Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

by Dan Sullivan

If you’re going to apply higher levels of teamwork in your life, you’ll need to relinquish control over how things get done.

Albert Einstein has said, “Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.”

A core aspect of leadership is being explicit about the vision. The more explicit you are in what you want, the faster you’ll attract the right Whos to help you achieve that vision. The leader explains the “What” and “Why” and then allows the “Who” to execute the “How.”

As you get better at Who Not How, you’ll be able to create multiple games at once. Every goal or project you initiate starts a new game. Each game requires different pieces and players—different Whos.

you become a grandmaster, the games you play will become increasingly bold, profitable, and successful. You’ll need increasingly valuable and powerful pieces—Whos—to be on your gameboard.

with each game of Who Not How you play and win, your pieces will become more powerful, as will your own ability to create new strategies and get new...

The other key difference from chess is that you don’t have opponents—in this game, virtually ever...

you can “free up” more and more of your time by delegating or outsourcing all predictable Hows to other people, external companies, or even technology.

when you begin enlisting “Whos” to support your growing goals, you’ll no longer be distracted and focused on nonproductive activities. Making money is a confidence and leadership game, and a skill you can develop and master.

will help you cultivate more and better-quality relationships. As you increase your standards for how you spend your time, and as your goals increase, you’ll be required to surround yourself with higher level Whos. You’ll need better mentors to help you get to the next level. You’ll need better, more confident, and more capable employees to take on your increasingly inspiring objectives. You’ll need world-class collaborators to help take your thinking and work to places that not only you, but your competitors, could never imagine.

helps you develop a greater and deeper sense of purpose in your life. Your purpose is what you live for. It’s why you believe you’re here on this planet. It’s how you define yourself. It’s how you spend your time. With each application of Who Not How, your confidence and vision for your future will grow and your sense that you can make a powerful and meaningful impact will increase.

Every time you apply Who Not How by imagining a new goal and getting Whos to work toward it, you will improve your time, increase your income, expand your relationships, and deepen your purpose.

WHOS” CREATE ABUNDANCE AND SELF-EXPANSION “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” —Buddha

the power of having a Who—you instantly get access to knowledge, insights, resources, and capabilities that are not currently available to you.

“How” is linear and slow. “Who” is non-linear, instantaneous, and exponential.

Freedom of Time is not fixed, but flexible. It’s not finite, but infinite. You never reach a place where you can’t improve your Freedom of Time, because it isn’t solely about having all the time to do what you want. It also involves using your time on increasingly quality activities.

acronym for time: Today Is My Everything.

not all Whos require money. It didn’t cost Richie a dime to ask for his dad’s advice, but it saved him three months and changed his life forever.

is about utilizing relationships, and being transformed by them.

“All progress starts with telling...

In a Self-Managed Company, your Whos manage themselves; they aren’t managed by you. They have full responsibility for how they handle themselves because you’ve made the vision abundantly clear and exciting. You’ve then given them full ownership over executing and achieving the vision in whatever way suits them.

your team can and should operate seamlessly without you. This should be the goal of every entrepreneur. Having freedom to relax, recover, play, or do whatever you want is crucial for entrepreneurial creativity, success, and longevity.

isn’t just a fancy idea. Research shows that only 16 percent of creative insight happens while you’re at work. Instead, ideas generally come while you’re at home or in transit, or during recreational activity. You need time and space, and most important, relaxation and recovery, to allow ideas and solutions to ferment and form. The first Who is always yourself: Improve yourself, value yourself, and ens...

Because Sharon is far more focused, energized, and excited, the company is experiencing incredible growth. Everyone feels like they are a part of something special. Everyone is feeding off their leader’s energy and spirit.

Time is finite. We all have 24 hours. Before you can master any of the other freedoms, you must become a master of your own time.

“Creators don’t complain; complainers don’t create.”

humans have a primary motivation for “self-expansion,” which is the desire to enhance your efficacy or confidence. From this model, “efficacy”—your ability to produce a desired result—is not viewed in absolute terms, but rather in “potential” terms. As a person, your efficacy is not about what you can solely do on your own. It’s not based on your “innate” or “individual” capabilities. Rather, efficacy refers to your obtaining resources that make the attainment of your goals possible.

The way you increase your potential efficacy, or self-expansion, is by creating close relationships, which in turn, increases material and social resources, perspectives, and identities.

The resources you obtain through relationships can be material, like money, possessions, or friendship networks. But resources also include the other person’s perspectives, such as how they appreciate the world and ascribe explanations for people’s behaviors. Resources may even be their time, attention, or help.

Our attraction to specific people, according to the Arons, is based on two factors: Desirability: the perceived total amount of self-expansion that is possible for us through that specific relationship. Probability: the perceived likelihood that a close relationship with that specific individual can actually be formed.

Encouragement, time, and focus are just as essential as monetary support. Resources not only expand your ability to produce results, but can have a transformational effect on you as a person—on your identity, worldview, and skill level.

Relationships are how you transform as a person. Relationships are how you transcend your current limitations. Relationships are how you produce results. Relationships are the purpose of life.

your relationships—not your willpower—are what help you overcome something like an addiction.

“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety—it is h...

Ultimately, anyone who becomes highly successful does so through relationships. Success becomes increasingly about Who and less about How as you grow. This fact cannot be escaped.

If you want increased freedom in your life, you simply can’t approach it by doing all the Hows. You need Whos: spouses, parents, mentors, teachers, coaches, collaborators, co-conspirators, and eventually, when you’re ready, employees and other people who work for you.

Employees, collaborators, and consultants work for you not because they are beneath you, but because they believe in you. You become an incredibly important Who in their life, giving them a mission to be part of, a way to provide for themselves ...

The more people you are a Who for, the more successfu...

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” Helping people get what they want doesn’t mean you’re doing all the “Hows,” but rather, that through your resources, whatever thos...

the best way to measure your progress is by noting the amount and quality of collaboratio...

Where are you lacking collaboration and teamwork? Where is your vision so small that you’re doing everything by yourself? Where do you need more Whos to help you accomplish what you ultimately want to do? What relationships do you already have that are being under-utilized?

Do you have Whos in your vision for your health? What about your vision for your family? Are there potential Whos involved in any other passions and hobbies you have? What about your environment? Do you have additional resources and efficacy in all areas of your life, or is your vision limited by what you can do on your own?

Getting Whos involved in your goals is an investment. Often, we lack the commitment to make such an investment. We aren’t fully sold on our goals ourselves, so why would we include others in our goals?

it is actually the investment in Whos that strengthens your own commitment to your goals. As you get others involved, that action enhances your desire and motivation to get serious and get focused. You put yourself in a situation where you rise to a higher occas...

getting Whos is how you get committed.

Investing in your goals is how you grow into and achieve huge goals. Yet, people often don’t make such investments, and as a result, never experience the increased commitment, motivation, and focus that comes with it.

You control your own level of commitment to your future. You control your own level of potential for expansion. By making the courageous step of investing in...

what Strategic Coach is all about: providing entrepreneurs the mindsets, tools, and community to 10X or...

Get some skin in the game. But also, get other people’s resources to help you achieve what you can’t alone. Get their knowledge, time, and connections. Free yourself from having to do it all alone. Focus where it is most needed and effective. Expand yourself and your potential.

As you shift to Who Not How, you’ll evolve as a person. You’ll have increased self-expansion, which will transform your identity, perspectives, and resources. You’ll have a growing freedom in all four key ways—time, money, relationship, and purpose.