"Understand something: in order to get to the next level of whatever you’re doing, you must think and act in a wildly different way than you previously have been. You cannot get to the next phase of a project without a grander mind-set, more acceleration, and extra horsepower."
- The 10X Rule, page 3
"Assume that every project you attempt will take more time, money, energy, effort, and people than you can imagine. Multiply every expectation by 10, and you will probably be safe. And if doesn’t take 10 times more than anticipated, great. It is better to be pleasantly surprised than greatly disappointed."- The 10X Rule, page 17
The first step in exceptional results is to set clear targets that are 10X what you think it will take to accomplish the task. We rarely begin our work and assess what could be accomplished inside a full, inspired commitment to push past necessary efforts – we default to looking at ‘just what needs to be done’. The result is mediocrity and continually lower levels of acceptable results. Take the time to ask what specific work is going to be required and set a 10X level. Once that level is set, you must be across-the-board, fully committed to not reduce the target. If anything, when confronted by doubts or initial setbacks, you must default to taking more massive action. While you’re at it, abolish the idea that the concept of success must be restricted and has a limit, a ceiling through which nothing further can be accomplished.
“Tackle (every) project with the 10X Rule – like your life depends on it,” writes Cardone. “Manage every action as though you have a camera on it. Pretend you’re being recorded as a model by which your children and grandchildren will learn how to succeed in life”.
Please. Re-read the above quote. Soak and marinate in it.
"Anything conducted in standard amounts simply won’t get the job done. The normal levels of action at which most people operate fail to take into account the effects of various forces – such as gravity, age, resistance, timing and the unexpected…people will try and take from you what they are unable to create themselves… succeed so big that no one person or event or series of missteps can take you down! Average levels of anything will fail you – or at the very least, put you at risk!"- The 10X Rule, page 63
Our society is addicted to averages. We collect data, establish reasonable levels of results that are ‘good enough’ and put our children into educational systems that apply sliding scales of low achievement and possibility. The acceptance of a discussion of average when looking at what is possible snuffs the life out of human capability and cuts off access to quantum science and thinking. Any area of our life where we bring ‘average amount of attention to will start to subside and will eventually cease to exist.’
Cardone implores the reader to look up the word average. If you allow the practical meaning of the word’s meaning to sink into your life, be prepared for a big slide when the eventual downturn that life brings to us all occurs. Applying the 10X Rule allows you push through and past most of the difficulties and setbacks that life may bring.
Oh yeah. Want to know that the definition of average encumbers? Typical, ordinary, common. Imagine your children applying those words to your life and character and get ready to seriously take the exhortations of The 10X Rule to heart.
"It is not enough just to play the game; it is vital that you learn to win at it. Winning – over and over again – at everything in which you involve yourself ensures that you will be able to further expand. And it guarantees that both you and your ideas will survive into the future."- The 10X Rule, page 23
You’ve heard it – and you’ve probably said it. “Success is a journey, not a destination.” Cardone would like to extend to anyone uttering this inanity a sharp, back-handed slap espousing this limp quasi-wisdom to anyone who may hear it. Winning empowers and ensures that your future efforts will continue to expand and, thus, reach the levels of 10X results. Success is a duty to ourselves. Our education system, to our young children and young adults, does not allow an understanding or even discussion of the importance of success. Success has become an ‘option’ – and we end up with average, with no understanding of what excellence could be and what we are capable of accomplishing.
“If you consider it your duty to live up to your potential, then you simply won’t.” Cardone is clear. The kind of success we should desire in all areas of our lives comes about as a result of “mental and spiritual claims to own it, followed by taking the necessary actions over time until it is acquired.” It is your moral obligation and responsibility to your work, your family, and your future to commit to success.
The “X” factor in the The 10X Rule is in the power of ‘the now’. You can access what’s happened in the past and feel free to get clear on the future you want, but the mindset that you must hardwire into every moment is the vital, massive importance that the true power is in taking massive action … now. “Show up, be all in, and trust that creativity follows commitment.” Success is not about intelligence, understanding, economics or who you know, it’s about understanding that taking massive action inside The 10X Rule will create a life of which you are called to become. Think 10X levels and take 10X actions.
Timothy Ferriss, nominated as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People of 2007,” is an angel investor (StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, etc.) and author of the #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been sold into 35 languages.
