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

by Grant Cardone

Average doesn't work in any area of life. Anything that you give only average amounts of attention to will start to subside and will eventually cease to exist.

When new ideas come together, they are influenced by the excitement and enthusiasm of those who generate them.

Average assumes—incorrectly, of course—that everything operates stably. People optimistically overestimate how well things will go and then underestimate how much energy and effort it will take just to push things through.

I believe that one of the major reasons why people don't stick to their goals and fail to accomplish them is because they fail to set them high enough from the beginning.

People's failure to think big enough usually means they will never act big enough, often enough, or persistently enough!

To maintain your enthusiasm, you have to make your goals substantial enough that they keep your attention. Average and realistic goals are almost always a letdown to the person setting them—who is then unable to fuel his or her goals with the actions necessary.

Average goal setting cannot and will not fuel massive 10X actions. If you approach an endeavor with average thinking, you will start to give up the moment you come up against any challenges, resistance, or less than optimal conditions—unless you have some big juicy purpose as your engine. To

Ask yourself whether the goals you have set are equal to your potential. Most people will admit that their goals are well below their potential—because most of the world has been convinced, persuaded, and even educated to set small, attainable, and realistic goals.

Realistic thinking is based on what others think is possible—but they are not you and have no way of knowing your potential and purposes. If you are going to set goals based on what others think, then be sure you do it based on what the giants on this planet think.

Many people find themselves on the path they're on simply because they're doing what other—average—people have done.

Most of us are influenced by the decisions our parents, teachers, and friends have made and then the limitations set by them and for us. I

(1) You are setting these for you—not for anyone else. (2) Anything is possible. (3) You have much more potential than you realize. (4) Success is your duty, obligation, and responsibility. (5) There is no shortage of success. (6) Regardless of the size of the goal, it will require work.

The 10X Rule is meant for the few people obsessed with creating an exceptional life—and who want to be in charge of that process.

Never play by the agreed-upon norms within which others operate. The rules, norms, and traditions of any group or industry are usually traps that prevent new ideas, higher levels of greatness, and domination.

Obsession is not a bad thing here; it is a requirement to get where you want to go. In fact, you want to be so fanatical about success that the world knows you will not compromise or go away. And until you become completely obsessed with your mission, no one will take you seriously.

obsession is like a fire; you want to build it so big that people feel compelled to sit around it in admiration.

Most people make only enough effort for it to feel like work, whereas the most successful follow up every action with an obsession to see it through to a reward.

Any individual or group that accomplished something significant was completely obsessed with the idea of it.

I suggest that you become obsessed about the things you want; otherwise, you are going to spend a lifetime being obsessed with making up excuses as to why you didn't get the life you wanted.

What if the world admired, expected, and even demanded that we all operate every single day with an obsessive focus on our goals? What if we punished the people who didn't act with passion and commitment and rewarded those who saw their projects through to the end?

Demand obsession of yourself and all those around you. Never make it wrong to be obsessed; instead, make it your goal. Obsession is what you will need to set 10X goals and to follow them up with 10X actions.

The most valuable chips you have are your mind-set, actions, persistence, and creativity. You can go “all in” with energy as many times as you want—because even if you fail, you can keep going all in!

there is no limit to how many times you can continue to take action. You can fail or succeed as many times as you want and then do it over and over again.

There are no shortages of how many times you can get up and continue! There is no failure unless you quit!

You'll never lose the ability to come up with new dreams, have more energy, think creatively, look at a situation or event differently, give someone another call, use another tactic, or act with persistence.

If a client comes to you or you get a chance to get in front of a client and talk about your product but never present a proposal, I assure you that you will not get the business 100 percent of the time.

What's the worst thing that can happen to you if you just totally go for it? You may lose the customer, but so what? You still have unlimited resources to give it your all with the next client.

Grand claims, overcommitment, and extreme promises will immediately separate you from the masses—and therefore force you to deliver at 10X levels.

Anyone who doesn't face new problems but who instead grapples with the same old problems his or her whole life isn't moving forward. Simply put: If you are not creating new problems for yourself, then you aren't taking enough action.

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.

Once you take 10X actions and start getting traction, you must continue to add wood to your fire until you either start a brushfire or a bonfire—or burn the place down. Don't rest, and don't stop—ever.

Fear isn't bad or something to avoid; conversely, it's something you want to seek and embrace. Fear is actually a sign that you are doing what's needed to move in the right direction.

An absence of concerns signals that you are only doing what's comfortable for you—and that will only get you more of what you have right now. As strange as it may sound, you want to be scared until you have to push yourself to new levels to experience fear again. In fact, the only thing that scares me is a complete lack of fear.

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.

Last-minute preparation is just another way to feed the fear that will only get stronger as time is added. Nothing happens without action.

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.

Everyone fears something in life; however, it's what we each do with that fear that distinguishes us from others. When you allow fear to set you back, you lose energy, momentum, and confidence—and your fears will only grow.

It does not take money or luck to create a great life; it requires the ability to move past your fears with speed and power. Fear, like fire, is not something from which you should pull away. Rather, it should be used to fuel the actions of your life.

To really understand, manage, maximize, and squeeze every opportunity out of the time you have, you have to fully understand and appreciate how much of it you have available to you. You must first take control of your time—not allow others to do so.

Wake up! No one is going to save you. No one is going to take care of your family or your retirement. No one is going to “make things” work out for you. The only way to do so is to utilize every moment of every day at 10X levels. This will ensure that you accomplish your goals and dreams.

Receiving criticism is a surefire sign that you are well on your way. Criticism is not something that you want to avoid; rather, it's what you must expect to come your way once you start hitting it big.

you can't “fly under the radar” for too long and expect to ever make it to the top. Laying low in order to avoid attention (and consequently, criticism) probably means that you're holding yourself back to some degree. Your fear of being attacked is keeping you from going for it completely.

The only way to handle criticism is to foresee it as an element of your success formula. Much like fear, it's a sign that you are making the right moves in the right volumes, getting enough attention, and making enough of a splash.

That is what lower performers do; they make others wrong for doing what is necessary in order to make themselves feel okay about doing nothing! The highest performers—the winners—respond by studying successful people and duplicating success.

From what I can tell, criticism precedes admiration and—like it or not—goes hand in hand with success. Keep pouring on the success, and sooner or later, the very same people who were putting you down will be admiring you for what you have done.

You have to get people to know you, which means that you have to get attention. The more attention you get, the more places you will be; the more people you are with, the more you can be everywhere. And all of this will improve your chances of using your good name to do good work.

The higher your purpose, the more fuel it will provide for your 10X actions. This is what it takes to rocket to omnipresence. People of fame and influence achieve this status because they are compelled to fulfill their purpose by writing books, doing interviews, blogging, writing articles, accepting speaking engagements, and saying yes constantly to get attention for themselves, their companies, and their projects.

Everyone uses excuses. Most people actually have favorites that they employ over and over.

Excuses are never the reason for why you did or didn't do something. They're just a revision of the facts that you make up in order to help yourself feel better about what happened (or didn't).

Making excuses won't change your situation; only getting to the real reason behind it can do this.