My second Inc.com piece from last Monday, “Marshall Goldsmith: How to Become More Than Just No. 1,” began

Marshall Goldsmith: How to Become More Than Just No. 1

Faced with the challenge of nowhere to go but down, Marshall Goldsmith offers the world his wisdom, and keeps going up

Successful leaders know how to keep leading. We can learn from them.

Inc. has written about Marshall Goldsmith many times. He writes here. With good reason: he’s written #1 bestselling books, been named #1 leadership thinker, coached clients named #1 CEO, learned from other #1 leaders, and so on.

That’s a lot of #1’s.

Most people wouldn’t see it as something you need to solve, but he wrote the book on it, literally: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become More Successful.

Marshall has been a mentor and friend for a decade. The second-to-last time I saw him, he saw challenge in all these number ones.

The seed of the idea

They meant he seemed to have nowhere to go but down. But we were both attending a workshop on life planning (by Ayse Birsel, based on her book, Design the Life You Love).

Marshall has led his share of workshops. Many experienced workshop leaders don’t participate in others’ workshops. They act like they’re above it.

But you could see Marshall applying the principles and something was taking root. I found out what the next time I saw him.

Read the rest at Marshall Goldsmith: How to Become More Than Just No. 1.