What’s holding you back from achieving extraordinary success? What’s the benefit of following your dreams?
Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy explore how following your desires can lead to transformative growth and unprecedented success. Their revolutionary approach will change the way you think about achievement and personal development.
Check out how to transform your perspective on success by letting your dreams guide you.
Follow Your True Desires
Sullivan and Hardy argue that to achieve transformative growth, you must commit to following your desires in life. This means going after the things you want without needing to justify them to yourself or others.
The authors explain that we often hold back from going after things we want because we’re afraid of losing things we think we need—like money, status, or security. However, worrying too much about meeting these needs can limit your potential and keep you at mediocre levels of success. This way of thinking makes you more likely to play it safe or make compromises that go against your true desires or values. For example, you might stay in an unfulfilling job because you need the paycheck, instead of pursuing your dream career.
(Shortform note: According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we first have to satisfy our basic physiological and safety needs before we can focus on higher-level needs like self-actualization. But sometimes we confuse real needs, like food and shelter, with markers of success that society dictates but aren’t actual needs, like wealth and status. In Your Erroneous Zones, Wayne W. Dyer writes that going after these things to meet society’s expectations prevents you from pursuing what you truly want. Dyer says that to go after what you want and be happy and fulfilled, you need to eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors like relying on other people’s approval or permission, and playing it safe instead of taking risks.)
Unlock Your Special Strengths
Sullivan and Hardy write that when you let go of your attachment to external markers and put your true desires first, you free yourself to pursue bold goals, create the most value, and reap the greatest rewards. This is because by focusing on what truly excites and energizes you, you can discover and develop your special strengths, which in turn allow you to create valuable work that no one else can replicate.
(Shortform note: Music producer Rick Rubin agrees that focus can help you create valuable work, but rather than just encouraging you to focus on what excites and energizes you, he advises paying attention to yourself and your surroundings to increase your avenues of inspiration. In The Creative Act, he says cultivating a practice of quiet observation—of both the world around you and your inner thoughts and feelings—leads you to produce work with a deeper level of intuition and authenticity.)
The authors add that when you develop your special strengths and create unique work, you remove yourself from competition with anyone else. Your perspective shifts from seeing the world as a place with limited resources to compete over to a place full of opportunities to innovate and create new possibilities for yourself and others. As you grow into the best version of yourself, opportunities to create extraordinary value—and be well compensated for it—naturally follow.
For example, imagine you’re an artist who loves making cardboard sculptures, but you feel pressured to take commercial illustration jobs to pay your bills. If you focus on your true desire, you’d devote more time to your sculptures, even if it means living on a tighter budget at first. Over time, your dedication could lead to breakthroughs in your artistic style, attracting galleries and collectors who may highly value your distinctive work.
(Shortform note: Leaning into your distinctive strengths can help you create what business strategists call a blue ocean devoid of competitors. In Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne write that the most profitable businesses don’t try to compete in crowded markets (“red oceans”) but instead create entirely new market spaces (“blue oceans”) through innovation where they can thrive without competition. They use the example of Cirque du Soleil, which didn’t try to compete with traditional circuses but created an entirely new entertainment category by combining circus acts with theatrical elements.)
