Nearly everyone seeks the “holy grail” of success, but most people fall short. In The 10X Rule, entrepreneur and motivational speaker Grant Cardone argues that people don’t succeed because:
1) They misunderstand what it takes to be successful. People mistakenly think success requires having money, connections, talent, the right education, being in the right business, or being in the right place at the right time. But these don’t guarantee success.
Only the 10X Rule—setting extreme goals and taking extreme action to meet them—guarantees success and, unlike the above criteria, it’s available to everyone.
2) People don’t approach success the right way. First, they don’t set high enough goals due to “average” thinking. They don’t want to be unrealistic or risk failure, so they set seemingly attainable goals, yet still fall short.
Second, people fail to reach their goals because they underestimate what it will take to reach them and don’t apply enough effort. Again, this is average thinking—they assume that by putting in a “reasonable” amount of effort they’ll succeed.
Instead of coming from external factors (money or connections), success comes from having the right mindset. Cardone argues you need to scale up your thinking and actions by a factor of 10. The 10X Rule for success is: set goals that are 10 times bigger than the average, then work 10 times harder than average to achieve them. Cardone refers to the latter as taking “massive” action. It takes extraordinary thinking and effort to achieve extraordinary success.
Setting 10X goals and taking extraordinary steps to achieve them isn’t taught in business schools. But anyone who achieves extraordinary success—whether a CEO, philanthropist, entrepreneur, politician, or athlete—follows the 10X rule, whether they realize it or not. What successful athlete hasn’t devoted extraordinary effort to training and practice?
The 10X Rule can be applied to any personal or professional goal, whether it’s having an extraordinary marriage, starting a hugely successful business, or making $10 million.
Besides reaching your goals, living by the 10X standard provides other benefits, including a sense of purpose, increased self-confidence, a way to overcome fears and procrastination, renewed energy, and greater satisfaction. Further, it’s a way to stand out from the crowd, fulfill your potential, and create the life you want.
In business, a think big/act big mindset enables you to overcome obstacles such as competition, economic downturns, disruptions, and client resistance.
Operating at a 10X level is a discipline for reaching all goals, it’s a way of life, and the way to handle all tasks and projects.
Most people set modest goals. Our goals are based on beliefs drummed into us by others, who define what constitutes “enough” or what’s realistic. We’re told that if we set unrealistic goals, we’ll just fall short and get discouraged; that we should be happy with “enough” to live comfortably.
However, you’ve probably been disappointed more often in the past by setting goals that are too low rather than too high—because when you set low targets and hit them, you know it’s not much of an achievement and you feel dissatisfied.
But if you set a huge (10X) goal and come up short, you’ll still achieve more than you would have in hitting a lesser goal. For example, if you originally set a goal of making $100,000, then boosted it to a 10X goal of $1 million, wouldn’t you rather come up short on the $1 million goal?
When you aim for only “enough” to be comfortable, you’re limiting yourself to being happy with just a little success. As a result, you’ll put in a limited amount of effort, get little in return, and won’t keep it very long.
Extraordinary or 10X goals are, by definition, bigger than what most people can imagine and achieve.
Since your daily actions determine the course of your life, do the following:
The bigger (and further from average) your goals are—and the better they’re aligned with your purpose—the more they’ll energize you and drive your actions.
There are numerous books, programs, and speakers providing advice on how to succeed in business by setting goals, practicing time management, being disciplined and persistent, and managing your career.
But you don’t hear much, if anything, about the one mindset or behavior that will guarantee extraordinary success: extraordinary effort.
In looking at his own life, Cardone realized that the common denominator in each of his successes was that he put in 10 times more effort than anyone else did. For every sales presentation, call, or appointment that others made, he made 10 presentations, calls, or appointments.
When he began investing in real estate, he looked at 10 times as many properties as he could buy. He started a business without a business plan and little knowledge or connections, but through extreme effort, he made it a success. Whatever he did was done in a big way, with massive action.
Most of the problems in people’s lives—from failed diets to financial or relationship problems—stem from not taking enough action.
Applying enough effort is more important than having the right idea or business plan. Most people don’t do enough (take sufficient action) to succeed. Everyone opts for one of these four action levels, but only the fourth brings success:
1) Not doing anything: People who choose passivity have given up on their dreams. They’re bored and lack motivation or a sense of purpose.
2) Retreating: People who retreat or backpedal often do so because they fear action will have negative consequences.
3) Taking average action: Most people put in an average amount of effort, or enough to get by. But an average level of action is the biggest hindrance to success because it seems most acceptable, but produces only average results.
4) Taking extreme action: Only people who apply extreme action achieve extreme success. However, in the shorter run, be aware that approaching any task with extreme action creates problems—for instance, more work or more clients to service—but it leads to more success. If you’re not creating problems, it’s a sign you’re not putting in enough effort.
Doing nothing and retreating result in failure. Taking average action produces no better than average results. Only extreme action guarantees success.
People often think of success as an option, something that may or may not happen; they wait for it to show up. Cardone’s life changed when he stopped waiting for success and began thinking of it as his ethical obligation—that is, as a duty to himself, his family, and his company.
Those who treat success as an option or who make excuses for not succeeding aren’t living up to their potential. And not living up to your potential is unethical. This applies to every aspect of life: work, marriage and family, health, faith, social contribution, and legacy.
When you begin thinking of success as your responsibility rather than an option, you behave differently. You take the idea of living up to your potential—creating 10X success—seriously because it not only affects you, but also your family, company, coworkers, and colleagues. And because failing to do so is unethical.
Instead of following their dreams, most people set average goals based on what others think is possible. The 10X Rule is for those who aren’t satisfied with average and who are determined to create an exceptional life.
To get started, make a list of your goals, then a list of actions, then start taking those actions.
Don’t give in to the urge to wait, or try to talk yourself out of acting. Changing your life is like being in a vehicle that’s stuck in the mud; you only need enough traction to move a few inches. It will get messy, but soon you’ll make real progress.
Act now (not a few minutes from now) and keep acting with the assurance that by doing everything in your power in the present, you’re creating the future. Nothing—whether it’s financial problems, fears, past failures, or other challenges—is bigger than your ability to dream and act at 10X levels.
Nearly everyone is pursuing the “holy grail” of success. But while we all want to succeed, most people fall short. In The 10X Rule, entrepreneur and motivational speaker Grant Cardone argues that people don’t succeed because:
1) They misunderstand what it takes to be successful. People often mistakenly think success is a matter of having money, connections, talent, the right education, the right personality, getting lucky breaks, being in the right business or industry, or being in the right place at the right time. But these don’t guarantee success.
Only the 10X Rule—setting extreme goals and taking extreme action to meet them—guarantees success and, unlike the above criteria, it’s available to everyone.
2) People don’t approach success the right way. First, they don’t set high enough goals due to “average” thinking. They don’t want to be unrealistic or risk failure, so they set seemingly attainable goals, yet still fall short.
Cardone himself fell into this trap. He has achieved success by many measures: as a best-selling author, a popular motivational speaker, investor, and entrepreneur (his companies have annual revenue of over $100 million). However, he writes that his biggest regret is that he wasted time by not setting extraordinary goals personally and professionally, right from the beginning of his working life.
Second, people fail to reach their goals because they underestimate what it will take to reach them and don’t apply enough effort. Again, this is average thinking—they assume that by putting in a “reasonable” amount of effort they’ll succeed.
Instead of coming from external factors (money or connections), success comes from having the right mindset. Cardone argues you need to scale up your thinking and actions by a factor of 10. The 10X Rule or formula for success is: set goals that are 10 times bigger than the average, then work 10 times harder than average to achieve them. Cardone refers to the latter as taking “massive” action. It takes extraordinary thinking and effort to achieve extraordinary success.
Setting 10X goals and taking extraordinary steps to achieve them isn’t taught in business schools. But anyone who achieves extraordinary success—whether a CEO, philanthropist, entrepreneur, politician, or athlete—follows the 10X rule, whether they realize it or not. What successful athlete hasn’t devoted extraordinary effort to training and practice?
The 10 Rule can be applied to any personal or professional goal, whether it’s having an extraordinary marriage, starting a hugely successful business, or making $10 million.
Besides reaching your goals, living by the 10X standard provides other benefits, including a sense of purpose, increased self-confidence, a way to overcome fears and procrastination, renewed energy, and greater satisfaction. Further, it’s a way to stand out from the crowd, fulfill your potential, and create the life you want.
In business, a think big/act big mindset enables you to overcome obstacles such as competition, economic downturns, disruptions, and client resistance.
Operating at a 10X level is a discipline for approaching and reaching all goals, a way of life, and the way to handle all tasks and projects.
Few people have what they think of as success. They want more in their career, finances, health, relationships, or some other area. Regardless of how you define success, to reach the next level, you need to think and act differently.
You’re where you are now because of the way you’re thinking and acting—whether you want to find a job, lose weight, find a partner, or increase your income or savings.
The 10X Rule is about radically changing your thinking by setting 10X goals, then acting at a 10X level to achieve them. Here’s what this means.
Most people set modest goals. Our goals are based on beliefs drummed into us by others, who define what constitutes “enough” or what’s realistic. We’re told that if we set unrealistic goals, we’ll just fall short and get discouraged; that we should be happy with “enough” to live comfortably. Or, we’re told that if our expectations are too high, we’ll end up unhappy.
However, you’ve probably been disappointed more often in the past by setting goals that are too low rather than too high—because when you set low targets and hit them, you know it’s not much of an achievement and you feel dissatisfied.
But if you set a huge (10X) goal and come up short, you’ll still achieve more than you would have in hitting a lesser goal. For example, if you originally set a goal of making $100,000, then boosted it to a 10X goal of $1 million, wouldn’t you rather come up short on the $1 million goal?
When you aim for only “enough” to be comfortable, you’re limiting yourself to being happy with just a little success. As a result, you’ll put in a limited amount of effort, get little in return, and won’t keep it very long. (Chapter 8 looks more closely at the trap of aiming to be average.)
Here’s how average goals tend to work out. If you spend your life making only enough money, you're likely to end up with less than enough when something unexpected happens. If you exercise only once a week, you’ll get sore muscles but no significant improvement. Becoming good (or good enough) at your job won’t sustain you when the market demands excellence. You’ll have expended energy for no payoff—only 10X goals deliver a big payoff.
Extraordinary or 10X goals are, by definition, bigger than what most people can imagine and achieve.
Further, if you’re not working toward your own big goals and dreams, someone else will likely use you to accomplish theirs.
The 10X Rule means you must set goals that are 10 times what you think you want.
People who are engaged in 10X-level thinking—that is, extraordinarily successful people—don’t aim just at achieving an ambitious goal, for instance, running a successful business. Instead, they aim to totally dominate the area or market they’re operating in, and they’ll take extreme action to do so.
If you want to succeed in a big way, you need to adopt a domination mindset. This mentality isn’t about controlling others, it’s about setting a standard others measure themselves against. Don’t do what other people or companies do—instead, be willing to do whatever they won’t do, even to the point of seeming unreasonable.
Remember, if you undertake any task with a mindset that limits the outcome, you’ll limit your efforts to achieve it. (Chapter 9 looks at how to set your own 10X goals.)
There are numerous books, programs, and speakers providing advice on how to succeed in business by setting goals, practicing time management, being disciplined and persistent, and managing your career.
But you don’t hear much, if anything, about the one mindset or behavior that will guarantee extraordinary success: extraordinary effort.
In looking at his own life, Cardone realized that the common denominator in each of his successes was that he did 10X more than anyone else did. For every sales presentation, call, or appointment that others made, he made 10 presentations, calls, or appointments.
When he began investing in real estate, he looked at 10 times as many properties as he could buy. He started a business without a business plan and little knowledge or connections, but through extreme effort, he made it a success. Whatever he did was done in a big way, with massive action.
Most of the problems in people’s lives—from failed diets to financial or relationship problems—stem from not taking enough action. (Learn more in Chapter 7: four degrees of action.)
The two parts of the 10X Rule (thinking and action) work hand in hand: Set goals that are 10 times higher than you’re inclined to and do 10 times what you think it will take to make them happen.
Extreme goals must be followed up with extreme action.
People typically make four mistakes in working toward their goals, which are discussed in later chapters:
1) They set expectations that are too low and not sufficiently motivating.
2) They underestimate the effort and resources it will take to achieve the goal.
3) They spend too much time competing and not enough time dominating their area.
4) They underestimate the obstacles they’ll have to overcome.
The foreclosures in the 2008 financial crisis illustrated these missteps. People who lost money or property failed to properly set goals enabling them to survive the crisis, and they underestimated the effort required to achieve them. They acted with a herd mentality instead of taking the level of action that would have insulated them against setbacks.
Being successful isn’t a one-time achievement; it’s something you create over time.
In the Middle Ages, it meant rising or “succeeding” to the throne but also keeping it. Rather than being just one event or achievement, success is ongoing—you have to build on it in order to maintain it. For example, your diet isn’t a success if you lose 10 pounds but gain 12 more. You can mow your lawn once and it will look great for a week, but you can’t consider your lawn a true success unless you maintain it.
Once you accomplish something, you must build on your success in order to sustain it.
Further, success is forward-looking. It’s like breathing: your last breath isn’t as important as your next one. You can’t live the rest of your life on the last breath you took.
Each success builds momentum for the next. Highly successful people are driven to keep creating more success because to be happy, they need to live up to their potential. Being dissatisfied and wanting more success is a positive rather than a negative. For example, most people would want to increase the love they feel for their family each day, rather than being satisfied with the love and connection they felt yesterday.
Focus on creating the kind of success that builds on itself. Chapters 3-5 further explore what success entails.
People often set only modest goals that they think are realistic. However, you can’t achieve extraordinary success without setting extraordinary goals.
What are your current goals and why?
How would they change if you applied 10X thinking (set goals 10X higher than anyone else’s)?
What’s a past goal you reached, but that left you feeling dissatisfied? Why?
How about when you accomplished a seemingly unrealistic goal? How did it feel to reach it?
Cardone learned four lessons about operating by the 10X Rule when he started his first business age 29:
Underestimating what it will take to achieve your goal has a debilitating effect. When you
When you miscalculate, you become discouraged, you rationalize and attribute your problems to the wrong factors, you assume your goal is unreachable and you give up.
Whether you’re starting a business, building a house, raising money, or searching for a new job, it will always take more effort than you initially expect. No matter how great your new product or service is, there will be something you didn’t expect or properly plan for—for example, economic changes, legal issues, competition, or people problems.
Extreme effort is the only thing that will overcome these obstacles; throwing money at them won’t do it. To use a battle metaphor, you can’t just take a territory—it takes persistence and sustained effort to keep it.
When you accurately estimate what it will take, you’ll approach the job with the right mindset—a determination to go all out—and the market (your customers and competitors) will respond to your forcefulness.
When things don’t go as planned, people’s response is often to scale back the goal rather than increase their efforts.
Many sales managers do this with sales teams. They set a quota for the quarter, but when sales come up short at the halfway point, they reduce the goal in an effort to keep people motivated by giving them a better chance of hitting a target.
This is a major mistake because it has the opposite effect. It sends the message that targets are changeable and the way to win is to move the goalposts. Ultimately, this weakens morale and expectations of excellence, and it encourages excuses. The best managers push people to do more and risk failure, rather than reducing goals. Never lower a goal—instead, increase your effort.
When you start scaling back your goals, you’re giving up on your dreams and yourself. The urge to adjust the target is a sign you're getting off track. It should prompt you to correct your estimate of what it will take and ratchet up your efforts.
Under the 10X Rule, the goal is never the problem. Any goal is reachable when you persist with the right actions in the right amounts.
Assume every task or project will take more time, resources, and effort than you expect. Multiply each of your expectations by 10 and you’ll probably be up to the task. If it takes less time or effort, no problem—it’s better to be pleasantly surprised than unpleasantly surprised.
When you’ve marshaled 10 times the resources you’ll potentially need, you’ll be positioned to deal with unplanned problems, such as economic downturns, competition, or market resistance.
If you’re introducing a new product, do 10 times more than you would to promote an established product.
Whatever your project is, tackle it with the 10X Rule, as though your life depends on it.
When you’ve taken the plunge to pursue a goal, make sure you follow through completely.
Adopt the mindset that you’re “in it to win it, no matter what it takes,” as if you’re an athlete with one last chance to make the record books.
Luck may play a role, but even luck is proportional to effort. The more you do, the more likely you are to get lucky.
Here’s how Cardone used these lessons to rejuvenate his first business when it floundered:
Because most businesses lose money at first, Cardone expected financial losses and thought he was prepared for them. He estimated it would take three months to build his business to the point of producing the same income he received from his previous job. However, it took 12 times that amount of time (three years).
He nearly quit after three months because of the obstacles he ran into and disappointment. He had many rationales for why things weren’t working out. He made a long list so he could justify quitting. Reasons included: his timing was bad, he was too young, his clients didn’t have enough money, his clients didn’t get it, people weren’t willing to change, the economy was terrible, he was terrible, and others were terrible.
However, he finally realized his business was struggling because he had underestimated what it would take to get a new product to the market and attract enough attention that people would buy it.
He had little money, so he couldn’t hire people and advertise the product. His only way of letting people know about it was by cold calling potential customers. The only resource he had the ability to increase was his effort. He would need to make many more cold calls.
As soon as he ratcheted up his efforts by a factor of 10, things began to improve. Instead of making a handful of sales calls a day, he made 20 or 30. It was difficult and he still experienced disappointments, but by making 10 times his original effort, he quadrupled his results.
When things don’t go as planned, people’s response is often to scale back the goal rather than increase their efforts.
Think of a time you missed or started falling short of a target. How did your feelings about the target change—for instance, did you conclude it was unrealistic?
What rationales did you come up with for falling short?
What would expending 10X more effort have looked like? How can you build in this amount of next time?
What you want to accomplish (what you define as success) depends on where you are in life and what you’re focused on. But whatever success means to you, it has three characteristics:
1) Success matters.
2) Success is your obligation or duty.
3) The supply of success is unlimited.
People often comment that “success isn’t everything.” But success is vital to all organizations—they must succeed and grow in order to thrive and contribute to society. Similarly, individuals and families must succeed to have security, confidence, satisfaction, and growth.
People who downplay the importance of success are sometimes rationalizing their own failures. No one benefits when you fail or quit, but when you accomplish something important, you and everyone around you gain—and it lays the groundwork for further success.
Cardone’s life changed when he stopped waiting for success and began thinking of it as an ethical obligation—that is, as a duty to himself, his family, and his company.
People often think of success as an option, something that may or may not happen. Others settle for modest success.
The idea of success as an obligation struck Cardone in 2008 when the recession put his company, personal finances, and family’s security in jeopardy. He realized he’d let this happen by becoming complacent after achieving several successes. He’d rested on his laurels rather than focusing on continued success as a responsibility.
Those who treat success as an option or who make excuses for not succeeding aren’t living up to their potential. And not living up to your potential is unethical. This applies to every aspect of life: work, marriage and family, health, faith, social contribution, and legacy.
You should think of success the way good parents think of parenting: it’s an honor, a duty, and a priority, and they do whatever it takes to care for their children.
When you begin thinking of success as your responsibility rather than an option, you behave differently. You take the idea of living up to your potential—creating 10X success—seriously because it not only affects you, but also your family, company, coworkers, and colleagues. And because failing to do so is unethical.
People sometimes think of success as being in limited supply—that someone else’s success somehow limits theirs. Or perhaps one person’s achievement makes a less successful person feel inadequate, so they think of success as available only to a few.
But one person’s achievement doesn’t limit anyone else’s ability to succeed. Success isn’t a commodity. For example, Warren Buffett doesn’t see his investment success as being limited by someone else’s strategy. Nor does Buffett's success hinder anyone else’s ability to be successful.
Successful people like Buffett understand that you create success rather than acquire it. And there’s no limit on the success ingredients of ideas, creativity, talent, intelligence, and persistence. You and millions of others can create as much success as you’re capable of, anywhere at any time.
Others’ achievements affirm that success is possible for everyone. That’s why we’re inspired by extraordinary performances by athletes and musicians. Don’t begrudge anyone their success—let it motivate you to let go of limiting thoughts and create more success.
People often think of success as an option, something that may or may not happen. However, Cardone argues that you have an ethical obligation to make it happen—that not living up to your potential is unethical.
How have you defined success in your life? Why do you define it this way?
Where do you feel you’re succeeding and not succeeding?
How would thinking of success as an ethical obligation change your actions or mindset?
The attitude of a successful person is that things don’t happen to you, they happen because of you and the actions you take. Successful people take responsibility for everything that happens in their lives, good or bad.
If you’re willing to take credit when you succeed, you have to take responsibility for problems too. Taking responsibility enables you to take the big actions that create big success.
Whiners and victims think much differently and therefore don’t do well at creating success. You can’t take 10X actions when you’re making excuses. So it’s critical that you rid yourself of victim thinking, which plagues about half the population.
Here’s how victims look at life:
1) Bad things regularly happen to them.
2) Someone or something else is to blame.
Here’s how these beliefs preclude 10X thinking and action:
Until you give up being a victim, you’ll have nothing but problems. However, when you approach situations as an actor rather than someone being acted upon, you can take charge of your life and begin setting 10X goals and taking 10X actions..
Whatever happens in your life is a result of what you’re doing and thinking. Therefore, you need to change your mindset to be successful.
Cardone’s life changed when he took full responsibility for creating success. He didn’t grow up with wealth or connections, nor was he unusually talented. But he achieved greater success than others expected of him—because he was willing to put in extreme effort, assume control, and take responsibility for results and events, even negative things like the flu, a car accident, or losing data in a computer crash.
He adopted the attitude that while you won’t have a say in everything that happens to you, you can choose how you respond. Claiming responsibility and control puts you in a position to act to improve your situation going forward.
For instance, if the electricity goes off in your neighborhood, you can think about what you can do next time to minimize the impact. This isn’t an obsessive type of control; it’s a healthy sense of empowerment and a way to find solutions.
Assume you can influence what happens, even in situations you once felt were beyond your control.
When you take total responsibility and control of your life, you begin thinking about how to keep problems from occurring. When something negative happens, ask yourself how you can ensure it doesn’t happen again or how you can minimize the chances of a recurrence. The point is to avoid victim thinking.
For example, if someone rear-ends you, you may have a legitimate reason to be upset with them, but refusing to assume the role of victim is more important than venting. Instead, think about how to reduce your chances of being rear-ended—for instance, take a route with less traffic, avoid rush hour traffic, allow more time for your trip, and ensure that you’re paying attention and not driving erratically.
Going even further, consider whether you subconsciously prompted the accident to give yourself something to complain about or blame for other problems. Many people believe your thoughts are powerful enough to attract into your life the things and people you focus on mentally.
(Shortform note: To learn more about the philosophy that your thoughts become your reality, read our summary of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.)
Remember that anytime you assume a victim role for the sake of being right, you’re giving up your power to make good things happen. To tap your full potential and live by the 10X Rule, you must assume radical control.
This book argues that things don’t happen to you, they happen because of you. Therefore, you need to get rid of victim thinking and take responsibility for everything—good or bad—that happens in your life. By doing so, you take control and can act at 10X levels.
Think of something bad you interpreted as happening to you. Who/what did you blame?
How would the event look if you reinterpreted it as something that happened because of you? What was your role?
What could you do differently in the future to minimize the chances of this event happening again or to minimize its negative impact? What’s the difference in how you feel now, compared to your original approach of blaming someone else?
There’s no formula for calculating how much action it will take to reach a specific goal. But in general, the more effort you put in, the better your chances of success. Your actions must be both consistent and persistent.
Applying enough effort is more important than having the right idea or business plan. Most people fail because they don’t do enough (take sufficient action) to succeed. Everyone opts for one of these four action levels, but only the fourth brings success:
1) Not doing anything
2) Retreating
3) Taking an average amount of action
4) Taking extreme action
We’ve all acted at each of these levels, depending on the situation. You might put extreme effort into your career, but back away from acting in another situation, such as a relationship or exercising for your health.
Typically, people do nothing, retreat, or put in an average amount of action. Doing nothing and retreating result in failure. Taking average action produces no better than average results. Only extreme action guarantees success. Following is a closer look at the levels:
You may choose not to do anything to advance your career, improve your finances or build your relationships. People who choose passivity have given up on their dreams and decided to take life as it comes. They’re bored, lethargic, and lack motivation or a sense of purpose.
While doing nothing may sound like a way to avoid stress or disappointment, it requires a surprising amount of effort. In fact, each of the four action levels requires effort. People who decide to do nothing devote time and energy justifying it to themselves and others.
Interestingly, people who choose to do nothing in some areas of their lives often devote extreme action to another, usually a hobby such as gaming or biking, or a time-waster.
People who retreat or backpedal often do so because they fear action will have negative consequences. They may actually have experienced problems like rejection or failure in the past and want to prevent them from recurring, or they just fear them.
The normal human impulse is to push forward or advance into new territory; children display this until being told repeatedly: be careful, don’t touch, or don’t do something that looks interesting. Young adults may be advised to not be too ambitious. Adults who retreat from action make many excuses: the stock market is terrible, so I'm not investing; most relationships fail, so I’m not pursuing one; all politicians are self-serving, so there’s no reason to vote.
All of these instances require a decision against acting and the energy to justify it. However, if you’re expending effort in the first place, why not devote it to success?
Most people put in an average amount of effort, the amount that seems necessary or enough to get by.
This is the middle-class approach, where people do enough to reach a certain level of comfort, and to create “normal” lives, careers, and marriages. An average level of action is the biggest hindrance to success because it seems most acceptable but produces only average results. Most employees, managers, and even executives fit in with the crowd rather than stand out. However, average performers are doomed when adversity strikes and acceptable action isn’t enough—for example, when people are laid off and can’t compete with high performers for a new job.
No one would buy a product advertised as average, so why accept being an average student, having an average marriage or average body type, and making an average salary? If you’re average, but you’re capable of doing more, you’re really retreating or choosing inaction. Living up to your potential and achieving extraordinary results requires level-4 action.
Chapter 8 examines in detail the consequences of striving for middle-class averageness.
Constant action is the normal state for people and nature. Children are always acting unless something’s wrong or adults are telling them to calm down. In nature, there’s always action, whether under the earth’s crust, in the ocean, or in a colony of insects.
Applying extreme action is the only way to get extreme success. However, in the shorter run, be aware that approaching any task with extreme action creates problems—for instance, more work or more clients to service—but it leads to more success. If you’re not creating problems, it’s a sign you’re not putting in enough effort.
1) When you’re going all out, you don’t count the hours you work or expect to have a routine.
For example, when Cardone first launched his seminar business, he worked from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. He made cold calls, sometimes visiting 40 companies a day to promote his training programs and presentations. He didn’t sign up every company he visited, but he generated more new business than he would have by taking less action and contacting fewer potential clients. His mindset of approaching each day as if his future depended on his actions became a habit—and he got big results. In fact, extreme action generates bigger results than anything you learn at a training program.
2) You may be called obsessive, a workaholic, or never satisfied by people taking average levels of action or doing only what others think is necessary. When you succeed in a big way, expect to be labeled by others because they feel inadequate by comparison or feel threatened.
But no one who is more successful than you are will denigrate your extreme effort, because they know what it takes to excel.
3) Taking extreme action means taking steps that seem unreasonable or over the top to others—then following up these steps with even more action. You’ll know you’re on the right track when you create new problems and receive criticism and warnings from others to slow down. Even your manager may discourage you from putting in so much effort. But stay the course—extreme action breaks the spell of mediocrity that paralyzes others, and you’ll stand out in terms of both effort and results.
4) Extreme action means seizing every opportunity that comes your way. Extreme action will always help you, especially if you and your product or service aren’t widely known. For example, Cardone urged his wife, an actress, to accept every invitation to audition, whether or not she felt the part was right for her. The important thing was to be noticed; if one role didn’t pan out, she might be offered a different one later.
When you take extreme action to get attention, results such as greater business success will follow. Attention leads to money and power. No one else will step up to make your dreams come true or to promote your company to the rest of the world. You must take extreme action to become so well known that when people think of the service you provide—in Cardone’s case, business training programs—they think of you.
(Shortform note: In the rest of this summary, we’ve combined chapters and reordered material to reduce repetition and improve coherence.)
In the ‘50s and ‘60s, Americans were sold a middle class dream—the idea that a life of relative comfort and security was attainable by most people and everyone should strive for it. Many people still strive for much of their lives to become what they think of as middle class.
However, middle-class status means something different today than it meant 50 years ago. A middle-class income no longer guarantees comfort—in fact, because it promotes “average” thinking, it leads to failure and financial insecurity.
Most people think of a comfortable middle-class lifestyle as one with a reliable income, health care coverage, an affordable home in a nice neighborhood, vacation time, and a retirement fund. But today, living on a middle income in an urban area would be difficult and far from financially secure. Even upper-middle-class status could be tenuous during an economic downturn.
The middle class is generally defined as those with reasonable disposable income (about 30% of their income left after taxes and basic expenses). But few in today’s middle class have 30% left after expenses.
Many middle-class people feel more like members of the working class. Someone who’s making $60,000 a year pays $15,000 in taxes, leaving $45,000 (which equates to $32,000 due to inflation) for a home, food, schools, insurance, medical expenses, car payments, vacations, savings, and emergencies.
Further, they’re caught in an increasing middle class squeeze, in which their wages don’t keep up with inflation, resulting in a decline in real wages over time. Also, middle-class wealth calculations often include debt and home equity.
Besides declining real wages, the middle class has other problems:
In other words, a middle-class income is unlikely to provide what used to be considered middle-class security.
(Shortform Note: While the 2008 U.S. Census figures quoted in this book are out of date in defining middle-class income as $35,000 to $50,000 a year, the author’s basic points still apply. More recent figures list the 2017 median household income as $61,372.5; middle income is between $40,500 and $122,000.)
“Middle” means average—and the concept of living a middle-class life encourages average thinking, being comfortable enough and doing enough to get by rather than having big dreams.
The main problem with average thinking is that it assumes things will always be normal and run smoothly. An average approach can’t withstand adversity, which can occur in any or all areas of life, including finances, career, marriage, and health.
Many businesses fail for the same reason—owners put in an average or normal amount of effort based on things operating smoothly. When they plan for contingencies, it’s for typical problems, not something extraordinary. When average efforts fall short, many new business owners and partners have second thoughts and give up.
The only way to prepare for and overcome adversity is to think and act at 10X levels—when you apply extraordinary effort, you achieve results so big they can’t be undone by problems and setbacks
Reject average thinking in every aspect of your life, including advice from people close to you if they encourage limited thinking. Average thinking won’t get you an extraordinary life—and increasingly, it’s unlikely to sustain a middle-class life either.
People often set goals they never get started on or soon quit on. While it may seem counterintuitive, the major reason for failure is that they don’t set their goals high enough.
Instead of following their dreams, they set average goals based on what others think is possible. Others encourage us to be realistic and avoid setting goals that are too high, so we limit ourselves to doing what others do—for instance, going to college, practicing the religion and speaking only the language we grew up with.
This is a recipe for failure because these goals aren’t motivating, so you don’t reach for them or achieve them. You can't get excited about working toward realistic goals with an average payoff. So you put in average effort, if any. If you encounter obstacles, you quit because your goals aren’t worth the additional effort of overcoming obstacles. Goals need to be big to inspire you and hold your attention. However, many people’s goals are so unremarkable that they write them down only once a year and then forget them.
If you’re inclined to follow someone else’s lead, base your goals on exceeding those of successful people. Better yet, set your own big, unrealistic 10X goals. Start by reminding yourself of the following:
The 10X Rule is for those who aren’t satisfied with average and who are determined to create an exceptional life.
Since your daily actions determine the course of your life, do the following:
The bigger (and further from average) your goals are—and the better they’re aligned with your purpose and duty—the more they’ll energize you and drive your actions.
Many people set average goals based on what others think is possible. Others encourage us to be realistic and avoid setting goals that are too high, so we limit ourselves to doing what others do.
What are your current goals? How was your choice of goals affected by your upbringing or by those around you?
Which of your goals would be considered average or ‘realistic’ by most people? How can you reframe them as (10X) goals?
What goal could you align with a purpose to motivate you to achieve it?
Just as following others’ advice undermines 10X goal setting, believing conventional wisdom can keep us from taking the 10X-level action necessary for extraordinary success.
Some of the most harmful business myths in terms of undermining success involve competition, customer satisfaction, and time management.
A tenet of capitalism is that competition is good. While that may be true from a consumer standpoint (it can create more choices), when your goal is extraordinary success, competition is a limiting concept. For 10X success, you need to dominate, not compete.
When you’re competing with others, you’re focused on what they’re doing, which makes it difficult to think outside the box. The most successful people and companies look forward rather than at what others are doing—they create rather than copy or improve.
(Shortform note: For venture capitalist Peter Thiel’s thoughts on why competition is destructive, read our summary of his book Zero to One here.)
Here are some ways to dominate rather than compete:
Devote all of your thinking and actions to dominating your market, not competing.
The focus of so many seminars and self-help articles on time management undermines 10X thinking. People think in terms of having a shortage of time and needing to achieve balance by giving up things they want. Instead, focus on maximizing your time by devoting it to 10X-level goals and action.
When people think about improving time management, their goal is usually balance. However, it’s either/or thinking that limits your success—for instance, you might think you can’t have a successful career and be a good husband or father at the same time.
But you can have success in every area—career, family, health, hobbies, and psychological well-being—simultaneously. Rather than asking how you can improve time management and balance, you should be asking how you can have everything you want in abundance.
When you achieve 10X success, you have what you want at such levels that you aren’t at risk of losing it. If you’re unhappy or worried about any area of life, your problem isn’t balance, it’s lack of success. Remember, success is your duty: Stop thinking about trade-offs and start thinking in terms of having everything.
Most people who worry about time management don’t know how much time they have available, or what’s most important for them to do in that time—which means they can’t manage it. However, instead of managing your time, you should focus on maximizing it. You’ll always have a shortage or imbalance if you don’t do enough with the time you have.
Cardone notes that people who are impressed with what he gets done often ask him whether he ever rests. But the reason he accomplishes so much isn’t that he forgoes rest—it’s that he knows how much time he has and what his priorities are, and he assumes responsibility for pursuing his goals with maximum effort in that time.
To maximize your time, you need to:
When your life changes and you adjust your priorities, then adjust your schedule so you’re still doing what’s most important and maximizing your time. For example, when Cardone and his wife had a child, they reset their family priorities while maintaining control of their time. Cardone began getting up an hour earlier each day to spend time with his daughter before work while his wife got additional sleep. Also, by getting the child up earlier, they could put her to bed earlier so they had time with each other. Their solution accommodated his work priority of ensuring his family’s financial success, as well as his priority of spending time with his family.
If you start by committing yourself to success as a duty and maximize your time by performing at 10X levels, you’ll have the time you need to achieve success as you’ve defined it.
Most companies focus on customer satisfaction instead of on increasing their customers. Customer satisfaction refers to the extent to which your product or service meets customer expectations after they buy it. It’s important to customer loyalty, and it’s usually measured through customer surveys.
But many companies do too little to get customers in the first place. They don’t do enough to draw attention to their products, and salespeople often don’t even ask the customer to buy (mystery shopper surveys show this repeatedly). The reason businesses fail is usually that they have too few customers, rather than having a poor product.
Companies fixated on customer satisfaction worry about hurting their brand with aggressive sales efforts, or with generating complaints. But as noted above, most companies actually are under-aggressive. Further, while you can’t totally prevent complaints, you can use them as opportunities to communicate with customers.
When you put 10X levels of effort into acquiring new customers, the satisfaction issue tends to take care of itself.
Companies like Google and Starbucks are highly successful because customer acquisition is their first priority—for instance, Starbucks attracts customers by making it easy and convenient to buy coffee. In fact, companies that truly deliver the greatest customer satisfaction don’t talk about service; growth in customers is their way of doing business.
You can’t satisfy a customer until you create a customer. Cardone focuses on 10X efforts to acquire customers, then overdelivers.
Some ways to increase your number of customers are:
When you put customer acquisition first, the other necessary steps—product development, process improvement, and promotion—fall into place, all of which enhance customer satisfaction.
People who achieve 10X success differentiate themselves by being everywhere and going over the top when others hesitate, pull back, or under-commit. They’re omnipresent, obsessed with success, and they see opportunities in misfortune.
A public relations executive once suggested to Cardone that he was in danger of being overexposed, that his media and online efforts were drawing too much attention to his name and company. The idea is that too much exposure cheapens a brand.
However, this is ridiculous on its face. Is Coca-Cola overexposed? It’s better to be overexposed, if that’s actually a problem, than overlooked. Your brand and reputation are valuable assets only if enough people are aware of them. For a new product or company, the problem is more likely to be obscurity than overexposure.
Rather than worrying about overexposure, strive for omnipresence, meaning your name is everywhere all the time—like McDonald’s, Google, Walmart, or Apple. Or Warren Buffett, George Bush, Bill Gates, or Oprah.
Cardone’s goal is for more than 6 billion people to hear his name every day and think of sales training when they think of him. Because it’s a 10X goal, he’ll increase his success whether he achieves it or not. The goal of being omnipresent drives his company’s decisions and actions—his employees say yes to anything that would increase his exposure and no to anything that would get in the way. This is 10X, not average, thinking
Omnipresence has even more value (besides making money) when you align it with a larger purpose. For example, Bill and Melinda Gates’ omnipresence furthers their goal of improving health around the world. Omnipresence and 10X success are the best answer to anyone suggesting you’re overexposed.
Besides omnipresence, another way 10X thinking sets you apart is in how you respond to economic downturns.
In a financial crisis or economic slump, most companies contract, cut spending, and put major projects on hold.
However, scaling back is retreating and ignores the 10X Rule, which requires extreme action. Others’ hesitation or cutbacks offers an opportunity for you to expand your market presence.
Remember, your goal is to dominate your market to the point that your name is synonymous with your field. That’s why, during the 2008 recession, Cardone boosted staff and marketing, as well as applying 10X efforts to make more client contacts and step up production of training materials and programs. As a result, he increased his market share.
If the economy, or any other outside force, leads you to scale back, you won’t control your destiny. The answer is always to take 10X actions, regardless of what the economy or other people are doing.
Being obsessed with something is often seen as negative. People who are passionate may be viewed as crazy or off-balance, as workaholics, or as not “having a life.” However, in this world of short attention spans, the single-minded pursuit of extraordinary goals should be seen as a gift instead of a flaw. Obsession is a hallmark of 10X thinking and action.
Most great achievements were someone’s obsession at one point. For instance, space travel is the result of the decades-long obsession of teams of scientists and engineers with figuring out how to do it. Artists, musicians, athletes, philanthropists, and business owners are obsessed with success.
Children naturally become obsessed or fixated on whatever stirs their curiosity, whether it’s a subject like elephants, a snack, a toy, or an activity. Unfortunately, adults sometimes suppress children’s obsessions, and children give up intense commitments for average commitments.
However, obsession is a requirement for pursuing 10X goals with 10X actions. It sends the message to clients and competitors that you’re fully committed to success. As a result, they take you seriously.
So be obsessed and stay obsessed with making your goals a reality. Feed your obsession—compound your success by taking continuous 10X action. The alternative to obsession is spending your life making excuses for failure.
Part of being obsessed with your goals is going “all in”—committing yourself fully to extreme action.
In poker, going “all in” means putting all your chips on the table or going for broke. In situations outside of poker, many people would rather play it safe and guard against losses. However, unlike poker chips, the amount of action you can take isn’t limited.
Salespeople often fail to go all in with every sale because they fear rejection or failure. But failing with one customer shouldn’t keep you from going all in with the next one. Go all in with every opportunity.
Overcommitting, like being obsessed, is another practice we’re warned against. Businesses aim to under-commit and over-deliver. They fear not being able to meet high customer expectations, so they would rather create low expectations that are easy to exceed.
You can see how silly this is when you imagine advertising a Broadway show as featuring average or mediocre singers and dancers and then over-delivering on opening night. Of course, producers should advertise the show as outstanding and then deliver an even more phenomenal performance.
In keeping with the 10X rule, you should overcommit and deliver more than promised. The greater your commitment to a client, the more you usually end up delivering because you’re making a commitment to yourself to excel as well as to the client. Knowing you can do it with a 10X effort motivates you to do just that.
Another form of overcommitting that salespeople fear is contacting and signing up too many customers for fear of not being able to serve them all. However, making 10X efforts to acquire customers and making big promises (overcommitting) will differentiate you from competitors and compel you to deliver big.
Of course, overcommitting creates a problem for you—you have to find a way to deliver. But such challenges go along with having big goals and are signs of progress; if you lack problems, you’re not doing enough. Put another way, successful people seek out problems, while average people try to avoid them. Problems drive you to find or create solutions, so overcommit first, then figure out how to deliver. It’s far better to have too many appointments and customers than too few.
If you make it a practice to overcommit and take extreme or 10X action, you’ll create problems, solve them, and exceed both your customers’ expectations and your own.
While being obsessed with success and going all in drive you toward your goals, there are three common attitudes and behaviors that can derail you if you don’t reject them: fear of risk, fear of criticism, and making excuses.
When taking extreme action, you’ll experience fear because you’re going out on a limb by yourself. Everyone fears things in life; the key is what you do with fear. Rather than let it sap your confidence and momentum, use it to spur you toward your goals.
Fear is beneficial because:
The more time you give fear to build up, the stronger it becomes. The more time you spend thinking about and imagining what can go wrong in a situation, the more apprehensive you become.
Many people use one of the following excuses to delay acting when they’re afraid:
Either of these just gives the fear more time to build. Instead, immediately do the thing you’re apprehensive about. The only thing that will banish fear is action.
Like fear, criticism is another sign you’re headed in the right direction. It’s a common result of the attention you get from becoming successful or taking extreme efforts.
You’ll be judged by those who feel threatened by your success (they believe the supply of success is limited), those who feel inadequate because they’re taking minimal action, or those who are simply envious. Sometimes, people deliver criticism in the form of advice: they tell you you should take more time off, stop working so hard, or stop going all out for certain clients who aren’t worth it.
But if you back off due to criticism, you’ll only shortchange yourself. Remember, success isn’t about being popular, it’s your duty. Further, when you keep working at 10X levels, your critics may come to admire you. In any case, the best response to criticism is 10X success.
Everyone uses excuses—we all have favorites we use repeatedly. Many people reading this book are making excuses at this point for not adopting the 10X Rule.
Excuses are reasons you come up with justifying what you do or don’t do. Popular excuses include:
But excuses aren’t the real reasons motivating what you do; they’re a rewrite of the facts to make you feel better later. For example, you might blame traffic for making you late to work. But the real reason you’re late is not planning your time so you can leave home earlier and avoid traffic.
You can’t create change or improve any situation until you acknowledge the real reason for your actions or inactions. When you make excuses you’re refusing to take responsibility for your life (as discussed in Chapter 6).
No excuse will ever make you more successful. In fact, when you excuse something you did or didn’t do, you create an opportunity for someone else to find a solution instead of you.
If you believe success is your duty rather than an option, you must commit yourself and your business to never making excuses for anything.
Everyone fears things in life; the key is what you do with fear. To succeed, use it to push you toward your goals.
What are your three biggest fears in your professional life? How do they hold you back from success?
The things you’re most afraid of doing often bring you the greatest return—therefore, you should do them. What’s a step you’re afraid to take that could improve your business or some aspect of your life?
Only action dispels fear. What action can you take immediately to eliminate a fear?
Everyone has favorite excuses or reasons for what they do or don’t do. But excuses usually aren’t the real reasons motivating what you do; they’re a rewrite of the facts to make you feel better later.
What excuse do you find yourself using frequently, or what’s an excuse you’ve used in the past week? (For instance, the traffic is terrible, my boss hates me, I don’t have time to exercise).
What's the real reason behind your excuse (for instance, maybe the real reason you’re late for work isn’t traffic, but oversleeping).
How can you reframe the situation to take responsibility and solve the problem?
As this book has shown, success has little to do with economics, education, or demographics.
It stems from how you approach situations, challenges, and problems. This chapter looks at the common qualities, personality traits, and habits of successful people. Adopt the following actions and mindsets and you’ll be successful yourself.
Have big goals and aspirations: Set “unrealistic” or 10X goals; small goals won’t inspire you or make you stand out. If you don’t set and focus on your own goals, you’ll spend your life working for the objectives of others.
Break with tradition: Challenge traditional thinking. Don’t be concerned with the way things have been done in the past; find new and better ways to do them.
Take risks: Many of us are taught to avoid risks and play it safe; to never really go big. Take enough risks daily to create success. Life is a lot like Vegas: you have to put something significant in the game to get a return.
Create your reality: Create your own reality by accomplishing your dreams. Don’t let anyone else set limits for you or define your reality.
Have a can-do attitude: Tackle every task with a can-do attitude. Use phrases like “we can do it” and “let’s make it happen,” which assume there’s a solution.
Be on a mission: Treat your work as a mission, not a job. Approach every call, email, and presentation with your mission in mind. Otherwise, your work will be just a job and probably unfulfilling.
Create wealth: Successful people aim to generate wealth (not income) through ideas, products, services, and solutions. Unsuccessful people work to make money, then spend it on unimportant things or protect it. Also, poor people spend money on the things affluent people use to create wealth (rent, interest on loans, credit).
Welcome change: Constantly seek ways to improve how you do things, anticipate economic trends, and identify and seize opportunities. Change keeps you excited and motivated.
Always say yes: Say yes to opportunities until you’ve become so successful you have to start saying no to manage your time. Saying yes to everything opens you to new experiences, adventures, solutions, and greater success.
Take constant action: Make action a habit. Always be doing something, even while on vacation—never stop doing things to get attention for your products and ideas. Not every action will pay off immediately, but cumulative action will generate extraordinary results.
Commit first, then figure it out: Fully commit yourself to whatever you plan to do; then work out the details. When you act instead of waiting, you outmaneuver competitors. Your commitment spurs your creativity and problem-solving.
Be highly motivated: To do 10 times more than the next person, you need to be highly motivated. Constantly set new and higher goals for yourself. Use your successes to inspire and motivate yourself to achieve even more.
Work smarter: Don’t just work hard, take the smartest approach to reaching your goals. Always look for ways to improve your methods—for instance, developing a better public relations program or better product, or finding new investors or more talented staff. When you work smarter, you get better results and the work is more rewarding.
Figure it out: Always take responsibility for solving problems. When you don’t know an answer, tell yourself, “I’ll figure it out” rather than “I don’t know.”
Persist: Stay the course regardless of any problems or setbacks. Persistence is more important than talent. When you encounter resistance, redouble your efforts. Many people give up, so learning persistence gives you an opportunity to stand out.
Go all the way: You can’t succeed by taking half measures. Don’t settle or make excuses. Until you win a customer you haven’t gone all the way. No matter how many times you call a client, if you don’t close the deal, you’ve wasted your time. Go all the way and make the sale.
Be unreasonable: You need to think and act unreasonably—in ways others view as irrational or unrealistic—to get extraordinary results. Salespeople who are unreasonable get the sale. Most people act reasonably and get mediocre results. In contrast, people willing to be unreasonable change the world.
Fully commit: Commit yourself fully to action. Success requires jumping in with both feet. Unsuccessful people say they’ll give something a try, but typically fail to follow through on activities and obligations.
Embrace danger: People are often so cautious that they don’t live full lives. However, to accomplish anything big by acting at extreme levels, you need to embrace danger and risk.
Focus on results: Focus on results, not on the time spent on a task or activity. Unsuccessful people always talk about how much time they spend at work even if they don’t accomplish anything. It’s like going only as far as the front hallway when it’s time to take out the trash—you still have a problem because you didn’t get the job done. Results, not effort, are what counts.
Leave your comfort zone: Seek out new situations and challenges rather than becoming too comfortable in your daily routine. Complacency kills creativity and the drive to achieve.
Learn continuously: Make time for reading, studying, and educating yourself. The most successful CEOs read 60 books and attend six conferences a year, while the average employee reads fewer than one book a year and earns 319 times less. What you invest in yourself determines your wealth, health, and future.
Connect with smart people: In seeking out new relationships, “reach up” by associating with smarter, more successful people than you. This encourages you to improve yourself to rise to their level. You can learn from them, too.
Be ethical: Ethics means more than not breaking the law. It means doing your utmost to succeed—doing less is stealing from your family, future, and company. It means following through on commitments and living up to your potential.
Be disciplined: Discipline is the self-control and motivation to complete tasks and follow through on commitments. You need discipline to exceed what others are doing.
Support others: You can only do as well as the people around you. “Me first” thinking undermines the group, which ultimately hurts you, too. But when everyone is improving and succeeding, it will support your success.
Seize opportunities: View every situation—even if it’s a problem—as an opportunity.
The bigger the challenge, the bigger the opportunity. Solving problems leads to new products, customers, and financial success. When a problem affects an entire market, the person who views it as an opportunity will come out on top.
Embrace challenges: Challenges hone your skills and motivate you. Don’t look at challenges as losses; let them inspire you to engage and win. The more you win, the more you’ll come to relish challenges.
Be courageous: Courage is acting in spite of fear. You can increase certain skills through training, but you only develop courage by doing. The more action you take, the more your courage will grow. If something scares you, do it so often that it becomes less intimidating and you wonder why you ever feared it.
Seek to solve problems: Seek out problems and solve them and you’ll separate yourself from the pack. Those who solve problems are heroes—the bigger the problem, the bigger the success.
Act now: The present is where you create the future you want. Make a habit of acting now; don’t waste even a second by delaying. While others are figuring out what to do, you’ll already have finished doing it. The more you do, the more momentum, skill, and confidence you gain so you can do even more.
Chapter 22 describes a variety of qualities, personality traits, and habits that create success. They fall into the categories of thinking big, taking action, going all out, looking forward, and committing to personal growth.
How many of the success traits described in the above chapter do you share?
Which one would you most like to work on and why?
Which one can you focus on immediately; what steps can you take to practice this trait?
To get started, just look at the list of success traits in Chapter 22 and determine what you need to do.
Make a list of your goals, then a list of actions, then start taking those actions.
Keep in mind:
Don’t give in to the urge to wait, or try to talk yourself out of acting. Changing your life is like being in a vehicle that’s stuck in the mud; you only need enough traction to move a few inches. It will get messy, but soon you’ll make real progress.
Act now (not a few minutes from now) and keep acting with the assurance that by doing everything in your power in the present, you’re creating the future. Nothing—whether it’s financial problems, fears, past failures, or other challenges—is bigger than your ability to dream and act at 10X levels.