Can You Guess The One Thing Holding Entrepreneurs Back From 10x Business Growth?

Shannon Waller: Hi, Shannon Waller here, and welcome to Inside Strategic Coach with Dan Sullivan. Dan, today we're going to talk about something that I cannot wait to do a deep dive into, and that is the biggest barriers or obstacles to 10x growth. And this is great because with the launching of the book, 10x Is Easier Than 2x, people are really excited about growing in a multiplier kind of way, but there are some barriers, mindset and in reality, and some obstacles to overcome. So I'm really curious as to what you think some of those barriers are.
 
Dan Sullivan: Well, it's a great question, Shannon, because one of the fundamental themes in Strategic Coach, as a matter of fact, a whole level of our program in Strategic Coach is 10 times growth, ambition. So we call it 10x Ambition. The biggest obstacle, I can start off with two, is that for most people, I would say if you say 10 times, they interpret it as 10 times harder, 10 times more difficult, they have to work 10 times longer to get there. So actually what we've discovered is that it's counterintuitive. That if you're not paying attention to two things, you're not paying attention to what's happening in the world, and the second thing you're not paying attention to is what's happened with your own life. I think it's a lack of awareness of how the world is progressing, and the world is progressing on the basis of new tools, new technologies, new opportunities, where people are very easily experiencing 10 times greater growth.
 
That's one thing. But looking internally, we've all gone 10 times in many, many ways in our life, starting as babies. Babies go through 100 times growth in a matter of months, you know, from not talking to talking, from not walking to walking. So our early years are just 10 times x 10 times x 10 times. It takes an incredible amount of growth to go from baby stage to six-year-old stage to 20-year-old stage to 30-year-old stage. There's a lot of things in life that I'm not a master of but one of the areas that I am a real master of is how I've grown even within the framework of my entrepreneurial life. And that's a useful experience for entrepreneurs to look at. So, you know, next August, we're doing this in 2023.
So in August of 2024, I will have been a coach for 50 years and I'll be 80 years old at that stage. I can just think of about 10 different 10 times growths that got us from just me being a single entrepreneur in August of 1974 to where we are with a 40-million-dollar company in three countries with 2,500 entrepreneurs as clients with a company of 130 team members, you know, with massive amounts of intellectual property. But when you look at that, you look back, you can break it down into a series of little 10 times jumps.
 
The other thing is that I think about 10 times in terms of entrepreneurial freedom, so 10 times better use of my time, 10 times improvement in the amount of money that I'm making, and the quality of the money I'm making. In other words, how I'm making money, do I love the activity? And quality of money in terms of who's writing the checks to me, you know, what kind of people am I providing my services. And then the third one is relationship. So that's, you know, am I surrounded by people that I really like? Am I working with people in the marketplace that I really like? And the third thing is when you put the first three freedoms, freedom of time, freedom of money, and freedom of relationship together, it gives me the purpose that I have in life, you know, freedom of purpose that I'm basically, you know, at this stage, 50 years coaching and 80 years old, I'm really, really free to pursue and focus on whatever I want to focus. Now, if I take an entrepreneur through that, I'll say, when were you one tenth of where you are today?
 
Let's just use revenues or take-home money. I think take-home money is probably a more meaningful statistic. And you say, when were you one tenth of where you are today in terms of actually making money? And they can pick a spot. I mean, it may not be the exact day, but they would say, you know, it's about 15 years ago. And I said, Well, how did you do that? How did you go from one tenth of where you are today? Because if I had asked the question, think about going 10 times 15 years ago, you would not have been able to visualize everything that you've done, but you've already gone 10 times. And what you'll notice when you pick the really crucial breakthroughs, they weren't doing the same thing every day. There was new skills you developed and that you multiplied through new skills, new knowledge, new opportunities, new support team members that you worked with, new collaborations in the marketplace, and changes in the marketplace.
 
I mean, one of our really big 10 times will turn out probably 10 years from now the fact that we took such great advantage of Zoom. It truly made us a global coaching company in a matter of a year or two. So the big thing is that looking ahead doesn't give you any indication of where the opportunities are and how you go 10 times. It's actually looking at how you've already done it. And I love telling this story because I ask a particular entrepreneur who was in a workshop, he was very resistant to the notion of 10 times. And I said, 10 times? And he immediately said something which kind of tells you what the problem is. He said, I can't do 10 times in three years. And I said, three years? Who said anything about years? And he said, well, you know, you're always talking about fast growth. And I said, yeah, but fast in relationship to what? You know, I said, actually, I was thinking about giving you 25 years to go 10 times. And he said, 25 years. I don't need 25 years to go 10 times. And I said, really, how long would it take you? And he said, I could do 10 times in 15 years. This is a person who just a few minutes before said, it's not possible for me to go 10 times. And I said, 15 years. So if you went 10 times in 15 years, you still have another 10 years to get to 25 years, what would you do with the extra 10 years? Because you've got change now. I was asking, could you go 10 times in 25 years? And you said, no, I could do it in 15. And I said, isn't that great? You have 10 times, which means that you're more skillful, you're more knowledgeable, you have a bigger reputation, you have more opportunity. So if 15 years from now you had just achieved 10 times from today, what would you do with the extra 10 years? And I said, I'd just do it again. And I said, well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Before you couldn't do it at all. And now you're going to do 100 times in 25 years. 10 times was freaking you out. Now you're very confidently talking about 100 times.
 
So what I want to point to here, it's all mindset. There is nothing outside of you that's interfering with your ability to go 10 times, except the mindsets that you have about yourself and about where you are right now in the present. It isn't going to happen in the present. It's going to happen in the future. And your track record from the past already indicates that you've already done it. So you probably know 80% of what got you from one-tenth of where you are to right now. There are certain crucial things you did, which are probably repeatable if you have your eyes open. But the big thing is you have your mind open. And I said, it's going to require change, but you've always been changing. To choose to be a life of an entrepreneur, you're always changing. Change is just a natural part of being an entrepreneur. So the only obstacle to you going 10 times, if you're living in the modern world and there's opportunities, and if you're not living in the right place for it, you've already in your life probably moved to other places. move to different relationship groups. You've tried all sorts of things. So it requires a mindset that it's possible, and it requires a mindset that it's desirable, and it requires the mindset that I'm willing to change in order to achieve it. The obstacles are you're not having the mindset of growth, you don't have the mindset of ambition, and you don't have the mindset of getting better. So I said, those are the biggest obstacles to 10 times.
 
Shannon Waller: Well, that's powerful, Dan, because not appreciating that you've already done it is a really interesting take on it. And having done the exercise in the program forever, people are like, oh my goodness, I didn't realize I'd already done it. Their eyes just get really big and they're like, ooh. And they figure out how long it took them last time, and they, just to your point, with their increased skills and capabilities and reputation and resources, now they can do it next time much shorter. But really, putting those false deadlines in place, like giving yourself 25 years.
 
Dan Sullivan: And I wanna go back to that thing. What made it, they put three years. So I personally coached about 7,000 entrepreneurs. That's where I had direct input and direct impact on entrepreneurs. So about 7,000 coming up on 50 years. What I notice is that entrepreneurs do not drive themselves crazy with their goals, they drive themselves crazy with their deadlines. You know, I mean, you have to put some deadline to progress or you don't make the progress. Our brain doesn't pay attention to wishes that don't have a deadline. That's what makes it a wish. You don't have a deadline for it. And it's got to have some measurement to it. It's got, I mean, 10 times as a measurement. Okay. Now the question is what's the appropriate timeframe and you wouldn't go 10 times right away. You would go part of the way to 10 times. How do you eat an elephant? You know, a bite at a time. You don't try to eat the whole elephant. But it's an interesting thing and it takes you into a different world because the moment that you commit yourself to 10 times you find that you have company.
 
Shannon Waller: So the moment you commit yourself to 10 times you find you have company.
 
Dan Sullivan: Yeah, you don't see them until you commit. But the moment you commit to 10 times, I mean, your brain only picks up on what you're actually looking for. So when you're looking for 10 times, all of a sudden evidence starts pouring out. You know, and one of the great advantages we have in the 21st century is just the incredible proliferation of technological multipliers. Yeah.
 
Shannon Waller: Yeah. And to your point, as we're talking about this, I think you'd almost have to be blind not to see the 10 times. There's so much evidence in the world, in the news, with companies, and not just high-tech companies, although there are great representatives of that, of lots of things are going 10 times. But I think you have to commit to it for yourself, not to say, oh, it's bad that things are going 10 times. No, I want to go 10 times. I want to grow that much. I want to have that ambition. That's powerful.
 
Dan Sullivan: Well, you know, things are good or they're bad, depending on your mindset.
 
Shannon Waller: Yeah. So it really does come back and start with mindset.
 
Dan Sullivan: Yeah. I mean, you've already made a choice that sends you to being an entrepreneur for the rest of your life. I mean, it's not like you can go back. I mean, and be an employee. No. I mean, one, they wouldn't have you. I would never hire an entrepreneur, you know, who was only biding their time until they go out again. You know, I have hired some people, but I check out whether they were an entrepreneur before. And I said, I just want you to know that you know, and I know that this is very temporary. So here's what I ask you to do while you're here: really contribute.
 
Shannon Waller: Nice.
 
Dan Sullivan: So that you have a good memory and we have a good memory of working together. Nice. And I said, don't have this secret agenda while you're here because it'll interfere with you. But I know you're going to go back out again. You know, it's in your bloodstream and you'll want to go out again, you know, unless you've really found a place where everything you wanted to achieve as an entrepreneur, you can actually achieve it here. I made the decision in August, 50 years ago almost, and I knew that was for the rest of my life. The moment I made the decision, I knew I would never again be an employee. So, you know, you either know it or you don't know it. And we're not talking to people trying to convince people to be entrepreneurs. We're actually just talking to a very select group of people who have made that decision a long time ago and they prove that they can do it and they're hitting a ceiling. But it's a mindset ceiling that they're hitting. There's no barrier outside of them that's preventing them from endless growth. That's strictly mindsets that they have.
 
Shannon Waller: This is so cool, Dan, because the barriers are all internal, which means there's something completely under your control. There's no external barrier to 10x growth. So it could be too short a timeframe, not recognizing where in your life you've already grown, not focusing on each of the four freedoms of time, money, relationship, and purpose. I love talking about the quality of money. That is super cool. You and I having worked together for 32 years at this point, I just think about how we're doing, what we're doing, and with whom, and it's just way more than 10 times in terms of growth that way. And totally freed up to do more of our purpose, which is amazing. And then it's almost a not committing or not believing or not trusting in your own capabilities. But if you really are an entrepreneur, which means you've put yourself in what, the 5%, Dan? 5% of 5%?
 
Dan Sullivan: For us, it's one out of 400. Of 400 entrepreneurs, likely there's one of them who will find Strategic Coach an excellent solution for future growth. And we've narrowed our vision down to looking for essentially mindset, first of all. I mean, the capability is already proven. They already have entrepreneurial capabilities. They're successful, they're talented. The question is, do they now see that maybe they've gone as far as they can just doing it on their own? That having a great team around them, a Self-Managing Company, having great collaborations with other entrepreneurs, would that be their next growth stage? And the question is, is their mind open to maybe looking at their life so far as stage one, and now they're going into a stage two. But then again, that's internal, that's not external.
 
Shannon Waller: Yeah. And I'm just thinking, Dan, both of us working with 10x clients, the success stories that we get to see. People who not only 10x what they're taking home, they 10x their clients, they 10x their personal lives, they 10x their free time, or they do a 2x in terms of free time and a 5x in terms of income, and that multiplies out to 10x. The growth we've seen when people are in this environment, not alone, with other people who also want to have that 10x ambition, it's just spectacular to see the impact of that.
 
Dan Sullivan: The other thing is that it's a mindset that I have that the moment that you show up in any setting that you're very growth motivated and that the way you look at your life is that your future is always bigger than your past. Other people are very, very attracted to that. Okay, we're attracted to other people's energy. And 10 times energy is very contagious. It's very attractive to other people. So the one thing is just that if you show up as being 10 times ambitious, the opportunities are attracted to you. Resources are attracted to you. The collaborations are attracted to you. Okay, so it's not so much about what you have to do. It's what you have to be.
 
Shannon Waller: It's not so much what you have to do. It's what you have to be. I love all of this, Dan. Thank you so much. Just to wrap up, I love that the barriers are all internal and they're easily blasted through. And once you do make that commitment, 10x is an attraction. People, resources, capabilities, opportunities, collaborations, all the things. So thank you for breaking through all the barriers for us.
 
Dan Sullivan: Well, I'm just describing how it's done. Okay.
 
Shannon Waller: Thank you for describing how to break through all the barriers. Wonderful. Thanks so much, Dan.
 
Dan Sullivan: Thank you, Chairman.