1-Sentence-Summary: The 10X Rule will show you how to achieve extraordinary success by pointing out what’s wrong with shooting for average, why you should aim ten times higher when tackling your goals, and how to back up your new, bold targets with the right actions.
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One thing I’ve learned from thousands of marketing articles and videos over the years is to never judge people in those professions by their cover. I was raised, like most people, to be skeptical of all sales people, but that makes it harder to see the often good person behind the shiny exterior.
Grant Cardone is definitely one of the guys I would have instantly put into a box five years ago, but not today. I took the time to watch a few interviews with him and he’s quite smart, humble and actually a bit nerdy. In Your Move by Ramit Sethi, I learned to ask myself how much impact potential projects can really have.
Why bother with growing your revenue 20% when you can try to double it? The 10X Rule sounded like a similar idea, so I thought I’d check it out. Here are the 3 things I learned:
- The problem with average is that it may not last very long.
- The 10X Rule has two parts: outstanding effort and audacious goals.
- Most people know only three degrees of taking action, but there is a fourth one and it’s the best.
Imagine you 10x-ed everything in your life right this second. What would that feel like? Let’s see how we can turn this vision into reality!
Lesson 1: All average everything is the world we live in, but it often doesn’t last.
One of Grant’s favorite quotes is that “average is, by definition, less than extraordinary.” A line rappers use to hint at the lavish luxury of their cars or clothes is “all black everything.” Our world is closer to “all average everything,” where most people live average lives in average houses with average careers and average goals.
The problem isn’t so much the state of average itself – not everyone can be a millionaire – but the fact that average is sold to us as a safe bet to make. It’s not. When you aspire to be part of a middle class that has been dwindling for years, you’re only thinking about today and tomorrow, but not long-term.
A nasty side effect of only lurking around average is that you can fall below average very quickly. All it takes is one busted loan, one property damaged, one financial crisis and you’ll go straight to poverty.
The 10x Rule will help you make sure this never happens.
Lesson 2: There are two parts to The 10x Rule: extra effort and bigger goals.
To prevent your brain from even thinking in “average mode,” you can use Grant’s 10X Rule, which has two simple aspects to it:
- Whatever goal you’re trying to achieve will probably take 10X the effort you suspect, so you should account for it.
- Wherever you set the bar for your goal, if you shoot for 10X the results, you’ll end up in a much better place.
The first part is just smart. If you expect you need 10 phone calls to make a sale, schedule 100. Think you’ll shoot five takes for your video? Plan 50. And so on. This buffer achieves multiple things. It lowers your expectations, increases your patience and re-calibrates your work ethic, right from the start.
The second part is about shooting for the moon and then landing among the stars, even if you miss. Like the question I found in Your Move, going for 10x the results you originally wanted instantly rules out average thinking. You can’t possibly make $10,000 with the exact same approach as making $100,000.
Kicking your creativity into high gear helps you accomplish more than you think you’d be capable of, even if you fail. That’s still better than getting the average result you set out for. Now all you have to do is take action!
Lesson 3: A degree of action most people don’t see is massive action and it’s the one that’ll get you to your goals.
Another thing Grant sees that most people don’t is an extra degree of action. Here are the three everyone knows, we all spend most of our time in one of them:
- No action. You do nothing. Your book lies unfinished in the drawer, the website redesign remains un-tackled.
- Retreat. Whatever action you took before has lead to failure so right now, you’re dialing back and laying low.
- Normal action. You just go about your day and comply with requests and to dos as they’re served.
The last mode is the one we spend the most time in and it’s also the most dangerous because it has us running right towards average. Here’s the fourth degree of action Grant thinks is best: massive action.
It’s when you go all out to convince Home Depot to stock your sprinkler. When you re-record all the videos for your course in one day, because the files were unusable. This kind of action should be your default mode and we all know people who live that way: children.
Kids don’t budget their time or weigh their effort. They just set a goal and then they work on it until it’s done. Who’d have thought one of the most successful sales guys in the world gets his inspiration from the little ones?
Well, so can you and maybe that’s the true secret behind The 10X Rule.
The 10X Rule Review
Rarely has the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” felt more appropriate. Grant’s a good guy. Give him a chance and hopefully, you’ll learn to think in bigger dimensions too. If there’s only one takeaway from this summary, I think it’s that.
Who would I recommend The 10X Rule summary to?
The 22 year old college grad, who just wants “a normal job with a decent salary”, the 48 year old frustrated author, who’s about to give up when she might be just before her big breakthrough, and anyone who tells their kids that “that’s just not the way the world works.”
Last Updated on November 10, 2022
