- Geekmaster
- 2019-02-03 14:00:23
- 10 minute(s)
Grant Cardone is the bestselling author of The 10X Rule and If You’re Not First, You’re Last. Grants major focus lately has been wearing the hat of sales trainer, speaker, and entrepreneur who has worked in real estate and the auto industry.
He has worked with small businesses and Fortune 100 companies such as Google, Wells Fargo, and Ford to customize sales processes and improve customer experience. He is also the owner of Whatever It Takes Network, a digital network for entrepreneurs, business owners, and success-minded people, where he hosts, directs, and executive produces programs that help people do whatever it takes to create success in their lives.
It’s been over a year since I read the book, 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure by Grant Cardone, and I’m still thinking about it!
Every page of my copy of the book is dog-eared and highlighted, so if you like what you read here, trust that there’s so much more in store for you personally if you choose to dive into the full text!
From the intro of the book, “ The 10X Rule will ensure your success regardless of your talent , education, financial situation, organizational skills, time management, the industry you are in, or the amount of luck you have. Use the book as though your life and your dreams depend on it, and you will learn to operate at new and higher levels than you ever thought possible!”
Who could resist?
What Is The 10x Rule?
I found it very interesting that within the first paragraph of his introduction he is already selling you on the idea of the 10x rule by using a very common selling technique called F.O.R.D.S..
Family, Occupation, Recreation, Dreams, & Success is an acronym developed primarily for the use of engagement of customers within sales. By engaging with the F.O.R.D.S. system you are establishing a position of understanding the customers needs. People love to talk about themselves, and as a result it makes humans terrible at the ability to listen. This skill extends beyond sales but into all aspects of human interaction. People want to be heard and valued so become the platform for them to engage with and you will naturally see your sales increase.
The 10X rule is based on understanding how much effort and thought are required to get anything done successfully. Grant believes that this is done by setting your actions and goals 10X higher than what you think you can achieve . This approach is very similar to that in poker where players go all in on themselves and that they don’t give any room for failure by placing an extraordinary amount of accountability on themselves. Cardone throughout this book talks about defining your own success and taking the retrospective approach that Tony Robbins preaches which is, “Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure”.
You must set targets that are 10 times what you think you want and then do 10 times what you think it will take to accomplish those targets. Massive thoughts must be followed by massive actions. There is nothing ordinary about the 10X Rule. It is simply what it says it is: 10 times the thoughts and 10 times the actions of other people.
What Is Success?
Success is an ongoing investment in yourself. It’s never one and done or a battle to be won. Cardone likens success to a lawn that’s been perfectly groomed and manicured; it can only be a true success if it’s constantly maintained.
Moreover, Grant defines success as “The degree or measure of attaining some desired object or end.” He claims that extremely successful people know that their efforts must continue in order for them to realize new achievements. Grant is also eluding to the concepts of finite vs infinite games and how to play within the rules of these. Although he doesn’t talk about this book directly, he is borrowing many of the same themes from James P. Carse book Finite and Infinite Games. By establishing clear boundaries for success you are able to play the game according to what you want the outcome to be. This leads into the next section of the book where he talks about why people fail at setting goals.
The basic series of mistakes that cost you your own success are:
- Mistargetting by setting objectives that are too low and don’t allow for enough correct motivation
- Severely underestimating what it will take in terms of actions, resources, money, and energy to accomplish the target
- Spending too much time competing and not enough time dominating their sector
- Underestimating the amount of adversity they will need to overcome in order to actually attain their desired goals
On this point I 100% agree with Grant. These tools are not taught correctly and at a young enough age for them to become a pre installed program in today’s youth. Teachers focus on goal setting via planners, and accountability through grades. The ability to reach higher than what you believe you can do at this point in time is astronomically correlated with how disciplined and methodical you are every day. Grant’s method tends to conflict slightly with the widely preached SMART (as seen above) method of setting goals by multiplying the realistic factor by 10. By accelerating this pillar of goal setting, Cardone believes you can achieve greatness to a much higher degree.
Do not underestimate the effort it takes to get things done.
This book will open your eyes as to how many of us do just enough to get by, accessing only a fraction of our true potential. From a marketing standpoint, the above quote made so much sense to me. Have you ever shared something, then felt it fizzle out within moments? It’s as if you called the attention of a roomful of people expecting their audience, only to watch them glance up and then go right back to what they were doing.
It raises the question: are you doing enough to be remembered?
Success Is Our Duty
In order to succeed, you must assume control of and responsibility for your life.
If you’re holding tight to excuses or self-imposed limitations, Cardone’s got your number.
The 10X Rule leaves you reevaluating everything you think you can and can’t do to create your own success. It’s an eye-opening lesson in responsibility and self-ownership.
Grant talks about the mindset of treating success as an option is on of the major reasons why more people don’t create it for themselves. Claiming this is why most people don’t even get close to living up to their full potential.
He talks about it being “your duty to become successful not just to yourself but to your legacy, your family, and to the future generations.” He emphasizes turning the idea of success into an ethical issue for yourself and initiating the zero-option mentality of rejecting failure.
You may be wondering if there a shortage of success? Cardone raises the point that “unlike manufacturing there is no scarcity of success and that it is not a lottery, horse race, or card game that allows for only one winner.”.
Success if an infinite game using finite rules to play in. This is because it is created, not acquired. Grant talks about extreme responsibility accumulation for every aspect of your life. I totally agree with this point, and it is what separates those of us who see the big picture from those that fail to see the failures about to happen to themselves.
When you start taking responsibility for every aspect of your life, things shift into the concept of divine timing being your own timing.
Now, what is Grants call to action for us?
The Four Degrees Of Action
You must take massive action to get things done.
Cardone teaches four degrees of action:
- Do nothing. In this degree of action, you’re working to make excuses
- Retreat. In this degree of action, you’re moving in the opposite direction of success
- Take normal levels of action. You do enough to get by (the majority dwell here)
- Take massive action. You take immense, unstoppable action toward the target
The first two are the basis of failure, the third will lead to a normal outcome, and the last will lead you into the realm of 10X. He then goes into the idea of average is a failing formula. “The average worker reads an average of less than one book a year and works an average of 37.5 hours per week. This same person makes 319 times less money than the top US CEOs, who claim to read more than 60 books per year.”
Grant calls it as he sees it throughout the rest of his book, and gives you useful real life examples of his own life as to how he leveled up. Business is a battlefield and if you don’t have the mind of a General, you won’t achieve your goals.
What you’re reminded of throughout the book is how rare the fourth degree of action actually is. Numbers one through three are comfortable and average. Cardone goes onto explain all of the problems you’ll encounter if you tackle a new approach of massive action. The advice he gives in Chapter 7: The Four Degrees of Action is worth the price of the book alone. It shines a new light on everyday thinking, causing you to question everything you’ve ever been taught about attaining success.
Average Is a Failing Formula
To be average is to fail.
Cardone believes people are addicted to average because it “assumes—incorrectly, of course—that everything operates stably.” Rid yourself of every concept of average.
I’ve taken this advice to heart. I even made lists of what average people, bloggers, and friends do to ensure I don’t follow the herd, but carve a path of excellence instead.
Here are some takeaways Grant talks about:
- Dominate the territory
- Make the ask
- Always expand
- Never rest on your laurels
Competition is one of my favorite subjects in the book because it speaks to exactly how most of us think about competing in our industry or online space. “From what I have seen, competing with others limits a person’s ability to think creatively because he or she is constantly watching what someone else is doing.”
Instead, Cardone suggests a personal campaign trail that will overshadow and dominate your industry completely. He advises that you not try to compete in a space, but become it. “The message you want to send to the marketplace through your persistent action is, ‘No one can keep up with me. I’m not going away. I am not a competitor. I am the space. ”
This year, I’ve been studying why people quit. It’s been fascinating to say the least. A “sell-out” used to be someone who cashed in on their talents and fame, but I love the idea of making a profit by being who you are. I think the new sell-out is someone who gives up on themselves altogether.
The 10X Rule speaks to that idea, and I love how he explains why quitters fail. When you think that one of your ideas didn’t work, Cardone says “the only reason why it didn’t work is because you didn’t stick with it long enough for the market, your clients, and your competition to finally submit to your efforts. Repeated attacks over extended periods of time will always be successful.”
I want to be careful with what I’m highlighting here because trust that the author, Grant Cardone takes vacations and time off. The message is here to ensure you keep persisting and pushing your ideas forward. That, and “there can never be enough wood on your fire.”
Fear is a good sign.
Are you scared to email and ask? Scared to ask again? Scared to ask yet again?! All good indicators that’s the push your business needs in order to achieve the next level. Cardone says, “Fear of requesting the client’s business means that you must ask for the business—and then keep asking.”
I review my notes on the 10X Rule regularly, and I always leave the book to make a call, take an action, or express a need for something I’ve feared up to that point. The above quote could not be more true for you and me in our careers: the person who conquers their fears the most advances their cause the most.
Success at this level is not for everyone, but it is for those that want it more than anything else in the world. Tell me about your previous goal setting experience and what you are going to do differently now that you have seen some of Grants techniques. Leave a share your story and give some claps!
Let the rest of them hold back. We’ve got a job to do 10X!
I highly encourage anyone who struggles with sticking to their goals to use this book like their business bible to get yourself up and off the ground. Grants techniques have been tested relentlessly to work and are highly regarded by CEOs and Entrepreneurs around the world.
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