Dan Sullivan

Founder & President | Strategic Coach | 50 Years of Entrepreneurial Coaching | Speaker | 10x Thinker | 50x Published Author

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

I’ve learned not to judge growth by how comfortable it feels.

When you make a bigger commitment, your existing capabilities, systems, and relationships are put under new pressure. That friction can feel like something is going wrong when it may actually mean you’re outgrowing the way you operated before.

And sometimes, you’ll fail.

Failure isn’t the opposite of growth. It’s often the experience that reveals what has to change for growth to continue.

The useful questions are:

What worked?
What didn’t work?
What did this experience teach me?
What will I do differently next time?

When you transform failure into new knowledge and capability, the experience becomes part of the breakthrough.

The goal isn’t to avoid every growing pain.

It’s to become more capable because of it.

#Entrepreneurship #Leadership #BusinessGrowth #Resilience #StrategicCoach

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

After 52 years of coaching entrepreneurs, I occasionally hear a story that reminds me why I’ve devoted my life to this work.

Geoff Meyerson’s is one of them.

What struck me wasn’t simply how far his company had expanded. It was how consistently he had repositioned himself as the business grew.

An entrepreneur takes resources from a lower level of productivity to a higher one.

The most important resource is often the entrepreneur.

Growth-minded entrepreneurs pursue the next exciting opportunity. Along the way, they encounter mistakes, setbacks, and failures that force them to become more valuable to the team growing around them.

The key is knowing how to transform failure into a breakthrough.

First, ask what worked.

That’s difficult because failure feels entirely negative. But something always worked. The experience reveals strengths and capabilities that weren’t visible before.

Then ask what didn’t work.

Frequently, the real problem is communication: the purpose wasn’t clear, the desired result wasn’t understood, or the team wasn’t working from the same picture of success.

Finally, ask what has to change.

The answer is often the entrepreneur’s role.

In a small company, the founder may be the lead salesperson. But as the business grows, that same entrepreneur must begin selling talented people on joining the team, taking ownership, and creating greater value for clients.

That’s the real meaning of scale.

It isn’t doing more of the same work.

It’s continually moving yourself into the role where your contribution has the greatest multiplying effect—and building a team capable of owning everything else.

Every failure contains information about the person you need to become next.

Listen to the full podcast here: https://t.co/X43xuiqErA

#Entrepreneurship #Leadership #BusinessGrowth #UniqueAbility #StrategicCoach

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

People always told me that time moves faster as you get older.

Now that I’m in my 80s, I’ve noticed the opposite: time has slowed down.

This past year has felt like the longest—and perhaps the laziest—year I’ve ever had because I begin each morning with one simple question:

“What can I do today so that tomorrow morning, I can say yesterday was great?”

When I focus on giving today my full attention, each day becomes distinct, meaningful, and worth remembering.

A great future is created one great yesterday at a time.

#Mindset #IntentionalLiving #PersonalGrowth #Entrepreneurship #StrategicCoach

[Kary Oberbrunner® @karyoberbrunner]

https://t.co/M5PNa1xVWA my favorite book of 2026 releases on November 17. Get ready to go backstage with Dan and Jeff on Wednesday, November 11. We’ll go behind the curtain and learn secrets from the theater world on how to optimize our businesses with incredible front stage experiences. @StrategicCoach @madoffprod

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

I think a lot of people get caught in a long, unconscious marathon.

They remain busy, but they rarely stop to reflect on how far they’ve come, what they’ve learned, or whether their activities are still moving them toward the future they want.

That’s why I find a quarterly rhythm so powerful.

Every 90 days, I can pause and measure backward.

I identify three areas where I’m clearly ahead of where I was the previous quarter. That immediately raises my awareness of who I am, what I’m capable of, and where I’m going.

Then I decide what progress matters most during the next 90 days.

When I was 70, I set a goal of writing 100 books over the following 25 years. Twenty-five years gave me 100 quarters, so the structure became simple: one new book every quarter.

Each book has a beginning, a middle, and an end within those 90 days.

The real power isn’t simply producing one more book. It’s the compounding effect. Every completed quarter gives me new capabilities, greater confidence, and a higher starting point for the next one.

The quarterly rhythm also forces me to simplify and multiply.

I ask:

What am I doing that should not come forward into the next quarter?

Where am I producing my best results—and how can I multiply them?

This keeps outdated activities, investments, and relationships from being carried forward automatically. It also directs more attention toward what’s creating the greatest value.

A bigger future can feel distant and abstract.

But when you divide it into 90-day commitments, reflect on your progress, and make conscious adjustments, it becomes something you can create one quarter at a time.

#Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #GoalSetting #StrategicPlanning #TheGapAndTheGain

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

I’ve learned that if you work on something important for 20 years, it will transform everything around you.

A meaningful commitment doesn’t remain isolated.

It changes how you think.

It strengthens your capabilities.

It attracts people who share your ambition.

And it creates opportunities you couldn’t have imagined when you began.

The transformation happens gradually. Each new insight, relationship, and result builds on everything that came before it.

After 20 years, you haven’t simply improved the thing you committed to. You’ve built an entirely different world around it—and become a different person in the process.

Time magnifies whatever receives sustained attention.

That’s why I’m careful to choose commitments that will still feel important decades from now.

What are you willing to work on for the next 20 years?

#Entrepreneurship #LongTermThinking #Growth #Transformation #StrategicCoach

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

The seeds of what I want to do next are already contained in what I’m doing now.

Finding a new direction doesn’t always require inventing an entirely different future. Often, the clues are already present in the activities, relationships, and opportunities that create the most energy.

The challenge is that those clues can become buried beneath commitments and obligations connected to the past.

To find my next direction, I pay attention to what’s working, what’s expanding, and what I want more of. Then I create space by letting go of what no longer supports that future.

The next opportunity may already be growing.

Sometimes, it simply needs the freedom to emerge.

#Entrepreneurship #FutureFocus #BusinessGrowth #PersonalDevelopment #StrategicCoach

[Kary Oberbrunner® @karyoberbrunner]

Casting not Hiring. It's one of the secrets to running a successful business.

I’ve been a client of Dan Sullivan's for nearly a decade. My companies, Igniting Souls® and Instant IP® @realInstantIP , have benefited greatly from his thinking tools, systems, and processes. But I’ve always been curious about what happens behind the scenes at Strategic Coach @StrategicCoach

How have they built and run a successful company for more than three decades? How do they choose the people who deliver the client experience and the people who make it all possible backstage?

Dan and B. Jeffrey Madoff @madoffprod of Madoff Productions explore that approach in their new book, Casting Not Hiring, published by Hay House, Inc. @hayhouse

Think of your business as a theater. Your customers experience what happens front stage. Behind the scenes, people and processes prepare for that experience. Every role matters, including the ones your customers never see.

It’s a practical way to think about building a team that works together to wow your customers and clients. And I get to help take you behind the book.

I’ll be facilitating an exclusive live conversation with Dan and Jeffrey on November 11th, where they’ll share the stories behind the stories BEFORE the official book release on November 17th.

(You'll be the first on the planet to get this exclusive content, BEFORE the book hits shelves.)

Preorder even ONE copy TODAY, and you’ll receive both of these Opening Night bonuses:

(1) The Director’s Cut with Dan and Jeffrey: An invitation to our exclusive, live, 60-minute conversation with the authors.

(2) Dan’s 4 x 4 Casting Tool + Coaching Walkthrough: Instant access to the tool at the heart of the book, plus a coaching video with Dan.

These bonuses are included with a preorder of 1–24 copies. One copy gets you in.

Preorder and claim your bonuses here: https://t.co/58mgJHzmm3

I look forward to taking you backstage.

(There are some other amazing bonuses on that page too, including a trip to New York with a real behind-the-scenes look at Jeff's newest production: https://t.co/U10yAEwvPt)

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

I’ve never believed that a traditional job description is enough for an entrepreneurial company.

A job description lists activities, responsibilities, and technical requirements.

But it doesn’t explain the working relationship. It doesn’t show someone how they’re expected to grow, how they can make a greater contribution, or what might create friction.

I prefer to think of an entrepreneurial company as a theatrical company.

You’re not simply hiring someone to fill a position. You’re casting them in a role.

That role should provide clarity in four areas:

How should this person perform?
What results should they create?
How can they become a hero?
What behaviors could create unnecessary friction?

At Strategic Coach, strong performance means being alert, curious, responsive, and resourceful.

Strong results mean making activities faster, easier, less costly, and bigger.

Once team members understand their roles, they can begin updating and expanding them themselves. They stop waiting for the entrepreneur to define every next step and start taking ownership of their growth.

Without clarity, people start guessing about what the entrepreneur wants.

Guessing creates defensiveness—and people who are playing defense can’t create.

A company becomes self-managing when every team member takes responsibility for making their role, and their contribution, more valuable.

Give people clarity.

Then give them the freedom to make the role bigger.

#Entrepreneurship #SelfManagingCompany #TeamLeadership #BusinessGrowth #UniqueAbility

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

Too many entrepreneurs hire the right person for the wrong role.

That’s why Jeffrey Madoff and I included the 4 x 4 Casting Tool in our new book “Casting Not Hiring.” It gives entrepreneurs a clearer way to define a role, align expectations, and create the conditions for top performance.

When every person understands the part they’re uniquely suited to play, the entire company gets better.

Pre-order the book today: https://t.co/WPp2QDlmwm

#CastingNotHiring #NewBook #DanSullivan #Entrepreneur #StrategicCoach

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

I’ve learned that most growth doesn’t happen through one dramatic breakthrough.

It happens through many small steps taken consistently.

Each step creates new information.

It strengthens a capability.

It reveals the next opportunity.

And it provides evidence that progress is possible.

A small step may not feel significant in the moment, but when you look backward over a quarter, a year, or a decade, you can see how those decisions and actions accumulated into transformations you couldn’t have achieved all at once.

The important thing isn’t making every step perfect.

It’s continuing to move.

As long as you keep taking the next useful step, you’re building confidence, increasing capability, and creating a bigger future.

What small step can you take today?

#Entrepreneurship #Growth #Progress #Leadership #StrategicCoach

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

The best way to free yourself is to put a deadline on the calendar for when that freedom will become real.

When I decided to stop coaching our 10x workshops and focus entirely on Free Zone, I chose the final date well in advance.

That single decision created space in my mind before it created space in my schedule.
Our teams identified the right coaches, managed the transition, and ensured that our entrepreneurs continued receiving transformative value.

Meanwhile, I began imagining what the freed-up time would make possible.

That’s the important distinction:

“Freedom from” only becomes meaningful when it creates “freedom to.”

Freedom to develop new ideas.

Freedom to serve a more advanced audience.

Freedom to focus entirely on your Unique Ability.

Freedom to create a future bigger than anything you’ve achieved before.

Many entrepreneurs become trapped inside structures they created successfully. They continue doing familiar work because it produces revenue—even when it requires them to filter their thinking, restrain their creativity, or remain involved where others could lead.

When you’re ready to make the jump, decide what you’re going to stop doing, put the final date on your calendar, and identify the “Whos” who will make the transition possible.

Then ask your clients and customers a more powerful question:

Not, “What do you need from me?”

But, “What do you want from your future?”

Your next level begins when you give yourself permission to focus on the people, ideas, and opportunities that will take you there.

#EntrepreneurialFreedom #WhoNotHow #UniqueAbility #BiggerFuture #StrategicCoach

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

Every day, something happens that can irritate me.

Fifty years ago, I could get upset, go into “The Gap,” and stay there for six months.

Today, I still get irritated—but it usually lasts only two or three minutes.

What changed?

I learned to interrupt the reaction by asking myself two questions:

Where did I start with this?

Where am I now?

That shift helps me recognize that I’m making progress instead of allowing one frustrating moment to control my thinking.

Emotional mastery doesn’t mean never getting upset. It means shortening the time it takes to recover and return to a useful perspective.

Like any entrepreneurial skill, it takes practice.

#TheGapAndTheGain #EmotionalIntelligence #Entrepreneurship #PersonalGrowth #StrategicCoach

[Strategic Coach @StrategicCoach]

Your ambition has grown. Does your current approach give it room to thrive?

Join @DanSullivanSC on November 12 for a free, live virtual introductory workshop.

Step back from your daily demands to explore tools that help you simplify complexity, clarify your direction, and create greater freedom of time, money, relationship, and purpose.

You’ll also hear from Strategic Coach members Aaron Marcum, Christopher Johnson, David Reiling, and Charlotte Johnson—and leave with a personalized action plan for 2027.

November 12, 2026
9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. ET, including Q&A
Live virtual event

Ready to connect your ambition with a clearer path forward? Learn more and reserve your spot:
https://t.co/R35m52guNC

#Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #EntrepreneurialFreedom #Leadership #StrategicCoach

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

I’ve always liked Walter Payton’s distinction:

“When you’re good, you tell everyone. When you’re great, they tell you.”

It led me to create a thinking tool called “When Are You Great?”

I’ve found that every business has two important stories.

The first is what you tell the marketplace.

These are the facts about what you offer, how the process works, and the results people can expect. They give someone a convincing reason to pay attention.

The second story is what your customers tell you—and what they tell others.

They rarely repeat your list of services. They describe their experience, the transformation they achieved, and what became possible because of your relationship.

That’s where the compelling offer is revealed.

We need both sides.

We have to clearly explain what we do. But we also have to listen carefully to what people say happens after they participate.

That feedback shows us whether our promise matches their experience. It also tells us what people value enough to share with others.

If customers have nothing meaningful to say, marketing may not be the real problem. The experience may need to become more valuable.

Tell people what you do.

Then let your customers show them why it matters.

#Entrepreneurship #CustomerExperience #BusinessGrowth #ThoughtLeadership #MarketingStrategy

[Strategic Coach @StrategicCoach]

For more than 30 years, Dave Sanderson built a successful career as a sales executive for major technology companies.

Then he survived the Miracle on the Hudson—and was the last passenger off the plane.

The experience changed his life, but the full transformation became clear when he returned to work. Being asked to step back into his old routine made him realize that the path he had been following was no longer the one he was meant to pursue.

Surviving the flight gave Dave a different focus. It challenged him to take greater ownership of his future and choose a direction connected to a deeper sense of purpose.

Sometimes a life-changing moment doesn’t immediately reveal what comes next.

It simply makes it impossible to keep living the same way.

#Leadership #Resilience #Purpose #Entrepreneurship #Transformation

[Julie Cosgrave @JulieCosgrave]

🚀 AI isn't just changing business. It's changing what's possible!

@PeterDiamandis and @DanSullivanSC explore how entrepreneurs can use AI to think bigger, unlock new opportunities, and achieve 10x growth.

🎥 Watch: https://t.co/b6TGbbF4JF

#AI #StrategicCoach #10x

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

I never plan more than three important things to do in a day.

If I complete a fourth, it’s a bonus.

Long task lists create the illusion that everything matters equally. They divide attention, weaken focus, and make a productive day feel unsuccessful because something is always left unfinished.

I’d rather identify the three results that will create the most progress.

That forces me to decide what’s truly important, what can wait, and what someone else can handle better than I can.

Once those three priorities are clear, I can give each one the attention and energy it deserves.

Productivity isn’t about how many tasks I complete.

It’s about whether I accomplish what matters most.

What are the three most important results you can create today?

#Entrepreneurship #Productivity #Focus #TimeManagement #StrategicCoach

[Dan Sullivan @DanSullivanSC]

Imitation is how we learn.

Creativity begins when we make what we’ve learned our own.

I’ve always studied people whose performance I admire—not only coaches and entrepreneurs, but athletes, artists, musicians, and historical figures.

I look for the principles behind what makes them unique. Then I translate those principles into my own world and graft them onto my Unique Ability.

That combination creates something new.

This is also how I think about artificial intelligence.

AI can recognize patterns, reproduce styles, and generate language very quickly. But clever imitation isn’t the same as human creativity. Real creativity has personality, energy, and the ability to respond to something unexpected.

My filter for AI is simple:

How will this help me achieve my next 20% increase in productivity?

If it helps me multiply my thinking, improve my communication, or create greater value, it’s useful. If it only imitates someone else’s voice or produces more information, I’m not interested.

In my conversation with Shannon Waller, we discuss why AI won’t make human creativity less valuable. I believe it will make originality, authenticity, and personal expression even more important.

Learn from the people you admire.

Understand the principles behind their success.

Then make those principles completely your own.

#HumanCreativity #ArtificialIntelligence #EntrepreneurialThinking #UniqueAbility #StrategicCoach

[Joe Polish @JoePolish]

See you tomorrow!! https://t.co/Iogtqs72HS
@DanSullivanSC @StrategicCoach @GeniusNetwork