Preface

Dan Sullivan has spent the better part of his life observing how people grow, identifying what gets in their way, and coming up with tools, structures, and processes that help them to overcome these obstacles to reach the next level of personal or professional growth. It started at the kitchen table of a neighbor, Mrs. Wetzel, when he was six years old, and has grown into the basis for The Strategic Coach®, a $25 million coaching company that has helped more than 10,000 entrepreneurs from around the world.

Mrs. Wetzel used to say, “Danny’s been here, and I feel much better now,” after Dan’s questions helped her to think through what was weighing on her mind and gain new perspectives. More than 50 years later, it’s people like best-selling authors David Bach and Jack Canfield, along with thousands of other successful entrepreneurs in more than 60 different industries, who credit Dan with having helped them to see things in new ways that have contributed to their growth and success.

One of Dan’s unique talents is to be able to take broad swaths of universal wisdom and reduce them to simple, practical tools that allow people to apply these principles in their everyday lives. The laws of lifetime growth are the result of Dan’s taking his observations about the growth experiences of thousands of entrepreneurs and others, seeing what worked and didn’t work in all those situations, and distilling them into a set of ten simple laws that can be followed by anyone.

When I met Dan and his business and life partner, Babs Smith, seven years ago, it was our combined passion for growth and the desire to free people to make their best contributions in the world that brought us together. I had spent many years focused on how the poorest of the poor could take more control over the forces and direction of their own growth and had arrived at the belief that entrepreneurial thinking and activity offered the best opportunities. Dan’s ideas stunned me with their simplicity and effectiveness.

As I’ve worked with Babs and Dan to capture and shape growth opportunities for The Strategic Coach, they have always allowed me to conduct my own “rogue experiments,” testing certain tools and concepts Dan has created to see if they prove to be as powerful and applicable for audiences outside our program. In writing this book with him, I found it a pleasure to be able to extend his ideas beyond the realm of successful entrepreneurs and to show how they apply equally well to people from many different backgrounds and circumstances.

In fact, anyone can use the wisdom in this book at any stage in life. Look anywhere, in any culture, in any situation, at people of any age, and you’ll see that where there is growth, these laws are in action.

We’re very happy to be able to present them to you in this brief, accessible format. And we wish you continued courage and imagination as you pursue your own lifetime growth adventure.

Catherine Nomura
August 2005