Performance coach Jason Dunn says all small business owners can achieve greatness regardless of their background if they stop chasing outputs and focus on purpose.
No small business owner strives for mediocrity. Yet many consider greatness out of reach and content themselves with good. They put their heart and soul into their work but accept that truly great leaders have the benefit of better luck, an elite education or different opportunities.
Jason Dunn doesn’t buy this. The performance coach and author believes greatness is far more democratic. Using his own journey from unfulfilled employee to CEO and endurance athlete as a case study, he argues any business owner can be a great leader.
“Greatness doesn’t care who you are, where you were born, what colour you are, your religion, what you’ve been through. It just cares that you find your purpose, and that you go after it.”
Define Greatness On Your Own Terms
In his book Greatness Doesn’t Care, Dunn says the first step for business leaders is reframing what greatness actually means.
“The definition of greatness is the accomplishment of something that has required you to overcome struggle, failure, and adversity to achieve something meaningful,” he states.
The key word in that definition is “you.” He says despite the temptation in a social media-fuelled world to compare their own achievements to others’, people should look inwards. “Greatness isn’t being better than anybody else. Greatness is about achieving things that are meaningful for you.”
Dunn’s philosophies are the result of long periods of self-reflection. Growing up in the UK, he was offered a football apprenticeship at 15 but turned it down because the travel would have derailed his schooling. But he carried the weight of that choice. “I lived with 20 years of regret on a boyhood dream that I had to give up because I made a decision with my head and not my heart. Perhaps I didn’t have the courage, and I chose the practical solution,” he says.
His turning point came at 35, when he agreed to take part in a corporate triathlon, then learned he would have to swim 300 metres in a tidal river. He could not swim. “I rocked up at the swimming pool and I sat there for 20 minutes with the engine on, having a debate, a fight, a conversation with myself, with my voice of reason saying, ‘Hey, you should go home. This is a lot easier,’ and the other part of me saying, ‘Hey, you can’t take the easier pathway here. This is a point of change,’” he says. He got out of the car. Five years later, he qualified for the Hawaii Ironman World Championships.
That personal growth supercharged his career as he realised the same qualities boosted performance in the workplace. The combined lessons form the 14 steps in Dunn’s greatness framework: purpose, courage, mindset, planning, discipline, resilience, sacrifice, belief, gratitude, stillness, presence, movement, nutrition, and vulnerability. “They will all make you better than yesterday, and it’s a lifelong work,” Dunn says.
Success Must Be Grounded In Purpose
Purpose is at the head of Dunn’s list for a reason. “We all ask ourselves the question as life goes on: ‘Is this all I’m meant to be?’” he observes. “I don’t mean that in a negative way, like, I’m not enough. But, you know, ‘Is there any more for me?’”
Small and medium business owners are more likely to pose this question if they are pushing themselves to the limit without a clear idea of why.
“The genesis of everything is purpose and purpose is the antidote to fear. Purpose is the antidote to struggle and failure,” he argues. He’s quick to add that purpose and goals are not the same thing. Goals are hollow whereas there is an emotional attachment to purpose.
“For instance, people say ‘I’m going to lose five kilos,’ instead of saying, ‘I’m going to become the fittest that I’ve ever been because I want to live with energy and vitality and play with my grandchildren,’” he explains. “All of a sudden, you have a powerful purpose that will pervade every aspect of your life.”
For a small business leader, this may look like saying, “I want financial security for my family” rather than “I want to grow revenue by 10 per cent,” or instead of, “I need ten new clients this quarter,” say, “I want to be the most trusted person in my sector.”
Dunn says leaders should still set goals as milestones but when they’re secondary to purpose, it matters less when they change. He’s seen plenty of business leaders set lofty five- or ten-year goals, then give up when circumstances push them too far off track. “I always have a strategic and a tactical 90-day rolling plan,” he says. “You distill it down to the things that are really important to get up and do that day.”
Resilience And Discipline Breed Strength
While purpose sets the direction, discipline and resilience is what keeps owners moving towards greatness. Dunn’s pathway towards resilience has been extreme. “I’ve been hospitalised 35 times. I’ve nearly died four times. I’ve broken 45 bones. I’ve suffered from illnesses that are life-threatening. I don’t think I’m indestructible, but I have great belief,” he says.
Knowing he can overcome setbacks has given Dunn the confidence that he can get through anything, and he urges small business owners to never underestimate the power of mindset. “Every single thing we do in every aspect of our life is determined by our mindset,” he explains. “It’s about how you influence your mindset, how you move on positively. Not staying mired in the issue or the problem, and having the confidence and the belief that, yeah, I can overcome this because I did last time, and I’ll keep doing the same.”
He sees resilience and discipline as intrinsically linked. “Discipline is having the confidence and the belief that on the days when you do not feel like it and you’re tired and everything’s going wrong, that you just need to do it because tomorrow will probably be different,” he offers. “Next week may be completely different, and so you have to create a positive mentality. You have to push through those difficult times.”
Dunn also subscribes to the Stoic concept of discipline as having the wisdom to know what needs to be done and doing it. “Lots of people associate discipline with being stifled and regimented. But discipline will free you up time, and again,” he says.
The Greatest Leaders Run Their Own Race
Dunn says this is particularly important for time-poor small business owners, who can easily become swamped with the day-to-day and lose track of longer-term strategy.
He believes businesses often fail for the same reason as New Year’s resolutions. “Seven out of 10 have given up within 30 days because there’s no framework,” he says. “You’ve got to find where you’re stuck and plan your way through it,” Dunn says.
He adds that plans should be bespoke, since comparison robs business owners of confidence. “Typically, we’ll look at what competitors are doing, like, their EBITDA or gross revenue or this how many widgets they’re selling, and that gap is enormous. Now, if you’re a startup or a relatively new business, that is completely irrelevant. That’s an output that has required thousands of inputs,” he says.
He always tells clients who can’t help but compare to retain perspective. “Look at how an organisation does something, not the outcome. What is it that they do? How do they work with people? What sort of environment do they create?”
Dunn also reminds people that there’s no age limit on greatness. “Some of my greatest lessons I’ve learned in the last three or four years,” he says. “I have more purpose and life and energy at 62 than I think I ever have. Your life just evolves. Every aspect of it evolves.”
