The Fred Factor Principles

The Fred Factor is the true story of Fred, the mail carrier who passionately loves his job and who genuinely cares about the people he serves. Because of this attitude, he is constantly going the extra mile when handling the mail  he sometimes watches over the houses of the people on his route, and he treats everyone he meets as a friend. Whereas others might see delivering mail as a monotonous drudgery, Fred sees an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those he serves.

In The Fred Factor, Mark Sanborn illuminates the simple steps each of us can take to transform our own lives from the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Through stories about Fred and others like him, Sanborn reveals the four basic principles that will help bring fresh energy and creativity to your life and work: how to make a real difference every day, how to become more successful by building strong relationships, how to create real value for others without spending a penny, and how to constantly reinvent yourself.

Every day we interact with dozens of people. Often those interactions are fleeting and unmemorable. Freds, however, don’t use people as a means to an end; they use relationships to build a foundation for success. They understand that all outcomes are created by and through interactions with others. So they become students of social psychology. They understand that strong relationships create loyalty and are the basis of partnerships and teamwork. The best Fred’s build networks to develop distribution channels for their talents, and they strive to work well with others, whether one-on-one with a customer or in a team with colleagues.

The Four Principles

1.Everyone makes a difference.
The only question at the end of the day is “What kind of difference did you make?

2.Everything is built on relationships.
To paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, it is the humanness that makes a business great, not the “businesses.”

3. You must continually create value for others, and it doesn’t    have to cost a penny.
You can replace money with imagination. The object is to     outthink your competition rather than to outspend them.

4. You can reinvent yourself regularly.
No matter what job you hold, what industry you work in or where you live in the world, you wake up every morning with a blank slate, and you can make your business and your life anything you choose.

Remember that the quality of a relationship is related directly to the amount of time invested in it. Make sure you give some of your best time to your relationships.

For more information and resources, go to www.fredfactor.com