The High-Five Effect by Matt Ward is a ground-breaking business textbook that will be particularly appreciated by seasoned company owners whom are still thinking like startups.
The phases of a company owner’s existence that Matt first discusses are the stages of survival, security, discovery, and respect. He explains how to identify whatever stage you’re currently in and how to advance to the next one. He is intimately familiar with these phases having owned multiple firms personally over the last several decades. He is aware that when we initially start a company, we are so anxious for business that we would accept any customer and go to any lengths to retain them. He is aware of how this commitment causes us to work long hours, sacrifice time with friends and family, lose sleep, and eventually see our love and excitement for our company wane.
Matt believes that working in business is supposed to be about having fun. The title of the book expresses his biggest goal to be so happy in his work and connections with others that they will want to high-five his customers. But in order to get there, a company owner must go from the stage of survival to the respect stage, when they develop self-respect. They must reach the same understanding that Jason Cutter, a company entrepreneur and the foreword’s author, did. Jason explains:
“Over the past few years, I’ve come to recognize two things: 1) Life is way too short to spend doing things you despise; and 2) I know I can add enormous value to my the customer’s company, so if I do my work right, I should be paid handsomely for it. And if you are forced to run business with individuals you don’t get along with, life will seem very tedious and difficult.
Matt developed this book to assist small company owners in coming to these realizations and then transitioning from an anxious and controlling business to a more rewarding one that contains more pleasure.
Working through these five stages is necessary to find that delight. Each step, including evaluate, value, identify, bolster, and engage, is given its own part in Matt’s book. I won’t go into every single one of the reasons Here, but they all start with evaluating where your company is right now so you can decide which way you want to proceed. We may find greater leisure and flexibility, make greater revenues doing the things we do best, experience pleasure at what we accomplish, and develop connections with the kind of customers we like doing business with by moving through these stages.
Personally, I thought the section on selecting the correct clientele was worth the time I spent reading the book. The various client types, warning signs of problematic clients, the value of listening to your gut instinct and intuition, how to have difficult conversations regarding customers that can make them change, along with how to value yourselves and your services so that other individuals will value you and that they will follow your joy rather than just the money are all covered by Matt.
In addition to learning to respect ourselves, this process also entails learning to do more than simply what is necessary to earn money. When we learn to respect who we are and get rid of the impostor syndrome, which makes us doubt our value, particularly when irrational customers complain, we can become assured company owners who don’t allow anybody take unfair advantage of us.
Among all the company courses that all too often instruct us what it takes to hustle to earn a livelihood but not whether to be honest to ourselves regarding what we really need in life, The High-Five Influence is a welcome voice. In the end, running a company is about more than simply making sales and satisfying clients; it’s about creating a lifestyle what will make individuals happy. As our businesses expand and take over our lives, it’s easy to give up sight of that original objective. However, Matt Ward takes us back to the beginning and demonstrates how to achieve balance by reminding us that our personal satisfaction comes first. The High-Five Affect is the ideal place to begin if you want to discover or reignite the enthusiasm and passion that first motivated you to start your own company.