Give and Take

Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant

About the Author

Adam Grant is an award-winning researcher and the single highest-rated professor at The Wharton School. He has been honored as one of BusinessWeek's favorite professors, one of the world's top 40 business professors under the age of 40, and one of Malcolm Gladwell's favorite social science writers. His consulting and speaking clients include Google, the NFL, Merck, Pixar, Goldman Sachs, the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, and the U.S. Army and Navy. He holds a Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from Harvard University. Adam Grant's eclectic background includes being a former record-setting advertising director, junior Olympic springboard diver, and professional magician.

Main Idea

In "Give and Take," Adam Grant illuminates the profound impact that our interactions with others have on our success. The book explores the different reciprocity styles people adopt: takers, matchers, and givers. Takers strive to get as much as possible from others, matchers aim for an equal balance of giving and getting, and givers contribute to others without expecting anything in return. Through his research, Grant reveals that while givers can be exploited and burn out, they are also the ones who often achieve the highest levels of success across various fields. This book challenges the traditional drivers of success—passion, hard work, talent, and luck—by adding a critical element: the way we approach our interactions with others.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Good Returns
2. The Dangers and Rewards of Giving More Than You Get
3. The Peacock and the Panda: How Givers, Takers, and Matchers Build Networks
4. Spotting the Taker in a Giver's Clothes
5. Collaboration and the Dynamics of Giving and Taking Credit
6. Finding the Diamond in the Rough: The Fact and Fiction of Talent
7. The Power of Powerless Communication
8. The Art of Motivation Maintenance
9. Chump Change: Overcoming the Doormat Effect
10. The Scrooge Shift
11. Out of the Shadows

Introduction: Good Returns

"Give and Take" begins by challenging the conventional wisdom that success is solely driven by individual factors like hard work, talent, and luck. Adam Grant introduces the idea that success is increasingly dependent on our interactions with others. He identifies three primary reciprocity styles: takers, who strive to get more than they give; matchers, who aim to trade evenly; and givers, who contribute to others without expecting anything in return.

Grant emphasizes that although some givers may get exploited or burn out, others achieve extraordinary success. This success is not just limited to personal achievements but extends to enhancing the success of those around them, creating a ripple effect that benefits entire organizations and communities.