Mark Sanborn

In his powerful book The Fred Factor, motivational speaker Mark Sanborn recounts the true story of Fred, the mail carrier who passionately loves his job and who genuinely cares about the people he serves. Because of that, he is constantly going the extra mile while handling the mail, and sometimes watching over the houses, of the people on his route, treating everyone he meets as a friend. Where others might see delivering mail as monotonous drudgery, Fred sees an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those he serves.

We've all encountered people like Fred in our lives. 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 four basic "how to" principles that will help us bring fresh energy and creativity to our life and work: how to make a real difference everyday, 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.

By following these principles, and by learning from and teaching other "Freds", you too can excel in your career and make your life extraordinary. As Mark Sanborn makes clear, each of us has the potential be a Fred. The Fred Factor shows you how.… (mere)

This probably won’t be a long review, but that’s not to knock its worth. In terms of flavor, it’s a rather Colorado-y kind of book, and so kinda ‘American’, if that word can be tied down, rather than whatever the opposite would be, if we can get one image of that, (obvs we can’t lol), although it’s that Mountain West at its best, when it’s not sucked into weird conspiracy theories, and really just wants to keep people practical and productive. Although I looked it up and Colorado actually leans blue slightly, and so it’s not that stereotypical Mountain West I guess. Mark’s also a very accomplished person who travels a lot, although he comes off as very relatable.

Anyway, he touches on different things, like networking and leadership, having and being an employee, and various different success topics, but basically I think it’s kinda a general success habits and principles book, like the Slight Edge; actually it might even be more famous than that other book, but I heard of Jeff before Mark…. I don’t know; I’ll keep this book around. I used to number the passages in books like Leonard Jacobson and Eckhart Tolle, and refer to random ones, but now I’m so good at calmness I kinda accept less than God’s best, so I think I’ll start to number passages in this book and refer to them randomly, instead.

It’s not the sort of book that should be judged based on how complicated it is, or how many ‘interesting things’ you can say about it.

…. Feel good, and make other people feel good. Never neglect people or make them feel inferior.… (mere)