Tim Schurrer: The Secret Society of Success

Tim is the author of The Secret Society of Success and host of the Build a Winning Team podcast, where he challenges people to consider “helping others win” as the North Star for how they should live and lead.

He’s also the CEO of David Novak Leadership, a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation whose mission is to make the world a better place by developing better leaders at every stage of life. As the CEO of Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut), David Novak grew the business from $4 billion to $32 billion and he did it by creating a culture of recognition where every employee felt seen and valued for what they contributed. And now, these leadership lessons are being taught in companies and to students all over the world through the nonprofit David has entrusted Tim to lead.

Early in his career, Tim spent a decade launching two brands — StoryBrand and Business Made Simple — as COO alongside New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller. And before that, he worked at TOMS and Apple Inc.

Tim lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Katie, and their two kids.

Takeaways:

1. Helping Others Win. This is such a great way to think about success that we don't think about enough. Tim makes the point that success through the assist or serving somebody else's vision and goals - is just as important as any other type or level of success. Tim does such a great job of displaying this through the stories he tells about Michael Collins getting people to the moon and Tim Cook working on the iPhone as part of a team and then taking it to the next level by deflecting credit about it personally.
2. Related point - you're never going to do anything great alone. Eventually, to do big things, you'll need a team. And, you can't be great at everything, so it's inevitable that you'll have to take a second seat to others at some time in some areas. So, having this notion of "assist" as a measure of success is critical.
3. Given this - that we'll need teams around us to go to great places - if you don't care about winning with class, then, as Tim says - nobody will want to follow you or be around you. Just another reminder of WHY winning with class is so important.
4. Recognition. This really goes for ALL of the teams we are on - from our families, to sports teams, to communities, businesses and beyond. Giving and receiving recognition is absolutely critical. Everybody has unique gifts. The more we are recognized for using them for the benefit of the team, the more we will be inspired to use them even more to take the team to bigger and better places.
5. Being in the Secret Society doesn't mean throttling back your ambition. As Tim says, we should always strive to be best in class - the best we can be at all we do. Instead, the Secret Society is about thinking of other people - the team first - as you chase this best-in-class level. As Tim tells the story - NCAA Champion Coach Dan Hurley is a fan of this philosophy. It's hard to find a more competitive guy than Coach Hurley - yet he does it all within the consistent context of TEAM in mind...or it doesn't work.

Please follow Tim:

Links:

Book: The Secret Society of Success
Instagram: @timschurrer
Twitter: @timschurrer
Podcast: Build a Winning Team
Website: buildawinningteam.com