Want to grow your business successfully? Learn the impact of delivering on your word

By Jason Safford (Excerpted from Winning with Exceptionalism)

Actions speak louder than words. Actions result in reactions. The more positive energy you give out, the more you will receive. Delivering on the words you speak is the most important action you can take. Even if you wind up costing yourself more time and money that you think the effort may be worth, following through on your words can be more valuable in the long run. Some people may try to use your words against you. It is up to you to defend yourself against what you say. However, if your goal is to speak with earnest desire to help others in a positive and valuable way, then your words can only be twisted negatively. This will reveal the other persons character. Then you will know who you are dealing with accordingly and be able to take appropriate action.

2010 was an incredibly challenging year for a lot of people. We were involved in the Great Recession and countless people not only were out of work, they were struggling to figure out how to live in a terrifying time of fear and panic. Many people had suffered through the humiliation of food pantries and hand outs to keep food on the table and were just searching for ways to keep the lights on.

We stepped up to the plate to help the City by developing a Green Jobs Training program and working with long term unemployed people on learning new skills and getting honest work. One of the challenges was finding employers.

I decided to reach out to a colleague at a local church and asked if they needed any maintenance people. He thanked me graciously but said they had no money in the budget to pay anyone. I told him not to worry let these people do it as an internship for work experience and just get doing jobs they could feel good about. He agreed that as long as he had my word that there would be no expectation of payment, they had bad experiences in the past with people making a stink over unpaid work, he would accept the people and give them maintenance jobs. I guaranteed him there would be no issue and he could call me at anytime if there was even the slightest whiff of an issue. I was going to absorb the cost of all the labor, which I did. I also provided our jobs training program for free to help them to train others to learn skills and start getting work.

Months later I got a letter from a community organization in Harlem that worked with a number of churches including my colleagues. They were thanking me for not only the workers but for the entire job training program and how it had such a positive impact on the community. That one single gesture had made an incredible impact on the community that lasted for years afterwards and its something that I always smile about.

Becoming a super-achiever and reaching exceptionalism is about delivering on your word even when it means you may be costing yourself in the short-run.