{"id":65660,"date":"2025-07-10T07:56:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T14:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=65660"},"modified":"2025-07-10T08:41:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T15:41:37","slug":"goodsuite-ceo-dan-strull-co-authors-book-for-reaching-potential-and-unlocking-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/the-week-in-imaging-twii\/editors-blog\/2025\/07\/goodsuite-ceo-dan-strull-co-authors-book-for-reaching-potential-and-unlocking-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"GoodSuite CEO Dan Strull Co-Authors Book on Reaching Potential and Unlocking Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Truth be known, Stephen Pfahler and Dan Strull have been writing a book about success and happiness their entire lives. In the last two years, however, the friendship that traces some 40 years\u2014back to when they were in high school\u2014yielded a literary collaboration that has two intertwined objectives: discovering one\u2019s better self and unlocking happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is \u201c10X Happiness: Maximize Your Full Potential to Achieve Your Happiest Life,\u201d released July 1 on Gatekeeper Press. It is the first literary effort for Strull\u2014the CEO of Woodland Hills, California-based GoodSuite\u2014who is a bibliophile with an impressive library centered mainly on stoic philosophy and business. His collaborator, Stephen Pfahler, has served as a Superior Court Judge in California for 19 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book pivots off Pfahler\u2019s first effort, \u201cThe Whole Truth for Lawyers: A Complete Guide to Flourishing in Your Life and Career,\u201d published in 2022. Pfahler received much positive feedback, with numerous comments suggesting the book has applications beyond the legal world. So he sat down with Strull to write a follow-up that would appeal to a much broader audience. Two years later, they realized their goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dan Strull<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019d been studying success and happiness for a long time,\u201d Strull noted. \u201cWe would read these books and get together every month or so to talk about how we can improve our lives. We documented it all and decided at some point that it would be great to give back, so that our friends and family could follow this path.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair first met in high school, and remained friends\/roommates throughout their journey at USC and beyond. They also share a love for literature\u2014for the past three decades, they\u2019ve sustained a book club, \u201cPlato\u2019s Cave,\u201d a philosophical journey through success, fulfillment and human potential. Ardent supporters for the works of Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins, they would often bounce Ziglar quotes off each other. Given their passion for personal improvement tomes, \u201c10X Happiness\u201d served as a natural extension of their discoveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During their formative years, Strull and Pfahler were part of a 10-person friend group, all of whom went on to enjoy significant success in their personal and professional lives. Citing the quote \u201cYou are the average of the five people you spend the most time with,\u201d1<\/sup> Strull and Pfahler wanted to discover (and document) common denominator traits that would propel this swath of middle-class buddies to achieve substantial success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pfahler notes that they\u2019ve \u201cdone a deep dive\u201d into the personal development\/self-help literature space in search of truths to unlocking both career and personal success. Many of the works were narrow in scope, and the duo wanted to offer readers a roadmap for a more holistic betterment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Stephen Pfahler<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are lots of books that explore how to have good relationships and others that cover professional success, but we\u2019d never come across a book that tied together what constitutes success in your career, personal life, health and well-being,\u201d Pfahler said. \u201cWe feel our book fills a void, demonstrating how to bring it all together practically and specifically.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Documenting their findings was a key foundational element for the book, and it had organic roots. Each December they would note how they performed in achieving goals, and extract philosophical nuggets from the works of others that they would incorporate into their daily lives. They discussed stoicism at length, which they found to be fundamental to self-improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the less-heralded truths they discovered was the role of competition in life as a success driver. Both men confessed to being ultra-competitive, with themselves and others, on multiple levels. The desire to improve and win is ubiquitous, whether it\u2019s playing flag football with your friend group or sitting atop the sales leaderboard at your company. Pfahler cited the 11-volume series \u201cThe Story of Civilization (1935\u20131975)\u201d by Will and Ariel Durant, in which they evaluate \u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d concept and how it applies to human societies, emphasizing cultural and social evolution alongside biological evolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe took the notion that \u2018life is competition\u2019 a bit further, which is not necessarily competing against others, but competing with ourselves to become the best people we can be, and not just from an ego perspective,\u201d Pfahler added. \u201cWe try to be 1% better each day by competing with our prior selves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The literary journey was spent in search of fundamental principles, or truths, to align with as much as possible. Stoicism yielded the notion that nearly all of our behaviors fall inside two categories: those things one can control, and those things you cannot control. The idea is to focus on the things we can control: our actions, attitudes and behaviors. In the end, Strull notes, \u201c10X Happiness\u201d is based on the fundamental principles aimed toward the reader enjoying a flourishing, happy life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But can a self-discovery book penned by high achievers be accessible (and executable) for the average Joe\/Joan? Pfahler says the intent is to help readers of all ages\u2014regardless of their station in life\u2014evolve and grow into a better person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSteve has a simple yet playful way of sharing these ideas and mindsets,\u201d Strull added. \u201cEven though he\u2019s accomplished so much, the easy way he relates ideas makes it accessible for a wider audience. Steve puts these linear steps in place, which makes it extremely useful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about \u201c10X Happiness\u201d here<\/a>. The book is available through Amazon<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1<\/sup>Fun fact about the quote: with a multitude of variations, it has been attributed to many authors and philosophers, from Jack Canfield, creator of the \u201cChicken Soup for the Soul\u201d self-help series, to as far back as Cervantes\u2019 17th<\/sup> century masterpiece \u201cDon Quixote.\u201d In it, Quixote\u2019s servant, Sancho Panza, proclaims, \u201cTell me your company and I will tell you who you are.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Truth be known, Stephen Pfahler and Dan Strull have been writing a book about success and happiness their entire lives. In the last two years, however, the friendship that traces some 40 years\u2014back to when they were in high school\u2014yielded a literary collaboration that has two intertwined objectives: discovering one\u2019s better self and unlocking happiness. The result is \u201c10X Happiness: Maximize Your Full Potential to Achieve Your Happiest Life,\u201d released July 1 on Gatekeeper Press. It is the first literary effort for Strull\u2014the CEO of Woodland Hills, California-based GoodSuite\u2014who is a bibliophile with an impressive library centered mainly on stoic philosophy and business. His collaborator, Stephen Pfahler, has served as a Superior Court Judge in California for 19 years. The book pivots off Pfahler\u2019s first effort, \u201cThe Whole Truth for Lawyers: A Complete Guide to Flourishing in Your Life and Career,\u201d published in 2022. Pfahler received much positive feedback, with numerous comments suggesting the book has applications beyond the legal world. So he sat down with Strull to write a follow-up that would appeal to a much broader audience. Two years later, they realized their goal. \u201cWe\u2019d been studying success and happiness for a long time,\u201d Strull noted. \u201cWe would read these books and get together every month or so to talk about how we can improve our lives. We documented it all and decided at some point that it would be great to give back, so that our friends and family could follow this path.\u201d  The pair first met in high school, and remained friends\/roommates throughout their journey at USC and beyond. They also share a love for literature\u2014for the past three decades, they\u2019ve sustained a book club, \u201cPlato\u2019s Cave,\u201d a philosophical journey through success, fulfillment and human potential. Ardent supporters for the works of Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins, they would often bounce Ziglar quotes off each other. Given their passion for personal improvement tomes, \u201c10X Happiness\u201d served as a natural extension of their discoveries. During their formative years, Strull and Pfahler were part of a 10-person friend group, all of whom went on to enjoy significant success in their personal and professional lives. Citing the quote \u201cYou are the average of the five people you spend the most time with,\u201d1 Strull and Pfahler wanted to discover (and document) common denominator traits that would propel this swath of middle-class buddies to achieve substantial success. Pfahler notes that they\u2019ve \u201cdone a deep dive\u201d into the personal development\/self-help literature space in search of truths to unlocking both career and personal success. Many of the works were narrow in scope, and the duo wanted to offer readers a roadmap for a more holistic betterment. \u201cThere are lots of books that explore how to have good relationships and others that cover professional success, but we\u2019d never come across a book that tied together what constitutes success in your career, personal life, health and well-being,\u201d Pfahler said. \u201cWe feel our book fills a void, demonstrating how to bring it all together practically and specifically.\u201d Documenting their findings was a key foundational element for the book, and it had organic roots. Each December they would note how they performed in achieving goals, and extract philosophical nuggets from the works of others that they would incorporate into their daily lives. They discussed stoicism at length, which they found to be fundamental to self-improvement. One of the less-heralded truths they discovered was the role of competition in life as a success driver. Both men confessed to being ultra-competitive, with themselves and others, on multiple levels. The desire to improve and win is ubiquitous, whether it\u2019s playing flag football with your friend group or sitting atop the sales leaderboard at your company. Pfahler cited the 11-volume series \u201cThe Story of Civilization (1935\u20131975)\u201d by Will and Ariel Durant, in which they evaluate \u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d concept and how it applies to human societies, emphasizing cultural and social evolution alongside biological evolution. \u201cWe took the notion that \u2018life is competition\u2019 a bit further, which is not necessarily competing against others, but competing with ourselves to become the best people we can be, and not just from an ego perspective,\u201d Pfahler added. \u201cWe try to be 1% better each day by competing with our prior selves.\u201d The literary journey was spent in search of fundamental principles, or truths, to align with as much as possible. Stoicism yielded the notion that nearly all of our behaviors fall inside two categories: those things one can control, and those things you cannot control. The idea is to focus on the things we can control: our actions, attitudes and behaviors. In the end, Strull notes, \u201c10X Happiness\u201d is based on the fundamental principles aimed toward the reader enjoying a flourishing, happy life. But can a self-discovery book penned by high achievers be accessible (and executable) for the average Joe\/Joan? Pfahler says the intent is to help readers of all ages\u2014regardless of their station in life\u2014evolve and grow into a better person. \u201cSteve has a simple yet playful way of sharing these ideas and mindsets,\u201d Strull added. \u201cEven though he\u2019s accomplished so much, the easy way he relates ideas makes it accessible for a wider audience. Steve puts these linear steps in place, which makes it extremely useful.\u201d Read more about \u201c10X Happiness\u201d here. The book is available through Amazon. 1Fun fact about the quote: with a multitude of variations, it has been attributed to many authors and philosophers, from Jack Canfield, creator of the \u201cChicken Soup for the Soul\u201d self-help series, to as far back as Cervantes\u2019 17th century masterpiece \u201cDon Quixote.\u201d In it, Quixote\u2019s servant, Sancho Panza, proclaims, \u201cTell me your company and I will tell you who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":65661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[80,1650,82,1638],"tags":[4600,4599],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65660"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65670,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65660\/revisions\/65670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}