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

by Grant Cardone

It takes the same amount of energy to have a great marriage as it does an average one, just as it takes the same amount of energy and effort to make $10 million as it does $10,000.

It isn't a matter of education, talent, connections, personality, lucky breaks, money, technology, being in the right industry, or even being in the right place at the right time.

Another component that's required for success is the ability to estimate the right amount of effort necessary for you—and your team—to achieve a goal.

Everyone knows how important it is to set goals; however, most people fail to do so because they underestimate the amount of action necessary to accomplish that goal.

I have approached all my business enterprises with massive action; that has been the single biggest determining factor in any success I have created.

You cannot get to the next phase of a project without a grander mind-set, more acceleration, and extra horsepower.

Success is the degree or measure of attaining some desired object or end.

An interesting thing about success is that it's like a breath of air; although your last breath of air is important, it's not nearly as important as the next one.

a marriage cannot maintain itself off the love felt on the wedding day.

people who are highly successful—in both their professional and personal lives—continue to work and produce and create even after they've flourished.

Extremely successful people know that their efforts must continue in order for them to realize new achievements. Once the hunt for a desired object or goal is abandoned, the cycle of success comes to an end.

Regardless of the goal you are striving to accomplish, you will be required to think differently, embrace a die-hard level of commitment, and take massive amounts of action at 10 times the levels you think necessary—followed by more actions.

Limiting the amount of success you desire is a violation of the 10X Rule in and of itself.

When people start limiting the amount of success they desire, I assure you they will limit what will be required of them in order to achieve success and will fail miserably at doing what it takes to keep it.

This is the focus of the 10X Rule: 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.

What this comes out to is doing 100x the work compared to what you originally thought. For example: if you want to be a real estate investor and you have a goal of owning 10 properties, and you think it'll take 10 offers for you to buy a profitable property. To 10x the goal, you change from 10 properties, to 100 properties. To 10x the work means it'll take 100 offers to buy a sufficiently profitable property. You go from 10 properties and 10 offers per property (100 offers total), to 100 properties and 100 offers per property (10,000 offers).

The 10X Rule is about pure domination mentality.

You must be willing to do what they won't do—and even take actions that you might deem “unreasonable.”

This domination mentality is not about controlling others; rather, it's about being a model for o...

Those who fell victim to this situation were mistargeting, underestimating necessary amounts of actions, and concentrating too intensely on being competitive rather than creating a situation that would make them invincible to unexpected setbacks.

People were operating with a herd mentality—one based on competition instead of domination—during the housing boom. They thought in terms of “I have to do what my colleague/neighbor/family member is doing” instead of “I have to do what's best for me.”

When people don't set 10X goals—and therefore fail to operate at 10X levels—they become susceptible to “get-rich-quick” phenomena and unplanned changes in the marketplace.

Success, then, is an accumulation of events turning out well or desired outcomes being achieved.

A person who limits his or her potential success will limit what he or she will do to create it and keep it.

It's also vital to keep in mind that the subject of acquirement—in other words, the goal or target—doesn't matter as much as the mind-set and actions that are mandatory to accomplish 10X goals.

As long as you are alive, you will either live to accomplish your own goals and dreams or be used as a resource to accomplish someone else's.

When you miscalculate the efforts you need to make something happen, you become visibly disappointed and discouraged.

sends the wrong message to the organization—that targets are unimportant and the only way to win is to move the finish line.

Never reduce a target. Instead, increase actions.

When you start rethinking your targets, making up excuses, and letting yourself off the hook, you are giving up on your dreams!

The 10X Rule assumes the target is never the problem. Any target attacked with the right actions in the right amounts with persistence is attainable.

success does not merely “happen.” It is the result of relentless, proper actions taken over time. Only those who operate with the appropriate view and corresponding actions will have success.

The more actions you take, the better your chances are of getting “lucky.”

1. Success is important. 2. Success is your duty. 3. There is no shortage of success.

I literally began to see success as an ethical issue—a duty to my family, company, and future—rather than as something that may or may not happen to me.

I realized that greater quantities of success are necessary than most people calculate, and the continued pursuit of success should be approached not as a choice but as an absolute must.

Treating success as an option is one of the major reasons why more people don't create it for themselves

If you don't consider it your duty to live up to your potential, then you simply won't.

People don't approach the creation of success as a must-have obligation, do-or-die mission, gotta-have-it, “hungry-dog-on-the-back-of-a-meat-truck” mentality.

Even the most fortunate and well-connected people among us must do something to put themselves in the right places at the right times in front of the right people.

The reason why successful people seem lucky is because success naturally allows for more success.

People create magical momentum by reaching their goals, which compels them to set—and eventually reach—even loftier goals.

Unless you are privy to the action, you don't see or hear about the number of times the successful went for it and failed; after all, the world p...

Don't be confused by what looks like luck to you. Lucky people don't make successful people; people who completely commit themselves to success seem to get lucky in life. Someone once said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

If you are able to repeatedly attain success, it becomes less of a “success” and more of a habit—almost everyday life for some people.

Because successful individuals approach success as a duty, obligation, and responsibility—and even a right!

Success always comes as a result of earlier actions—no matter how seemingly insignificant they are or how long ago they were taken.

Success comes about as a result of mental and spiritual claims to own it, followed by taking necessary actions over time until it is acquired.

You must constantly demand success as your duty, obligation, and responsibility.

Success must be approached from an ethical viewpoint. Success is your duty, obligation, and responsibility!

The way you view success is just as important as how you approach success.