The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary Into the Extraordinary

By Mark Sanborn

Book Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Discover how an ordinary mail carrier's approach to life can teach you how to boost creativity, strengthen relationships, and make a real difference every day--now in an updated twentieth-anniversary edition.

" The Fred Factor] delivers a potent motivational message that will super-charge your attitude toward work and life. . . . You will never view yourself, your value to others, and your importance in the world in the same way again."--John Maxwell, from the foreword

Meet Fred. No average USPS carrier, Fred seized the chance to find meaning in the mundane and endeavored to make his customers smile every day. After moving to Denver, Speaker Hall of Fame member Mark Sanborn got to know this kindhearted man and realized that Fred's outlook on life can be distilled into four basic principles that anyone can use to bring fresh energy and creativity to our work and life:

- Everyone makes a difference
- Success is built on relationships
- You must continually create value for others, and it doesn't have to cost a penny
- You can reinvent yourself regularly

In this updated edition, Sanborn speaks to the seismic changes that have transformed the world of work in recent years--with employees increasingly hungry for purpose in their jobs--and outlines the book's fresh applications.

Perfect for graduates, community leaders, or anyone looking to bring more kindness into the world, The Fred Factor is an inspiring guide to becoming your best self.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385513518
• ISBN13: 9780385513517
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Crown Currency
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Not for the lazy or unmotivated......

This book is a great "how to" make a difference and impact people's lives every day. This is not a fiction book for you to just enjoy and read---although it is a good "read". It is a book which will inspire you to take action. It isn't a story about Fred. It is your story and the story of how you can create an extraordinary life for yourself and the people you touch. If you are a person of action and want to make a difference in people's lives, then read the book, embrace it's concepts and become a Fred yourself.

Valuable Message, Comfortably Presented

This little book (5.5 X 8 inches) is inviting just by it's small size. It's not intimidating, like some management and leadership books can be. The writing is a mix of storytelling and advice, flowing from the attitudes, behavior, and effectiveness of Fred the Postman. Fred is just an ordinary postal carrier who performs in an extraordinary way. Author Mark Sanborn, a well-respected motivational speaker, explores what Fred does, why he does it, and the impact that effort has on others. Throughout the book, Sanborn offers examples of people in all walks of life-regular people like you and me, showing how they go over and beyond the ordinary to make a difference in the lives of those around them. The lessons are both instructive and inspirational. The themes are so well interwoven that you hardly realize that you're being taught or inspired; it just sort of happens. Much of the advice offered consists of the same material that we've heard from motivational speakers for decades. The phrases and morals will sound familiar as you move comfortably through the pages. The personal one-on-one sharing style that the author uses to convey his messages somehow makes the messages much easier to "get," absorb, and use. The Fred Factor is great for individual reading and personal growth. It will also be valuable for years as a training tool. Employers no doubt will buy this book in large quantities to inoffensively encourage their employees to be Freds in their work, to reach out to others, to build relationships, to do the extra things, to make a difference. This book would make a great gift for young people about to go out and make their way in the world. When they commit to Fred behavior, they will open their lives to that much higher level of satisfaction that comes from serving others.

Nice review of the value of going the extra mail

This short book focuses on a mailman Mark Sanborn met, a man named Fred. When the author first met Fred, Fred took an effort to get to know his new customer, and find ways to do a better job as a mailman. This book about the value of doing a better job, how to build relationships, and why we should take initiative. In short by going the extra mile we'll have a better life, and others will benefit. It is a good book, and a short book. It is well written. The book is entertaining and at the same time makes many good points. The first of four sections covers how the author met Fred the mailman, and how very quickly the author realized that Fred was a superstar mail carrier. The basics of what a "Fred" is are explored, and then the author mentions sightings of other "Freds." The second section explains how you can become a Fred. Basically you need to build relationships with others so you know them well enough to then be able to be create, take initiative and make a difference. The third section gives pointers on how you can help others grow into being Freds. The basic steps are to: 1) Find - how do you recognize a Fred 2) Reward - how should Freds be rewarded 3) Educate - how help people improve their Fredness 4) Demonstrate - model the correct behavior The final section recounts the value and importance of being a Fred. This is a book worth reading. It provides a good reminder and motivation to go the extra mile and do a better job.

The HEART of business.

What I love about The Fred Factor is that it counters the notion that to succeed in business means somehow abandoning your values. Mark Sanborn makes a case that success in business, or life, for that matter, is a matter of embracing the values of service, caring, and doing the right thing. This is a book that should be standard issue for every employee of every company. Outstanding!

Great Book

A great book to help make yourself, as well as others, more FRED.