Be Obsessed or Be Average

by Grant Cardone

I am never moderate or conservative when selling, marketing, or branding. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

Underpromising is a form of deception. You’re not even going to get the business by doing that—and it causes the quality of your offering and your service to suffer.

When I overpromise, I am obligated to overdeliver. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

Making giant claims that can be substantiated is not unethical. Having a great product and not properly pitching it is unethical.

In start-up or restructuring phases, you need to have an embellished image of yourself, your company, your people, your environment, your offer, and your value proposition.

I don’t have competition; I have imitators who don’t have the bandwidth, guts, resources, energy, persistence, or leadership to deliver at the levels I do. To do business with anyone other than me is a mistake of massive proportions.

If you don’t push for performance at higher levels, you will never know how great you can be. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

When you commit completely and have no other option than to deliver at that level, you will figure out how to get it done—regardless of how impossible it seems. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

Everything you’ve ever accomplished started with a “first time.” #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

You need to think and operate based on a goal of selling your product and generating income, not wait forever for every piece of your product to be perfect.

Those who commit to an investment are crazy enough to see a future that others cannot yet see. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

Your pitch can always be improved on, shortened, made to hit harder, to get more attention and be more effective.

If you don’t have clarity on what your value-add is, then no one will. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

The reality is if you can’t pitch what you do, who you are, and what you offer, no one will get obsessed with what you do and who you are, much less what you have to offer.

Get obsessed with exploiting every weakness of your competition. Use every possible advantage to separate yourself from the mass of average, where businesses are indistinguishable. Do whatever it takes, within legal parameters, within what is ethically and morally sound, to deliver in ways that exploit others’ weaknesses.

Get obsessed with exploiting every weakness of your competition. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

People don’t buy price: They buy the product, the solution, the people, and the company. Price is just a piece of the puzzle used to evaluate a product or service, and this is true with all your other value offers.

The ultimate value-add is you. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

Simply put: To be the best, you must surround yourself with the best.

You want people on your team who will do anything for you: jump off buildings, run through walls, and believe they can fly because of you. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

Great employees are vital to your survival. #BeObsessed

People don’t cost money; not growing your business costs money. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

If you don’t surround yourself with the best, if you don’t create a culture in your company that is as obsessed as you are with getting you where you want to go, you are not extending your power.

Do great things and those who want to do great things will find you and want to work with you. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

Your brand is your baby; guard against letting in any doubters who will contaminate it. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

What other qualities are important to you? I look for a few important things: willingness to do whatever it takes compliance with orders ability to see an order through without drama speed of movement willingness to die for the cause possession of a book of businesses (customers who need our product)

When you look at a candidate’s track record or listen to them during an interview, here are some revealing questions to ask yourself: Have they hit their targets repeatedly? Exceeded them, even? Are they involved with their families, community groups, and churches? Do they have reasons to do well in a job, like a family to take care of? Do they just want the job, without caring where they live? Have they won awards or received recognition for their work? Have they read a book recently? What was it about? Did they show up early, on time, or late? Did they do any due diligence on the company, the owner, the executive? Do they speak positively about their work experiences, or are they just negative about all past employers? Do they ask you what you want and need or take the time to show you what you are doing wrong?

Do you want to be around this person every day, giving them orders, working with them, and spending time with them?

Hire people who want to make money and make a difference—not just people who have bills to pay. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

You cannot and should not take care of other people’s financial problems.

The entrepreneurial employee will always focus on the opportunity, not just the money. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

Your job is not to take care of other people’s confusion; your job is to keep the confused out of your organization. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

I have to recruit constantly just to keep finding people who might fit in with my companies, and I have to keep recruiting so I can get rid of people I am not happy with. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

I know companies that brag about low turnover, but it takes courage to get rid of people who no longer belong. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

You need to be obsessed with finding unbelievable people, and you need to borrow, spend, and even steal from other businesses to get them. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

I don’t hire people to just do their jobs; I hire people to help

me grow my company. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

I pay a bonus when you get the company a bonus, the same way the world pays me. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

Here are some examples from the company culture I create and work to maintain: I demand order and expect that from others. I work hard and I expect that from others. I work fast and I expect that from others. I take time to invest in myself to become more competent and confident, and I expect that from others. I dress a certain way at work and I expect others to also dress for success.

If you want spectacular people, it starts with your being spectacular by example. You need to be great before they will. You have to be the obsessed in order to get them obsessed.

If you want spectacular people, it starts with you being spectacular. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

The only people who don’t like control are those who don’t have

control or who misused it in the past. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

I don’t care about the title; I just care about whether I have the power to determine, predict, and influence outcomes. #BeObsessed

Those who don’t like control are the ones with the problem. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

The norm is that people are satisfied with having “VP” put on their card—and then turn down true responsibility because they refuse to exercise control. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

When it comes down to it, control is not bad—being out of control or having no control is the issue.

You don’t have to be given responsibility or promoted to a leadership position to exert control. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone

As the old saying goes, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. In the cutthroat world we live in today, you can’t wait for the authorities to provide for your future.

I don’t need to be the smartest person in the room—I don’t even need to be right—but I do need to control. #BeObsessed @GrantCardone