Les instituted free flat repairs for anyone, customer or not. Competitors called him crazy. Why fix flats for people who bought tires elsewhere? But Les understood reciprocity: humans are biologically wired to return favors, even those that are unearned. Those free repairs created a loop, doing more marketing than marketing could ever do.

Les discovered that splitting profits 50/50 with store managers didn’t cut his wealth in half, it multiplied it. His reasoning was pure math: “If I share half the profits, I still have half. And if Frank makes more money, he’ll work harder to make the store successful. If the store is more successful, my half is worth more than my whole used to... See more