By
El Copeland
November 13, 2025
•
20 min read
Professional Development
Chapter-by-Chapter Discussion Questions for The Go-Giver by Bob Burg: Chapter Six - Serving Coffee
About this Series
This discussion guide is part of Rising Tide’s Fall 2025 book club, where we’re reading The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann.
If you’re just joining us, here are a few pages you’ll likely benefit from:
- Chapter One – The Go-Getter for an introduction on how to use these Discussion Questions
- Book Clubs, Conversations, and Curiosity for why we started a book club for a technical team here
Chapter Summary
In Chapter 6, Serving Coffee, Joe does just that: he serves coffee to all of his colleagues on the 7th floor.
Discussion Questions
Use these open-ended prompts to guide reflection and conversation. Remember, there are no right answers!
- Joe remembered Melanie’s coffee order! When is the last time someone remembered something small about you and your preferences? How did it make you feel?
- What are ways that you can expand your service radius? At work, at home, in friendships, in your community?
- “Sometimes you feel foolish, even look foolish, but you do the thing anyway.” What did you think about this saying? Do you ever feel silly being kind? What if kind is COOL?
Rising Tide Input for your Consideration
- Do you feel Joe was serving the right people? Why his colleagues, wouldn’t he get more “bang for his buck” if he shared coffee with his customers?
- If you had a Joe in your office, would you drink the coffee he gave you? Would you trust him?
- El mentioned her friend who keeps a running note in her cellphones with her other friend’s favorite coffee orders, it’s a way that El feels seen and appreciated. Other people commented that maybe it felt too intimate to know someone else’s coffee order. Perhaps it boils down to what actions you take leading up to expressing personal knowledge about someone. What do you think?
- Some of the ways book club participants expand our circle through service:
- Volunteering for Non-Profits
- Donating to MSP Customers with in-kind or complimentary project work.
- Donate to Food Banks
- Create Content and otherwise Helping people online through teaching and expanding.
- “Necessity is the Mother of Invention”: The best ideas and products come from meeting a need that more than just you will benefit from when accomplished.
About Rising Tide and our Book Club
Rising Tide helps MSPs and service-focused teams build better systems: the kind that align people with purpose.
Every Friday at 9:30 AM ET, we host Rising Tide Fridays as an open conversation for MSP owners, consultants, and service professionals who want to grow both professionally, technically, and emotionally. In Fall/Winter 2025, we’re walking through The Go-Giver, chapter by chapter.
If that sounds like your kind of crowd, reach out to partners@risingtidegroup.net for the Teams link.
Bring your coffee and curiosity…no prep required.
As Partner and Business Consultant at Rising Tide, I help organizations align culture with efficiency, bridging the gap between strategy and the everyday systems that make it work. I’ve spent my career leading diverse, cross-functional teams and building communities where people actually want to learn and collaborate. With roots in technology, education, user experience & design, and project management, I specialize in turning complex ideas into clear, actionable plans that keep both people and projects thriving.
Outside of work, you’ll usually find me weight-training, gardening, or rewatching Doctor Who with a cat in my lap.
See some more of our most recent posts...
Chapter-by-Chapter Discussion Questions for The Go-Giver by Bob Burg: Chapter Six - Serving Coffee
What if your biggest leadership move this week was…remembering someone’s coffee order? In this discussion of The Go-Giver’s “Serving Coffee,” we explore how small, specific acts of service expand your radius of impact and why feeling a little foolish might be a sign you’re on the right track!
Read post
About this Series
This discussion guide is part of Rising Tide’s Fall 2025 book club, where we’re reading The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann.
If you’re just joining us, here are a few pages you’ll likely benefit from:
- Chapter One – The Go-Getter for an introduction on how to use these Discussion Questions
- Book Clubs, Conversations, and Curiosity for why we started a book club for a technical team here
Chapter Summary
In Chapter 6, Serving Coffee, Joe does just that: he serves coffee to all of his colleagues on the 7th floor.
Discussion Questions
Use these open-ended prompts to guide reflection and conversation. Remember, there are no right answers!
- Joe remembered Melanie’s coffee order! When is the last time someone remembered something small about you and your preferences? How did it make you feel?
- What are ways that you can expand your service radius? At work, at home, in friendships, in your community?
- “Sometimes you feel foolish, even look foolish, but you do the thing anyway.” What did you think about this saying? Do you ever feel silly being kind? What if kind is COOL?
Rising Tide Input for your Consideration
- Do you feel Joe was serving the right people? Why his colleagues, wouldn’t he get more “bang for his buck” if he shared coffee with his customers?
- If you had a Joe in your office, would you drink the coffee he gave you? Would you trust him?
- El mentioned her friend who keeps a running note in her cellphones with her other friend’s favorite coffee orders, it’s a way that El feels seen and appreciated. Other people commented that maybe it felt too intimate to know someone else’s coffee order. Perhaps it boils down to what actions you take leading up to expressing personal knowledge about someone. What do you think?
- Some of the ways book club participants expand our circle through service:
- Volunteering for Non-Profits
- Donating to MSP Customers with in-kind or complimentary project work.
- Donate to Food Banks
- Create Content and otherwise Helping people online through teaching and expanding.
- “Necessity is the Mother of Invention”: The best ideas and products come from meeting a need that more than just you will benefit from when accomplished.
About Rising Tide and our Book Club
Rising Tide helps MSPs and service-focused teams build better systems: the kind that align people with purpose.
Every Friday at 9:30 AM ET, we host Rising Tide Fridays as an open conversation for MSP owners, consultants, and service professionals who want to grow both professionally, technically, and emotionally. In Fall/Winter 2025, we’re walking through The Go-Giver, chapter by chapter.
If that sounds like your kind of crowd, reach out to partners@risingtidegroup.net for the Teams link.
Bring your coffee and curiosity…no prep required.
Chapter-by-Chapter Discussion Questions for The Go-Giver by Bob Burg: Chapter Five - The Law of Compensation
Can success scale without selling out? Chapter 5 of The Go-Giver says yes: serve more people, serve them better. Explore the “rich vs. good” myth, what to do when generosity gets taken for granted, and how practiced improvisation (“you just make it up”) guides real-time decisions that create value at scale.
Read post
About this Series
This discussion guide is part of Rising Tide’s Fall 2025 book club, where we’re reading The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann.
If you’re just joining us, here are a few pages you’ll likely benefit from:
- Chapter One – The Go-Getter for an introduction on how to use these Discussion Questions
- Book Clubs, Conversations, and Curiosity for why we started a book club for a technical team here
Chapter Summary
In Chapter 5, the Law of Compensation, Joe meets successful CEO, Nicole, amidst a chaotic and playful work environment, again dismantling our concept of success and professionalism. Nicole teaches Joe the Second Law of Stratospheric Success: Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.
Discussion Questions
Use these open-ended prompts to guide reflection and conversation. Remember, there are no right answers!
- Do you see a difference in the two different ways they present the 2nd Law? (“Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.” vs. “Your compensation is directly proportional to how many lives you touch”)?_
- Are there times that you shared an idea with someone and it worked out poorly? What about one where it worked out splendidly?
- How do you feel about the idea of there being two types of people in this world: those who get rich, and those who do good? Where do you feel that belief comes from?
- Can you relate to Nicole getting nervous and sabotaging her own success?
- You just make it up. How did this statement make you feel?
Rising Tide Input for your Consideration
- On the "rich vs. good" binary.
- Many of us definitely internalize some form of the “to get rich, you have to step on a lot of people to get money” or “to get super rich, you don’t have time to do good”
- Examples that extend and complicate that binary
- 20 People Confront a Billionaire (ft. John Morgan) this billionaire considers that he's doing good for others. Subjectively, people may think they’re doing good. His wife gave away $500,000 USD and he didn't even know about it.
- Dolly Parton, arguably one of the most successful musical artists, has invested millions of her own money in improving education outcomes, healthcare, animal welfare, LGBTQ+ youth, and even Appalachian cultural preservation.
- Billie Eilish was recently honored for her music at the Wall Street Journal Innovator's award, where she spoke to billionaires in the audience after she herself gave away 1/4 of her net worth: "No hate, but give your money away, shorties". Billie Eilish tells billionaires to give away more of their money | AP News
- Not every rich person is successful, not every successful person is rich.
- Have you ever experienced some of your most challenging customers are often the wealthiest? It's almost like they've lost the experience and the value of the work being done?
- Comes back to our perspective and the definition of success. If money is your only metric for meaning, you may be missing the plot.
- On having our generosity taken for granted
- It's happened to all of us. The question is: do you live and learn, do you trust people again the next time?
- The failings of others can make us jaded or they can make us wise. There is a huge difference.
- We encourage you to identify markers of trustworthy and honest partners and people, and to instead of promising to never share again, promise to only share with those who truly will be honorable with your energy, time, and skill.
- On "You just make it up"
- There's research about how Jazz musicians aren't thinking through their performances, but rather going through the flow and feeling it out in the moment! This can be encouraging: we don't have to know all of the answers in the moment, but the work we do to create the type of person we want to be can help guide us through true game-time decisions. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-98332-x.pdf
- On Songs and Stories with Kelly Clarkson, we learn that Gloria Estafan and the Miami Sound Machine's iconic song, Conga, came from a pure encore. It was riffing that came from sheer shared energy between the band and the crowd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJeg1wFBNFA&msockid=0a5959e7b66211f096d8057420e615b7
About Rising Tide and our Book Club
Rising Tide helps MSPs and service-focused teams build better systems: the kind that align people with purpose.
Every Friday at 9:30 AM ET, we host Rising Tide Fridays as an open conversation for MSP owners, consultants, and service professionals who want to grow both professionally, technically, and emotionally. In Fall/Winter 2025, we’re walking through The Go-Giver, chapter by chapter.
If that sounds like your kind of crowd, reach out to partners@risingtidegroup.net for the Teams link.
Bring your coffee and curiosity…no prep required.
Chapter-by-Chapter Discussion Questions for The Go-Giver by Bob Burg: Chapter Four - The Condition
What happens when you serve the client even if it means sending them elsewhere? Chapter 4 of The Go-Giver shows how giving more than you take builds trust, loyalty, and outcomes that outlast clout. We explore long-tail generosity, practical ways to add value, and a real MSP example of earning devotion by automating without upsells.
Read post
About this Series
This discussion guide is part of Rising Tide’s Fall 2025 book club, where we’re reading The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. If you’re just joining us, here are a few pages you’ll likely benefit from:
- Chapter One – The Go-Getter for an introduction on how to use these Discussion Questions
- Book Clubs, Conversations, and Curiosity for why we started a book club for a technical team here
Chapter Four Discussion
Chapter Summary
In Chapter 4, The Condition, Joe if back in the office and we find him losing yet another customer. This, time, however, in an effort to test the First Law of Stratospheric Success (Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment), he guides the customer to a competitor who may be able to better fit his needs.
Discussion Questions
Use these open-ended prompts to guide reflection and conversation. Remember, there are no right answers!
- How did Joe giving the customer to Joe’s competition make you feel?
- How was Joe’s action representative of giving more in value than he takes in payment?
- Can you describe a time a person gave you more in value than you paid? How did that make you feel?
- What are ways in your life that you can practice giving more in value than you take in payment?
Rising Tide Input for your Consideration
- Success is about perspective. You can be successful by your own goals, and not standard expectations of power, money, and attention.
- Our friend and MSP Owner at Network Integration Specialists in Virginia, Doug White, mentioned that he's enjoying making automations for his customers and not charging extra, and how those actions spark unsolicited client replies like, “This is awesome”. Truly the kind of experience the next MSP will have a hard time matching!
- Give without scoreboard math. Community help, answering questions, volunteering, parenting: these are “long-tail” investments that compound in character and network, not just invoices.
- We're curious! Maybe Gus has layers. There’s likely more going on with him than the mentor archetype...let's file that for later.
About Rising Tide and our Book Club
Rising Tide helps MSPs and service-focused teams build better systems: the kind that align people with purpose. Every Friday at 9:30 AM ET, we host Rising Tide Fridays as an open conversation for MSP owners, consultants, and service professionals who want to grow both professionally, technically, and emotionally. In Fall/Winter 2025, we’re walking through The Go-Giver, chapter by chapter. If that sounds like your kind of crowd, reach out to partners@risingtidegroup.net for the Teams link. Bring your coffee and curiosity…no prep required.