Dan Clark

Biography

DAN CLARK is CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation, an internationally recognized Speaker, Entertainer, Songwriter/ Recording Artist and New York Times Best Selling Author. Since 1982, Dan has spoken to more than 3 million people in over 4,000 audiences, in all 50 states, and in 30 foreign countries. Achievers North America and Achievers Europe named Dan one of the Top Ten Speakers in the World!

Dan is the primary contributing author to the "Chicken Soup for the Soul” series and author of twenty of his own best selling books, including “Puppies for Sale" which was made into a film at Paramount Studios starring the late Jack Lemmon. Dan has been published in more than 30 million books in 30 languages worldwide!

Dan suffered a paralyzing injury that cut short his football career. Sixteen doctors told him he would not recover, but recover he did! Since then, Dan has flown in fighter jets twice the speed of sound, raced automobiles in Germany and was honored to carry the Olympic Torch in the 2002 Winter Games. Dan has been the general session speaker at the United Nations World Congress, conducted UN leadership training in Europe, Asia and Russia, and was the keynote speaker at the U.S. Air Force Four Star Generals conference. Dan has spoken to our combat troops all over the world, is a Leadership and Character Development Consultant for the US Armed Forces, has worked with Fortune 500 companies, NASA and Super Bowl champions. Dan’s inspirational story has been featured on over 500 TV and radio shows, in Entrepreneur Magazine and as the feature article in Mayo Clinic Magazine. Dan is one of the most in demand speakers in America and recognized expert on Managing Change, Building Winning Teams and Taking Life To The Next Level!

Publications

This anthology of entertaining and emotionally uplifting stories is written and compiled by Dan Clark, one of the most popular contributing authors to the New York Times best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series. The eponymous story from which the author has taken the title Puppies for Sale comes from one of the most beloved stories from the original Chicken Soup for the Soul book. Starting with this story’s powerful message of understanding, Clark follows it with nearly 300 unforgettable tales that lift you up and pull at your heartstrings. These short byt powerful messages will fill you with joy and love, whether you read one story each day or the entire book in one sitting.

Titles

The Answers Are Still In The Box
Taking It To The Next Level
We're told to think outside the lines and outside the box. What if the answers are still in the box? Most people complicate their lives and never fulfill their destiny because they think it's the responsibility of their community and their job to make life exciting and meaningful. They resent their jobs and only look forward to Friday instead of Monday. They think they are paid by the hour, when in reality they are paid for the value they bring to that hour. They think success and happiness are found outside themselves, instead of within.
Consequently, too many come to meetings in search of new answers when what they really need are the right answers. You can't get right answers from wrong questions and the answers to the right questions are already within your organization. They are within you! When we believe if best is possible, good is not good enough and that none of us can exceed our potential, we just misjudge it, we start to comprehend that we really can take it to the next level, become THE brand of choice not price, increase productivity and profitability, attract more market share and become more of who we already are!

Best or Right?
Building A Winning Team
There are professional sports teams with rosters crammed full of the highest paid "best" players in the league and they still lose. The headline after the U.S. basketball "Dream Team" lost at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, simply read, "680 Million Dollars Couldn't Win Us A Gold Medal!" Why? To win, we need more than the "best" players - we need the "right" people. Obviously, it's not all about team - teams lose! Whoever said "It's not whether you win or lose that counts," probably lost. Companies with the best people in their industry are going bankrupt as you read this and they are a team. Why? They coach results instead of behavior. They compete against their "plan" instead of against themselves and their competition. They focus on profits instead of people.
They say there is no "i" in team, but teams lose - it's about winning and WINNING has two "i's" in it: Independent Individual Preparation - a commitment to: Character, Confidence, Consistency, Change, Clarity of Cause and Creating Chemistry; and Interdependent Collaboration, a commitment to: Cooperate and Contribute.T Of course it's about team - Together Everyone Achieves More, but the teams that win have the most "i-players" on them. "Best" players possess and practice three to five of the eight "C's." "Right" players live and breathe all of them!

You Can't Quit, It's A League Rule!
Changing From Continuous Improvement to Rapid Growth
Were you born flawed and ill-equipped, and expected to spend your life “putting in” what was “left out” at birth? No. Nothing is missing. The goal is to improve and become more of who you already are! J. Paul Getty said, “In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.” Eric Hoffer said, “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” If we refuse to change we become obsolete.
Change is painful, but pain is a signal to grow, not to suffer. Once we learn the lesson the pain is teaching us, the pain goes away. Change from the outside-in is reactive which creates pressure. However, change from the inside-out is proactive which creates power - power to adapt, knowing that it's not what happens, but what we do with what happens that makes or breaks us; power to focus, knowing we will not have regrets for things we did, we will only have regrets for things we did not do.