Video

Adam Grant: Are you a giver or a taker?

Adam Grant · TED Free Beginner

A fast, watchable version of the giver/taker/matcher framework if you don't have time for the full book. It's a good gut-check before a launch: are you showing up in your network mostly as someone who gives, or mostly as someone who asks.

  • Every relationship, over time, sorts you into giver, taker, or matcher in the other person's mind
  • Being seen as a taker is what actually burns a network out, not the number of asks itself
  • Simple, low-cost giving habits shift how people categorize you and how they respond to your asks

The question it answers

  1. Every launch I ask friends to upvote and share. Is leaning on my network for each launch going to burn it out?

Read with it

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  5. The definitive research-backed case for 'give before you ask', Grant shows that generous givers, not takers, build the biggest... adamgrant.net Book · long Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success Adam Grant
  6. This is the canonical argument that you do not need a mass market to build something real, you need a small number of people... The Technium (kk.org) Essay · ~15 min read 1,000 True Fans Kevin Kelly
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