The First Fred:

When Mark Sanborn, our author, bought his first house, he moved in, after a few hours, his doorbell rang. There was a young man who introduced himself as “Fred”, the mailman, he delivered him his mail and then asked him about his job to which Sanborn answered that he was a professional speaker, “Oh, so you travel a lot then?”, said Fred, Sanborn told him that he was away most days of the year.

When Fred learned that, he told him that he should send him his schedule so that he would deliver his mail only when he’s at home. If he wasn’t, he’d just hold on to it until Sanborn comes back, Sanborn was amazed, but he politely refused because he didn’t want Fred to go through all that trouble and he asked him to just put the mail in his mailbox when he’s away.

But, Fred refused, and he told him that thieves often look for mailboxes that are full of mail because that’s when they know that the owner of the house is away, so Fred suggested putting mail in the box as long as he could close it, and if it got too full, he’d start putting the mail between Sanborn’s front door and the screen door so that no one would be able to see it, and if that got too full, he’d just hold on to the rest of the mail until Sanborn comes back, Sanborn was surprised with the amount of talent that young Fred had, he agreed to his suggestion, after all, Fred was the mail professional here.

One time when he came back to his house after a trip, he noticed that his front door mat was gone, he was surprised because who would even steal a doormat, but when he looked around he found his doormat on the side, and when he lifted it, he found a small package for him, when he asked Fred about it, Fred told him that when he was gone, the US mail system accidentally delivered a package that was meant for him to another house, so when Fred was passing by all the houses he noticed that and he took it and delivered it to Sanborn’s house and then hid it under the doormat to avoid it being taken by thieves!

Sanborn was really surprised this time, and from that moment on, he decided that he would use Fred as an example in his speeches whenever he travels, people really got inspired by Fred’s story and kept sending Sanborn a lot of messages about how Fred inspired them, Sanborn told Fred about how he’s inspiring people, and it made Fred happy.

The thing is, anyone can be a Fred, even you, my dear reader, want to learn how? Let’s move to the next chapter.

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The Fred Principles:

Principle I: Everyone Makes a Difference:

No matter how large or insignificant an organization is, one employee can actually make a difference, either by doing something good, doing something bad, or not doing anything at all, Fred understood that his job was not only to deliver mail, he understood that he could have an effect on his clients, he made their day much more enjoyable!

Politicians have always told us that work gives people dignity, and that’s partly true, whatever you do is an important aspect of your life that without it you’re not complete, but the thing here is that this sentence is just half of the truth, the whole truth is that people also give work dignity, there are no unimportant jobs, there are only people who feel that they’re unimportant while doing these jobs.

Principle II: Success is Built on Relationships:

Sanborn spent all his life getting his mail in his mailbox, he got what he paid for, nothing more, nothing less, but he met Fred, Fred’s service was much better, for many reasons actually but the most important one is that Fred put in the effort to know Sanborn and adapt to his needs, Fred made his service personal, and that’s what you should do too if you want to become a “Fred”, you need to know that to be a successful leader, you need to know that your employees are humans, and for a technology to become successful, it needs to recognize that its users are humans, and an employee succeeds when he knows that his customers are humans.

Principle III: You Must Continually Create Value for Others, and It Doesn’t Have to Cost a Penny:

Stop complaining that you don’t have enough money, training or resources in general; it’s an excuse to stop yourself from succeeding, look at Fred, please tell me what resources did Fred have? Nothing! Just his blue uniform and a bag full of mail, that’s all the resources he had yet he managed to get creative and make something out of himself.
The key here is to outsmart your competitors, not outspend them.
Don’t worry about being unemployed as a result of downsizing that most companies do now, instead, focus on being employable instead of unemployed, and about being employable, the best thing you have to do is to have enough skill for employers to search for you, and do you know what the most important skill an employer should have is? It’s the ability to create value out of nothing.

Principle IV: You Can Reinvent Yourself Regularly:

Think about this, if Fred could put so much originality in delivering mail, how much do you think you can do in whatever job you’re in? The answer is A LOT.
Sanborn believes that you can put just as much creativity and imagination in your job as Fred, or even more, no matter what your work is, every single morning you wake up, you have the choice to do whatever you want and be whoever you want to be, and that’s what Sanborn called The Fred Factor.

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