Dan Sullivan > Quotes

“Always make your future bigger than your past.”
― Dan Sullivan, The Quotable Dan Sullivan

“Questions are infinitely superior to answers.”
― Dan Sullivan

“People who spend most of their time putting out fires are usually also the arsonists.”
― Dan Sullivan

“A painting is never finished—it simply stops in interesting places.”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“Wherever you are, make sure you’re there.”
― Dan Sullivan

“Someone once told me the definition of Hell: The last day you have on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.” —attributed to Mark Twain”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“Surround yourself with people who reminds you more of your future than your past.”
― Dan Sullivan

“We remain young to the degree that our ambitions are greater than our memories.”
― Dan Sullivan

“Results, not effort, is the name of the game. You are rewarded in life by the results you produce, not the effort and time you put in.”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“If greatness is your goal, it can only be achieved today.”
― Dan Sullivan, Never Own Anything That Eats While You Sleep

“If we were having this discussion three years from today, and you were looking back over those three years, what has to have happened in your life, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress? Specifically, what dangers do you have now that need to be eliminated, what opportunities need to be captured, and what strengths need to be maximized?”
― Dan Sullivan, The Dan Sullivan Question

“What are YOU trying to accomplish? Do you have Whos in your life that give you the perspectives, resources, and ability to go beyond what you could do alone? Or are you keeping your goals so small to make them easier to accomplish them on your own?”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“It can be easy to focus on How, especially for high achievers who want to control what they can control, which is themselves. It takes vulnerability and trust to expand your efforts and build a winning team. It takes wisdom to recognize that 1) other people are more than capable enough to handle much of the Hows, and 2) that your efforts and contribution (your “Hows”) should be focused exclusively where your greatest passion and impact are. Your attention and energy should not be spread thin, but purposefully directed where you can experience extreme flow and creativity.”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“Happiness is not something you pursue. Happiness is not somewhere in the future. Decades of scientific research is clear on this point: happiness is where you start, not where you finish.”
― Dan Sullivan, The Gap and The Gain: The High Achievers' Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success

“That’s what real leadership is: Creating and clarifying the vision (the “what”), and giving that vision greater context and importance (the “why”) for all Whos involved. Once the “what” and “why” have clearly been established, the specified “Who” or “Whos” have all they need to go about executing the “How.” All the leader needs to do at that point is support and encourage the Who(s) through the process.”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“The Transforming Self is different from the Authoring Self in that rather than being individualistic and competitive, it is more relational and collaborative. When at this higher level, you engage in collaborative relationships for the sake of transformation. All parties have their own perspectives, beliefs, and agendas. Yet they come together for the purpose of having their own views, and even their own identities and sense of self expand. The whole becomes new and greater than the sum of all parts.”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“So in a world where everyone is competing with their answers, how do you differentiate yourself from everyone else? With a question.”
― Dan Sullivan, The Dan Sullivan Question

“Sometimes the greatest scientific breakthroughs happen because someone ignores the prevailing pessimism.” –Nessa Carey, British biologist1”
― Dan Sullivan, The Gap and The Gain: The High Achievers' Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success

“Specifically, what dangers do you have now that need to be eliminated, what opportunities need to be captured, and what strengths need to be maximized?”
― Dan Sullivan, The Dan Sullivan Question

“autonomy without clarity is ultimately a disaster.”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“It’s more satisfying to be useful now than to be remembered later.”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“Three great obstacles to progress: guilt, envy, and resentment.”
― Dan Sullivan, Never Own Anything That Eats While You Sleep

“Maybe it was because I was always trying to fill a spiritual hole with a material thing.”
― Dan Sullivan, 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less

“Looking back over the past quarter, what are the things you have achieved that make you the proudest? What are the current areas of focus and progress that make you the most confident? Looking ahead at the next quarter, what new developments, projects, or goals are giving you the greatest sense of excitement? What are the five new “jumps” (progress) you can now achieve that will make your next 90 days a great quarter regardless of what else happens?”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“To make a goal effective, you’ve got to test its outer-limits. Push it out as far as you can. Only once you make your goal impossible will you stop operating based on your current assumptions and knowledge.”
― Dan Sullivan, 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less

“your attention is the most valuable property you can ever possess.”
― Dan Sullivan, Your Attention: Your Property: Take back complete control of your attention for the rest of your life.

“Transformational Relationships, as opposed to Transactional ones, are entered into for the purpose of change and growth. In Transformational Relationships, all parties give more than they take. There is an abundance mind-set, and an openness to novelty and change. Rather than viewing people or services as a “cost,” as in the transactional mind-set, everything is viewed as an investment, with the possibility of 10X (10 times), 100X, or even bigger returns and change.”
― Dan Sullivan, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

“If you look at the estate planning industry today, the basic strategy begins with identifying the number of heirs. Why? To divide the estate up amongst as many heirs as possible, utilizing all the gift and transfer techniques. One of the first rules of war is to “divide and conquer.” And so, if I'm dividing the assets up, I'm setting that family up for failure. Our findings show that in all too many situations, traditional planning has done more to destroy families than taxes will ever do. Traditional estate planning operates around the four D's: Divide the assets, defer those assets downstream as far as possible, then dump them on what most times are the ill-prepared heirs, and watch those ultimately dissipate. It's been said that only two percent of family wealth ever makes it past the third generation. So I think that's all you need to know about the effectiveness of traditional estate planning.”
― Dan Sullivan, Unique Process Advisors

“An obvious challenge people face is that they don’t know what they want. They’re far too busy justifying what they think they need. They haven’t learned to be brutally honest with themselves and others. They’re still living in fear.”
― Dan Sullivan, 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less