The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure

by Grant Cardone

What is fear anyway? Does it exist? Is it real? I know it feels real when you are experiencing it, but admit it: Most of the time, what you fear doesn't even occur. It's been said that FEAR stands for False Events Appearing Real, which aptly implies that most of what you're afraid of doesn't ever come to pass. Fear, for the most part, is provoked by emotions, not rational thinking. And in my humble estimation, emotions are wildly overrated—and the scapegoat many people use for their failure to act. But regardless of whether you agree with my opinion on emotions, you must reframe your understanding of fear and use it as a reason to move forward rather than as an excuse to stop or retreat. Use this frequently avoided feeling as a green light to signal you to what you should do!

Adults have their own “boogeymen”—the unknown, rejection, failure, success, and so on. And these boogeymen should be a sign to take action as well. For example, if you're afraid to call on a client, then it's a sign that you should call that client. Fear of speaking with the boss is an indication that you should march into his office and ask for a moment of his time. Fear of requesting the client's business means that you must ask for the business—and then keep asking.

Fear doesn't just tell you what to do; it also tells you when to do it. Ask yourself what time it is at any point in the day, and the answer is always the same: now. The time is always now—and when you experience fear, it's a sign that the best time to take action is at that very moment. Most people will not follow through with their goals when enough time has passed from the inception of their idea to actually doing something about it; however, if you remove time from your process, you'll be ready to go. There's simply no other choice than to act. There's no need to prepare. It's too late for that once you've gotten this far.

Now, the only thing that will make a difference is action. Everyone has had the experience of failing to do something they wanted to do. Perhaps by the time you got yourself “ready” to do something, someone else had taken action—and now you're regretting it. Failure comes in many forms; it occurs whether you act or not. Regardless of the outcome, I would say that it's far preferable to fail while doing something than to fail by over-preparing while someone else walks up and scoops up your dreams.

As far as I'm concerned, it's pointless for people to worry about time management and balance. The question they should be asking is “How can I have it all in abundance?” Successful people have attained the things they desire in quantities so great that no one can take them away. And how can a person consider him- or herself successful if he or she isn't happy? What happiness is there in being unable to pay the bills or provide for your family or worry about your future? The moment you achieve one goal you've set for yourself, then it's time to establish a new target. Quit thinking in terms of either/or and start thinking in terms of all and everything.

Let's assume that you have 75 years to live; that's approximately 657,000 hours, or 39,420,000 minutes, in this lifetime. Take any given day of the week; you have an average of 3,900 Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, etc. Now—here's the scary part—if you are 37 years old, then you have only 1,950 Wednesdays left. What if you had only $1,950 left to your name? Would you watch it slip away, or would you do whatever you could to increase it? I believe that I can do more with 1,950 hours than most people can. The only way to increase time is to get more done in the time you have. If I get 15 phone calls done in 15 minutes and you get 15 calls done in one hour, then I have essentially created 45 minutes for myself. In this way, the 10X Rule makes it possible to multiply time. If I hire someone and pay that person $15 an hour to make 15 calls every 15 minutes, then I just duplicated my efforts—and my time becomes money.

People act as though work is something to get through, yet in reality, they spend very little of their time even doing it. Most people only work enough so that it feels like work, whereas successful people work at a pace that gets such satisfying results that work is a reward. Truly successful people don't even call it work; for them, it's a passion. Why? Because they do enough to win!

These things are vital to every single person's mental, emotional, and physical well-being. People who promote the new age, esoteric advice to “take it slow” are encouraging a mind-set that isn't doing anyone any good. Consider the types of traits this thinking has created in people: laziness, procrastination, a lack of urgency, sloth, a tendency to blame others, irresponsibility, entitlement, and the expectation that it's up to someone else to solve our problems.

Let me explain simply. Customer satisfaction doesn't concern me very much! Why? Because I know that we overdeliver to our clients and provide customer service that is well beyond “satisfactory.” We overdeliver to every client, and we never say no until we absolutely have to. We don't even talk about customer satisfaction in my office. We do talk a lot about how to get more customers because attracting customers to our program is the only way to increase customer satisfaction. You get it. Increasing customer satisfaction is impossible without increasing customers. Whether someone signs up for our free tip of the week or buys a book for $30, an audio program for $500, or a long-term training contract for $1 million, we always overdeliver what is expected. I only concern myself with getting more customers, then I overdeliver to my clients.

am most worried about noncustomer satisfaction; that is, the people who are dissatisfied because they do not have my product and may not even know that they are unhappy.

What's my point here? Brands that truly deliver customer satisfaction do not talk about customer service; they focus on customer acquisition. Emerging organizations first need people to know about them, then do everything they can to make them happy. Remember, customer satisfaction cannot exist without a customer first.

So disregard criticism, welcome and handle complaints, and do everything you can to expand your footprint. The more people you serve, the better your chances are of interacting with quality customers.

Let's go back to Apple as an example. This company doesn't worry today about customer satisfaction so much that it neglects to continue building products that people are willing to stand in line to get. It recognizes the proper order of objectives: (1) acquire customers (via an amazing product or service that you've worked on at 10X levels to create); (2) impress them with how great you are during the acquisition process; and (3) establish customer loyalty (through repeat purchases, support, word-of-mouth marketing, etc.). When you're building a business, your primary target is not customer satisfaction (yet); it's acquisition, referral, and loyalty and then more acquisition using the customers you've attained. I want everyone to have my products, not just some people. I want masses of people—not just a few—to know about me and my products. I won't be satisfied until 6 billion people do. I want everyone to purchase from me over and over, and I want to be on their minds so regularly—and make such an impact on them and their companies—that they never even think about using anyone else.

If you truly want to find out what your organization's customer acquisition and loyalty weaknesses are, then survey the people who you do not acquire. The sooner you can ask them questions, the better—ideally, as they leave or refuse the business. And be sure to ask them about the processes—not about the people—they encountered. You might ask questions like the following: How long were you here? Did you meet a manager? Were you shown optional products? Were you presented with a proposal? Did anyone offer to bring the product to your home/office?

Companies fail not because they offend customers but because they don't take enough action to make these individuals customers in the first place. And I assure you that these very same companies hold one meeting after another on improving customer satisfaction. They will survey those who buy from them instead of taking the time to ask those who didn't why. Add to this the fact that most of these surveys focus on what the sales associate did wrong rather than on what is inadequate about the organization's thinking and processes.

Can you imagine what it would be like if you, your brand, and your company could be everywhere all the time—and how much power this would give you? Although it may seem impossible, this should be your goal. The things that are assigned the most value on this planet are believed to be available everywhere.

Have you ever heard the saying, “It is enough if you can just help one person”? Although it's surely a good thing to help one person—and certainly better than helping no one—I personally don't really believe helping just one person is enough. I know it sounds good and that this saying emphasizes the importance of helping others, but there are 6.8 billion people on this planet, and most of them need some kind of help. Your goal must—and can—be bigger than “just one person.” And in order for this to happen, people must know who you are and what you represent!

Although it might sound like a grind, it will only be a chore if your goals are too small, self-serving—and unattained. I promise it won't feel like a grind when you come out on top. You may want to get rich—but why? What do you want to use the money for? Do you have a higher purpose you're looking to serve? After all, you can only accumulate so much personal wealth before it doesn't matter anymore. Maybe you want to amass riches in order to help more people and improve conditions for all mankind. That would require you to be omnipresent—everywhere, all the time.

The goal was to do everything we could to get my information and material disseminated. We started using YouTube and Flickr to provide motivational videos, sales tips, and business strategies to our clients—and asked people to pass them on to their friends. I personally recorded more than 200 videos, wrote 150 blogs and articles, and did 700 radio interviews in 18 months. I then began getting national TV exposure with the networks and cable TV. Fox, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN radio, WSJ radio, and more all started having me on their shows. In the same period, I personally wrote more than 2,000 posts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. All of this was in addition to what my office was diligently doing to get my name out. My face, name, voice, articles, methodologies, and videos began showing up everywhere—many at the same time. People with whom I had never done business started saying to us, “I see your name everywhere!” I was completely focused on expanding my footprint and making myself known to the rest of the world rather than worrying about a small group of critics. My business blew up on every front. Opportunities started to flow in daily. We started getting attention not just from those we had been focused on but from people all over the world. As a result of this campaign, my books are being translated into Chinese and German. Now inquires from France, Mexico, South Africa, and other countries are flowing in with interest in our sales training programs and books. We have peop...

And remember, the best way to even the score against those who have it in for you is to make yourself so well known that every time they look up—each morning when they wake and right before they go to sleep at night—they see evidence of you and your success.

There are no justifications that will change these facts or situations—and any reasons I might provide are only opportunities yet to be handled. Any rationale you give yourself just gives someone else the chance to find a solution. Remember what I've said time and again throughout this book: “Nothing happens to you; it happens because of you.” Excuses are just another component of this—and a major differentiator between whether you will succeed or not.

Remember: Success is overcoming a challenge. Therefore, you can't succeed without some kind of difficulty. It doesn't really matter what the challenge is; as long as you handle it adequately, you'll be rewarded. And the bigger the problem is, the bigger the opportunity as well.

There are countless situations that most people tend to see as setbacks and nothing else: recessions, unemployment, housing predicaments, conflict, customer complaints, and company shutdowns, to name a few. If you can learn to see these as prospects instead of problems, you'll continually come out on top.

Whereas many people loathe challenges—and use them as reasons to sink further into indifference—highly successful individuals are compelled and invigorated by challenges. The idea of being overwhelmed, I believe, is the result of never taking enough action to generate enough winning.

The ability to persist on a given path regardless of setbacks, unexpected events, bad news, and resistance—to continue steadfastly or firmly in some state, purpose, or course of action in spite of conditions—is a trait common to those who make it.

At some point, you will have to take a risk, and the successful are willing to do so daily.

The successful are willing to take gambles—to put it all out there and know, regardless of the outcome, that they can go back and do it again.

Think in terms of creating money and wealth, not salaries and conservation of funds. Figure out how to create wealth through the exchange of great ideas, quality service, and effective problem solving. Look, for example, at how powerful banks behave. They collect currency through methods that compel other people to either give them money or borrow it from them. Consider the way in which wealthy people own real estate that others pay for by way of rent. They produce money solely by owning this property and therefore create wealth. People who invest in their own companies do so in order to increase their wealth, not their incomes. The unsuccessful, on the other hand, spend money on things that affluent individuals use to create wealth. Income is taxed; wealth is not. Remember: You don't need to “make” money. It has already been made. There are no shortages of actual money—only shortages of people creating wealth. Move your attention from conserving money to creating wealth, and you'll be thinking as successful people do.

Laziness and lack of action are ethical issues for me. I don't think it's right or acceptable for me to be lazy. It is not a “character flaw” that's caused by some invented disease, any more than a highly active person is somehow “blessed.” No one is born to sprint or run a marathon any more than some people are born to take more action than others. Action is necessary in order to create success and can be the single defining quality that will enable you to make the list of successful people. No matter who you are or what you've done in life so far, you can develop this habit in order to enhance your success.

They eagerly engage in life and realize that the word “yes” has more life and possibilities in it—and is clearly so much more positive than “no.” When a client asks me to do something, I say, “Yes, I will be happy to/would love to/want to make it work for you.” I have a saying: “I never say no until I have to.” It's a great way to tell someone no (that is, if you absolutely must).

I would prefer a person who is able to fully commit over one who is completely educated any day. Commitment is a sign that someone is pledging him- or herself completely to a position, issue, or action. Successful people see past the problems and are able to keep their focus on the promise they've made to themselves or others. They keep their eyes on the outcome or action the entire time. When I commit to ensuring success for myself, my family, a project, or my company, it means that I will do whatever is necessary to make that pledge a reality and fulfill my commitment. Commitments are not something for which you can make excuses, nor are they something you negotiate with or on which you can “give up.” Commit fully as though you are already successful and demonstrate that commitment to all those with—and for—whom you work.

As they say in AA, “Half measures achieved us nothing.” For members, this means that you can't get sober if you are drinking—even a little bit. In the world of success and achievements, half measures achieve nothing in terms of results—except for tiring out the person engaging in the half measures. This is why most people refer to work as though it were an illness. Only those who go all the way and see things through until they're done experience the rewards that the workplace has to offer. Until an action is turned into a success, it is not done. Until you make the potential client a client or the potential investor an investor, you have not gone all the way. This might seem harsh, but if you called a client 50 times and didn't get the deal done, then you might as well have not called that person at all. This is the point at which people become reasonable and therefore don't make it. Commit to being completely unreasonable and going all the way. Don't accept any excuses! No settling allowed!

There exist only two times for the successful: now and the future. The unsuccessful spend most of their time in the past and regard the future as an opportunity to procrastinate. “Now” is the period of time that successful people utilize most often to create the futures they desire in order to dominate their environments. You cannot do what unsuccessful people do, which is to use any excuse they can think of to put off the tasks they should be completing immediately. Instead, you must acquire the discipline, muscle memory, and achievements that result from taking massive action—while others think, plan, and procrastinate. Taking actions immediately allows the most successful to design the future they desire. The successful understand that they must keep taking actions now. They're well aware that procrastination is the ultimate weakness.

You will be amazed how much you can get done when you quit thinking, calculating, and procrastinating and just get on with it and make a habit of acting now. Although this may cause you to feel like you are reacting constantly—causing you to be too spontaneous—it will also make acting a habit. Action is necessary—and there is no time more valuable than now. While others are trying to figure out how they will get something done, you will have already finished it. The person who continues to do more consistently will improve his or her skill set out of sheer survival and adjustment.

Successful people love change, whereas the unsuccessful do everything they can to keep things from changing. But how can you create success when you are trying to keep things from becoming any different? It is impossible. Although you never want to alter the things that are working, you should always look for ways to improve what you are doing. The successful keep an eye out for what is coming next. They seek out potential, upcoming market transformations and embrace them instead of rejecting them. The successful look at how the world is shifting and apply this to how they might improve their operations and grow their advantage. They never subsist on yesterday's successes. They know that they must continue to adapt or they won't remain victorious. Change is not something to resist; it's something that should keep you excited.

The successful know that they can quantify what works and what doesn't work, whereas the unsuccessful focus solely on “hard work.” The right approach may be to institute a public relations program that softens the market, provide consumers with the right tool, or compel management to make the most powerful connections, find the best first investors, or hire the highest-quality staff. Whatever the method may be, the successful don't think in terms of hard work (even though they are, of course, willing to work hard). Instead, they figure out how to work “smart” and handle the situation by finding and using the right approach until they succeed. The unsuccessful always find work to be difficult because they never take enough time to improve their approach and make it easier on themselves. The first three years of my life as a salesperson was hard work and gave me sporadic results at best. Then I committed two years and thousands of dollars to improving my approach—and selling was no longer “work”!

The great companies of yesterday get so powerful and so enamored of layers of management that their staff spends most of its days in meetings—which causes them to become cautious and incapable of pulling triggers the way they did when they were taking risks and growing. Although it can be dicey to commit first and figure the rest out later, it is my belief that creativity and problem solving are stimulated only after a person fully commits. Although preparation and training are critical, challenges of the marketplace will require you to act before you determine how to make it turn out all right. It is not necessarily the smartest and brightest who win in the game of life but rather those who can commit the most passionately to their cause.

Make a habit of “reaching up” in all of your relationships—toward people who are better connected, better educated, and even more successful. These individuals have much more to share than your supposed “equals.” This habit is connected to their willingness to change, challenge tradition, grow, and do what others can't fathom. Reach up—never sideways and never down! You must base your decisions on what will be the greatest investment to move you toward your ethical commitment to create success for yourself, your family, and your business. The people with whom you surround yourself will have a great deal to do with whether you achieve your goals—or not. You don't want to go horizontal. You want to go up—and you do this by associating yourself with bigger thinkers, bigger dreamers, and bigger players. Black belts don't learn new skills from white belts. They can be reminded of the basics, but a white belt cannot take the black belt to a red belt. And you can't become a scratch golfer by playing with bogie golfers. You have to interact with people who are better than you. It's the only way to become better yourself.

Act now and then keep acting with the knowledge that enough actions taken now will create the future. When successful people become lazy, they add time to their decisions.

I wrote this book at 52 years of age and have currently created enough success for myself, only to have an appetite for more. I truly believe that I have yet to entirely fulfill my capacity or abilities. I don't want it just for the game or the money but mostly because I really do consider it to be an ethical obligation to utilize my potential. Whatever—or whoever—drives you, go get it now—and quit being reasonable with yourself.

Everyone in my organization and even my clients will tell you that when I go at something, I always go now with an unreasonable belief to do whatever is necessary to hit my targets. I am not an organizer, a great planner, or a manager. I realize that taking action without adding time, meetings, and overanalysis is both an asset and a deficiency. The people who know me would probably also tell you that when I embark on a project—whether it is writing a new book, creating a seminar program, developing a new product, starting a new workout, improving my marriage, or spending time with my daughter—I go at it completely. I'm all in, fully committed, like a hungry dog on the back of a meat truck. I know myself fairly well. When I get involved in something, I am completely unreasonable with the actions I take until I get the results I want. I don't make excuses for myself, nor do I let others make excuses.

Now means now—not a minute from now. Start with first things first; make your initial list of goals, then a list of actions that will propel you in that direction. Then—without overthinking it—start taking those actions. A few things to keep in mind as you start: 1. Do not reduce your goals as you write them. 2. Do not get lost in the details of how to accomplish them at this point. 3. Ask yourself, “What actions can I take today to move me toward these goals?” 4. Take whatever actions you come up with—regardless of what they are or how you feel. 5. Do not prematurely value the outcome of your actions. 6. Go back each day and review the list.

As I've mentioned previously, you want to be aware of friends and family who offer supposed “advice” because they love and care about you. Many of them may suggest that they don't want you to be “unrealistic” and then disappointed. The vocabulary and mind-set of average people, even those you love, is always the same—be careful, play it safe, don't be impractical, success isn't everything, be satisfied with what you have, life is to be lived, money won't make you happy, don't want so much, take it easy, you don't have experience, you're too young, you're too old—and on and on. When you hear what average people say and think, thank them for their advice. Then remind them that you want their support in going for it, and let them know that you would rather commit to your dreams and goals and be disappointed than never commit and be disappointed.

little trick I used was to ask myself quality questions like “What do I have to do to become the name people think of when it comes to the topic of sales?” I immediately began writing down answers and ideas: (a) Get 6 billion people to know who I am. (b) Get a TV show. (c) Get a radio show. (d) Get my books into every book store and library. (e) Get on all the major talk shows and news shows. (f) Make If You're Not First, You're Last a New York Times best-seller. (g) Make a major push using social media to have people around the world become acquainted with my name. Again, I didn't know how to do any of this at this point—nor did I want to figure it out during these early steps. I know I would only become derailed by the “how tos” and the “cannots,” and I just wanted to focus on hitting my target.

They take risks while others conserve. So rather than cut my staff or cut our expansion, I eliminated my own salary—and took the money I normally paid myself and used it to fund 10X. Even as I was challenged like never before on every front imaginable, I did everything I could just to keep the target in focus. It wasn't easy, and there was no guaranteed outcome, but I did everything I could to remind myself that we could make it happen. The more committed I became, the more challenges I faced. I almost felt as though the universe was just trying to see how strong I was and whether I could stick to it. My PR firms would get me one measly interview in three months, the banks were asking for more and more money, and my income had been cut off (by me, of course—but it still hurt!). The only thing I had going for me was my marriage, a new baby coming into the world, and my fierce belief in my capacity to persist and work. I was in love with my 10X goal. I knew it wasn't just good for me but that the world needed to know a new way of doing things. To me, it wasn't just an issue of personal success; it was about being on a mission to help. The entire world was suffering economically. I felt that my goal was substantial enough to move the bar in a big way—and not just for me. I felt that the risk of expansion was worth more than the money or the energy I was expending. The goal has to be more valuable than the risk—or you have determined the wrong target.