All of us desire success in our lives but very few achieve it. Many people work hard and use their talent and yet somehow, they fail. It happens to the entrepreneurs, it happens to the artists, it also happens to employees. How can we make the changes required to be successful? Can we make it a habit? Learn the 10X Rule of success and apply it to become successful in all spheres of your life. Understand your reasons for failure and the strategy that most successful people follow.

This book is intended for anyone who is struggling to succeed. It is also for those who are working towards their goals. Readers will get reality checks and motivation from the book and it will help them think about their goals and efforts clearly.

Try 10 Times Harder Is The Soul Of 10X Rule

As the saying goes “Aim For The Stars If You Fail, You’ll Land On The Moon.” and when you launch the rocket, don’t fill it with gasoline.
The expectation from anything we do has always been the same: Success. The term ‘success’ may mean different things to different people, but nobody intentionally works to fail. Still, a lot of people fail, and some don’t even realize that they are failing. It is because either they do not understand the attributes of success, or do not approach their goals properly, or both.

We all marvel at geniuses and highly successful people, but most of us don’t try to emulate them. We accept smaller goals and try to achieve them thinking that this is enough for us to be happy. But smaller goals whether they be of money or anything else, get tested during tough times and we find ourselves in difficulty.

What exactly does the 10X Rule mean? It means setting goals 10 times the target that we have to achieve and putting in 10 times the effort we think is required to reach that goal. This is important because we tend to underestimate both our potential and the efforts that we need to make to reach our goals. Many things are not in our control but we fail to take them into our calculations when we estimate the efforts required. Similarly, we try to make smaller goals, and those goals don’t provide enough motivation to put an all-in effort.

So, dream big and work harder than you think you should do to ensure success.

Anatomy of Failure – Base Of 10X Rule

Why do so few startups succeed, and for those who succeed, why do they succeed astronomically? Why does the ultra-rich control most of the global wealth and why does the middle-class struggle despite working hard?
It is because most of the people who don’t succeed do not understand the reasons for failure. They commit basic mistakes that lead to failure and then rationalize failure by blaming it on things they cannot control.

Four common errors that lead to failure are:

Not setting the right goals: People set very ordinary goals for themselves which cannot motivate them to achieve success.
Underestimating resources or efforts: While people think that they have estimated correctly as far as the resources or efforts are concerned, the reality is that it is still far less than
Overemphasising on competing: Spending all energies to compete with existing alternatives instead of using efforts to create something unique that others cannot copy is a mistake that is made by most.
Underestimating the hardships: The challenges and hardships are often unanticipated and far more severe than estimated. Due to this one can lose morale easily.

Test your current endeavors against these four basic checks to see if you are doing it right.

Success And Its Attributes Based On 10X Rule

Success simply means accomplishing our goals. Nobody intentionally works to fail but many of us don’t understand the meaning of success and therefore unintentionally work hard towards failure. While success may manifest itself differently for different people and each one of us has more than one goal which we want to achieve, all of us understand that success and happiness are intricately linked. So whatever be our goal for seeking happiness, we will be happy only when we are successful too.

Success also has three very important attributes which are important for us to understand if we truly want to succeed.

First Attribute Of Success

Firstly, Success is very important to our existence. Success has many internal and external benefits that lead to happiness. Internally, we gain confidence in what we do, and our outlook for the future improves. Externally, we gain a lot of trust from others and we also accumulate enough resources to avoid adversities.

Second Attribute Of Success

Secondly, success requires us to be dutiful and responsible for it. We need to seek it consciously and work to attain it. Many people have a slightly disdainful and meek attitude towards success. They try to write off success as less important. They do it because they have failed to succeed and try to justify it with these remarks, but in reality, success is the only thing that they crave. Remember that if we consider success as an option, we will never be able to attain it.

Third Attribute Of Success

Thirdly, success is the only thing that is not in shortage. It is unlimited, and your success does not mean that someone has reduced your quote. Or someone else cannot have it anymore. Some people think that success is limited if there is competition. Well!, they are wrong. Even if a competitor wins, you can always come back to win or you can look for expanding the market by your efforts to achieve your own success. Success is something to be created and not to be acquired. Unlike discovering something already present, success is something that has to be invented. Similarly, we have to work hard, to have continued success. It is not a one-time affair. Being successful once and then relaxing altogether will have its own impacts and cost us later.

A Brief Explanation On The Applicability The 10X Rule

The 10X rule works on two key elements of any activity: Goal and Effort. It requires us to make a fundamental change in the way we approach these two elements because we cannot achieve success with our extant traditional mindset.

The 10X rule says that we should set goals that are 10 times greater than what we previously thought is required for success. It also asks us to put 10 times more effort than what we think we will require in the achievement of these goals.

Dream big and then back it up with tremendous effort

The 10X Rule is about domination and not competition. Our goal always should be to dominate the category we are in. We should never set small goals for ourselves because small goals cannot motivate us to perform, as there is very little incentive for making big efforts. The fact of the matter is that we will have to work hard for achieving our goals and that we will feel disappointed sometimes with not achieving our goals. If that is the case then let’s work hard to achieve something really big and let’s crash and burn while trying to aim for the stars. It’s also more likely that when we fall short, we would still be far ahead of the smaller goals.

The 10X rule is also about action and commitment. Once we have set our goals, we have to put all the efforts that we can to achieve these goals. Normally we all estimate that a certain level of hard work will be enough to reach the target, but what we fail to realize is that there are many factors which we can’t control and many of those will manifest only when we actually do the work. For example, a start-up may think that it will be successful if it acquires a certain number of paying customers and make efforts accordingly. But, their estimates could be wrong because the competition might have also launched a new product at the same time. However, if they make efforts to connect to 10 times the initial number of target customers, they are quite likely to achieve their target.

Remember that once you set your goals, don’t change them for the convenience of achievement. Rather, if you think that you are falling short, intensify your actions to achieve them.

Taking 10x Action

Our actions are the key determinants of the outcome. It is not luck, or money, or any other resource, but whatever we do, we must always take action. There are four degrees of action:

Do Nothing, you will be doing nothing if you have already given up on your goals.
Retreat, you will retreat if you believe you can't succeed, and you try to conserve your energy and resources.
Take Normal Action, you take normal action when you think it is enough to operate at a normal level to achieve your goals.
Take Massive Action, where you put in 10 times the effort and energy in your activities to achieve the result.

Remember that even doing nothing will require a lot of energy and effort because you will now spend time rationalizing your failure and criticizing others. Those who retreat, move in the opposite direction of their goals and work hard to justify their actions.

It is the normal activity that is worst of all because it blindsides you and reduces you to a mediocre level. People who only try to do enough, underestimate the efforts required to achieve the goals and are set for failure. Over time they start to settle for the ordinary.

It’s equally true for businesses, especially startups. Startups that operate at ordinary levels of action will never be able to reach a critical number of target customers, and therefore, even if they have a viable product, they will fail because not enough customers will know about them.

Rule Of Success

Success comes only to those who take massive action. They create new challenges for themselves by taking big actions and moving forward by overcoming challenges. They are also criticized by others and are sometimes considered insane but they move past this criticism to do their own thing.

When operating at the 10X degree of action, also assess the capabilities of your competitor and then take actions which they will never undertake. If they consider your efforts as inhuman and unreasonable then you will soon start dominating the market because you will be operating at a level that they have not fathomed.

A common fallacy is that customer satisfaction is the most important metric for business success and that we should under-commit and over-deliver. However, if you look at the most successful businesses, their first focus has been to gain as many customers as possible and customer satisfaction comes second. This is true because unless you have a customer can not have a satisfied customer. So, first put effort into acquiring customers and then focus on satisfying them.

Optimism in Negative Emotions

Three key negative emotions keep the man away from the performance.

Negative Emotion 1: OBSESSION

For ages, mankind has seen obsession as a disease. However, obsession is a prerequisite to success. To dominate the field that one is in, one should first know everything about it. To learn everything about a field, one must have an addiction or obsession with it.

Obsession is not a bad thing here; it is a requirement to reach the zenith. Once the obsessed people become successful, they are no longer labeled as crazy, but instead, as geniuses. Being obsessed with a goal is better than being obsessed with excuses and reasons for failure. Hence, obsession is essential to set 10X goals and follow them with 10X actions.

Negative Emotion 2: FEAR

Fear is also not bad. It’s not something to avoid, but it is something that we need to understand and use positively. Fear is an indicator that we are moving in the correct direction. Fear is mostly instilled by emotions and not by rational thinking. The 10X rule requires us to stand out from a group. This means doing things that others refuse to do. When doing such things, we are bound to experience fear. When everyone else runs away due to fear, it is a great opportunity for us to fill in the vacuum created by them. Taking massive actions, repeatedly and quickly, helps us to appear fearless to the external world. The person who takes action whenever he fears the most will also be the person who advances the most.

Negative Emotion 3: CRITICISM

Just like fear, receiving criticism is also a great indicator of being on the right path. Many people, while pursuing success, dislike receiving criticism. But there is no way to achieve success without getting criticized. One way to handle criticism is to respect it as a success formula. One should be able to identify constructive criticism and adapt accordingly. As far as Negative Criticism is concerned, it mostly comes from weak individuals, overwhelmed by one’s success. Hence, one should take such criticism as an indicator that one is making the right moves. Criticism precedes admiration and goes hand in hand with success.

Dos And Donts Supporting 10X Rule

Do Not Undercommit And Over Deliver. When meeting a potential customer if you under-commit to them, you run a risk of not closing the sale. Always over-commit to your target because if you overcommit you can always back it up with massive actions to ensure you overdeliver. Also understand that when you overcommit, you create a new challenge for yourself which is a sign of moving forward.
Don’t Contract Your Business Or Any Project unless contraction is temporary to consolidate the resources in hand. Contraction requires effort and resources which could be better spent on success. In fact, great opportunities for success are available to those who are expanding when everyone else is contracting.
Take Control Of Your Time. Analyze your activities to ascertain the time and resources available to you. Prioritize strictly. Many people waste their time on non-priority activities. Spending time on non-priority activities is not an option for those who are trying to succeed.
Always Say Yes And Commit As Much As Possible. Saying yes gives one control over fear and creates new challenges. Make it a habit to say yes to everything and soon you will be delivering everything.
Focus On The “Now”. The right time to take action is right now. If you start planning for doing it well at a later time, you will find several flaws that will become a reason to avoid the actions which are required.
Reach Up In Relationships. Find the company of people who add value to you. Successful people try to be with people who add value to them.

Conclusion: The 10X Rule

To be successful one has to focus on goals as well as actions. Those who have small goals will waste their energies and never reach their potential. Don’t be meek when it comes to dreams. Dream Big. The biggest mistake that leads to failure is the inability to estimate the right amount of action. Always err on the side of overestimation. To succeed in life, support all big dreams with your actions. The aim of one’s actions should not be to compete but dominate the segment we are in. One should expand big dreams with more actions behind them.

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The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone – Book Summary