If There Be a Billionaire Among You…
Let him be your servant.
“You Can Have Everything in Life You Want if You Will Just Help Enough Other People Get What They Want.”
— Zig Ziglar
Amazon — A Service Company
Jeff Bezos is the head cheese at Amazon. He has amassed a fortune. As of writing, Bezos is worth about 190 billion dollars. That is not a bad chunk of change.
Why is Bezos richer than I am? Here is perhaps an oversimplified answer, but one that will be hard to dispute. The fact is: Bezos serves more people than I do.
Amazon has over 100 million Prime customers worldwide (source Yieldify). Two-thirds of American homes have Prime memberships (source: Mediakix). Amazon shoppers purchased 175 million items during Prime Day in 2019 (Source: CNBC).
That is a lot of people served.
McDonald’s — A Service Company
And when I think of the numbers of people served I think of McDonald's. Officially, the company has stopped tracking the number of people that have walked through its doors. One clue of the company's reach, though, is the sign outside of each restaurant which somewhat vaguely states, “Billions and Billions Served.” According to its training and operations manual, however, Mickey Dee’s sells “more than 75 hamburgers per second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day of the year.”
That’s a lot of cheeseburgers and a lot of mostly happy customers.
The man who put McDonald’s on the map did well for himself with this service-minded approach.
Ray Kroc [who purchsed McDonald’s in 1961] was an American businessman and entrepreneur who had a net worth of $600 million at the time of his death in 1984. That’s the same as $1.4 billion today after adjusting for inflation.
— (source: celebritynetworth.com)
Berkshire Hathaway — A Service Company
Also, consider Warren Buffett, another one of the richest men in the world. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, is worth about 800 billion dollars. The company holds the bulk of its value in shares of other companies and a healthy bag of cash. But the company serves its customers, the shareholders. In a sense, Berkshire is a service company. They manage funds for their investors.
I recall a statement that Buffett made at one of his shareholder’s meetings. I am sorry that I was not able to find the quote. But to the best of my memory, Buffett was a bit hard on himself because the company, Berkshire, did not perform as well as he would have liked. He gave himself a verbal lash. Just one lash mind you. But he cut himself a stripe to be sure.
Now, I have often thought about the comment that he made. Buffett was not pleased with his performance. But, surely, he knows how valuable he is to the company and his investors. No doubt he also realizes the worth he brings to the organization. But Buffet was a bit down on himself and here is why I think he reacted the way he did…
Buffett was upset because he did not provide the value to his customers, or the shareholders, that he wanted to. He, perhaps in his own mind only, fell short of the service he felt he brought to the company during the past year. This really shows where his mindset is.
Warren Buffett is service-oriented.
And through his company, Berkshire, he serves a lot of people. Buffett’s reward for leading the company is a mammoth net worth estimated at approximately 110 billion dollars.
Final Question
So who do I serve? I am ashamed to say. But to be sure the number of people I serve is far less than the three examples I just gave.
My thought is, if I want to earn more, and have more, I need to — Serve More. It is just that simple.
And the one billion dollar question to leave you with is…
Who do you serve?
While you ponder that I will leave you with this final quote. Good luck with your service journey. I wish you my best… Max.
