With the World Cup kicking off in two weeks(!!) here in the United States, soccer fever is beginning to sweep across the country and billions around the world. As both a lifelong soccer fan and someone born in Haiti before immigrating to America, I’m especially excited to cheer for both the U.S. and Haiti this summer, Haiti’s first World Cup appearance in 50 years (shameless plug).

Chicago itself has been experiencing its own soccer renaissance over the past few years. Billionaire Chicago tech founder Joe Mansueto purchased the Club in 2019 with a singular vision: to build a world-class football Club in Chicago. And the person tasked with helping the city—and increasingly the world—pay attention to the Fire is none other than Dan Moriarty. Prior to joining the Fire, Dan led marketing for the Chicago Bulls, and was previously a marketing exec at Hyatt.

Today, the Fire are becoming one of Chicago’s most exciting sports success stories. The Club made the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade, attendance is at an all-time high, and excitement around the franchise continues to build.

At a time when Chicago sports is consumed by stadium drama, the Fire moved in the opposite direction: the Club is building a brand-new $750 million stadium entirely funded by Joe Mansueto himself.

I had the privilege of attending the groundbreaking ceremony earlier this year, and I can honestly say it is one of the most exciting development projects happening in Chicago right now.

Honestly, I think leaving the Bulls for the Fire. 

The Bulls are such a historic franchise, and are so well respected locally and globally, whereas the Fire (and MLS more broadly) are very much a challenger brand. 

I was at the Bulls for eight seasons, and I felt my time there was up. Leaving for the Fire had a lot of people asking me ‘why?’ (along with a lot of people asking if I could recommend them for my old job!) but I knew the Fire were a Club on the rise and it was a challenge that I was excited about.

The Fire had struggled for a while, but with amazing new ownership (Joe Mansueto) coming into the Club in 2019 and almost an entirely new Executive team (with senior folks from across the NFL, NBA, MLB all joining), I knew I was putting myself into a great situation. 

Now, 2.5 years later, the Club is in such a different space. We’ve opened our new Endeavor Health Performance Center on the Near West Side of Chicago, we made it back to the Playoffs for the first time in a long time, and we’ve started construction on McDonald’s Park, our brand new $750m privately-funded stadium in the heart of the South Loop. The growth of the Club has been amazing to be a part of, and there’s such a feeling of momentum on both the business and the sporting sides of our organization.  

Despite the questions from others, I always knew it was the right decision, at the right time, for me. Sometimes you just have to listen to your gut. We’re all much more intuitive than we often give ourselves credit for.

Earlier in my career, I thought the marker of success was being essentially irreplaceable. But as I grew, led teams and built projects that I was incredibly proud of, I realized that being irreplaceable was actually the antithesis of success. 

To truly succeed as leaders, we need to build teams and systems that can make us incredibly replaceable. This takes a real mindset shift: it requires thinking less selfishly, more long-term, and occasionally, it means letting people make decisions that you don’t fully agree with. 

Again, this is still a journey I’m on. Especially at a brand on a growth trajectory like the Fire, I often have the urge to be pretty hands-on. But I know true success is about making sure that the Club thrives with or without me.

My inner peace. I try not to let little things bother me, make peace with annoyances that are trivial, and generally try to avoid situations and people who will eat away at that inner peace. I’m still working at it, and occasionally struggle here, but it’s something I’m conscious of and actively working to protect.

I think everything is easier (personally and professionally) when you have a sense of inner peace, and likewise, when you don’t have that feeling, everything is many, many, many times harder. 

I love the quote ‘This too shall pass’ because it works to keep me centered through both the highs and the lows. Remembering that my best moments won’t last forever, and my lowest moments are temporary, too, helps keep me grounded in a way that I find very productive.

Combining ambition with balance, true balance, to me, feels impossible. Between work, family time, friend time, personal time, travel, working out, I almost always feel behind where I want to be. But I try to ensure the tradeoffs are ones that I’m comfortable with. Everything ‘costs’ something, and life is about making sure you’re happy with the cost you’re paying.

Ambitious people have to be so incredibly intentional around how they choose to spend their time. Every decision has a cost, and it’s a cost you either pay deliberately or accidentally. 

People talk so much about balance, but I really do think balance with ambition isn’t possible. What everyone can (try to) do is spend their time intentionally, and hopefully that brings peace to any decisions.

I think it’s around imposter syndrome – feeling like you don’t truly deserve the ‘success’ you’ve earned. Even reading that question and being described that way made me wince a little, but I understand that the relative success I’ve enjoyed in my career probably makes the statement true.

I don’t think I’ve ever met a leader I respected who didn’t have at least a small bit of imposter syndrome, so I think it’s an incredibly healthy trait, but one you need to be aware of. 

The danger is when that voice turns from healthy humility into hesitation. Over time, I’ve learned that true confidence isn’t the absence of doubt, but being willing to commit and move forward anyway. In many cases, the people who care enough to question themselves are also the people most committed to doing the job well.