

Lesson 1. Takers

Highly successful people have three traits in common: motivation, ability, and opportunity. To succeed in life, a person needs a combination of talent, hard work, and luck. The highly neglected fourth trait is interacting with others. How we approach our interactions with other people leaves a great impact on our degree of success. At work, whenever you are interacting with another person you are left with a choice to make: try to claim as much as you can, or contribute without worrying about what you’ll be receiving in return.

There are two kinds of people who fall at opposite ends of the reciprocatory range at work. In this book, Adam Grant has labeled them as givers and takers. 

Takers have one distinctive trait: they like to receive more than what they give. They ensure that the reciprocity is tilted in their favor. They always tend to put their interest ahead of others’ needs. According to the takers, the world is a dog-eat-dog place. They are very competitive. They feel that, to succeed, they have to be better than others. To prove their capability, they promote themselves, and ensure that they get enough credit for the efforts they have put in. But they are not cruel or cutthroat. They tend to think that if they do not watch out for themselves, no one else will. 

Lesson 2. Givers

Givers are relatively rare to find in the workplace. They tend to tilt the reciprocity in the opposite direction. They offer more than they receive. While the takers are more focused on what they can get from others, the givers are more focused on what other people need from them.  

Both the givers and takers are different in their attitudes and actions toward other people. If a person is a taker he will strategically help other people only when it benefits them. But these preferences are not just only about money. If a person is a giver, while giving, he probably expects something in return in the time of his need. Alternatively, he might also not be concerned about getting anything in return. Being a giver does not include larger-than-life sacrifices. It is just an act of kindness. This kind of behavior is quite common outside the workplace. In a study, it was revealed that in marriages and friendships, people contribute whenever they can without keeping a record. 

Lesson 3. Matchers

There is another type of personality that can be seen in the workplace apart from the givers and takers. They are the matchers. Matchers try to keep an equal balance between giving and getting.  They