The World’s #1 Business Coach For Entrepreneurs Says This Is The Key To Achievement

Many of us have audacious goals for our personal and professional lives. Even if you haven’t taken the opportunity to clarify your ambitions in specific terms, you most likely have a vague idea of things you want to achieve. For example, you may want to have a successful career, write a book, or start a business, just to name a few.

You may assume the best way to reach these goals is to intentionally plan out the necessary steps and actions over time. It makes our grand plans feel more achievable when we divide them into smaller tasks and focus on how we’ll accomplish them over time.

Dan Sullivan, founder of the world-renowned entrepreneurial coaching practice the Strategic Coach, says this is the wrong approach. He suggests instead that that you take a “who,” not “how,” approach that focuses on who will help you get there, not how you’ll do it yourself.

Sullivan teamed up with psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Benjamin Hardy in the new book Who Not How to share a framework to leverage relationships to get what you want most. Here’s a quick rundown of why they advocate for this approach.

Expand Your Vision

Most high achievers have a key thing in common: they likely got where they are today by setting a crystal-clear vision of what they wanted to accomplish up to this point, and have a similarly vivid vision of what they want to do next. It’s hard to reach your full potential until you carefully examine and articulate what matters most to you, and decide exactly what you want to do with your life.

However, while each person must create their own vision, Sullivan and Hardy suggest that working with like-minded people helps us best maximize the scale and impact of that vision. In fact, Sullivan consults with others when he is creating a vision for himself, and uses their feedback to expand his own ideas.

“Once I’ve gotten an idea 50 percent formed, then it’s time to test it on the audience, who provide the other 50 percent,” Sullivan shares in Who Not How.

While our vision for our life is certainly our own, it’s important to create space and flexibility for the contributions and feedback others can provide. Through these relationships and discussions, we are challenged to reconsider what we want to achieve most, and even expand the reach of our vision. You may even be fortunate enough to connect with someone who can help you achieve something you never would have believed possible on your own.

Don’t Carry It All

Along those same lines, the highest achievers know that they can’t bring their vision to life by themselves. Even the esteemed visionary Steve Jobs realized he needed a team to turn his ideas into reality and recruited the best creative, technical and business minds to join him at Apple. Jobs inspired these people to turn his vision into reality.  

Once you’ve clarified your vision or goal, the next step should not be considering what you need to do to reach that point. Instead, Sullivan and Hardy say, it’s better to consider who can help you achieve that goal, and what you need to do to connect to those people. These partners will either give you vital advice or sign up to help you make it happen.

This dovetails with the concept of capacity building I often share. One of the four core elements of capacity building, emotional capacity, emphasizes the importance of building healthy relationships that align toward your values and priorities.

To keep your focus on the “who,” I recommend building a relationship dashboard. Make a list of people you want to get connected to, how you can connect to them, and what you can offer them. Then, you can start building the relationships that will make your path to achievement easier.

Pay It Forward

You’ve probably noticed that asking who, rather than how, creates a significant amount of work for other people. Because you must ask a lot of others to achieve what you want most, it’s essential to dedicate time and effort toward being the person others need to reach their own goals.

In Who Not How, Sullivan and Hardy share the strategies used by Joe Polish, a master networker Hardy calls, “the most connected man in business.” The book details the careful thought and planning Polish puts into every new connection. Whenever he’s forging a new partnership, he does his homework to determine what the person wants, and how Polish can help them best achieve it.

To compel others to help you achieve your vision, you can’t start by asking for help. You need to demonstrate a commitment to giving value to others, and prove that you are genuinely interested in building mutually-beneficial partnerships, rather than focusing on what others can do for you or keeping score.

This is the core idea behind Sullivan and Hardy’s work: each of us needs others to help us reach our goals. We can get this help by first offering our talent and expertise to others. In turn, this creates a virtuous cycle where everyone gives, and everyone gains.

Robert is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners. Join 100,000+ global leaders who follow his inspirational weekly newsletter Friday Forward or invite him to speak. Robert is also a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author. His new book, Friday Forward: Inspiration and Motivation to End Your Week Stronger Than It Startedis now available for purchase.

Speak Your Mind

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Get in Touch

350FansLike
100FollowersFollow
281FollowersFollow
150FollowersFollow

Recommend for You

Oh hi there 👋
It’s nice to meet you.

Subscribe and receive our weekly newsletter packed with awesome articles that really matters to you!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

You might also like

Cardi B, Khalid And Joe Diffie: 5 Big Moves...

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - AUGUST 31: Cardi B performs onstage...

TPC Estimates The HEROES Act Would Substantially Cut Individual...

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 20: Speaker of the House...

If You Don’t Want An Employee To Leave, Consider...

Legal form concept : Blue pen and a non...