10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less

by Dan Sullivan

In psychology, there’s an increasingly crucial concept, psychological flexibility, which is defined as the ability to respond to obstacles successfully and in a way that is congruent with personal standards.6 Essentially, psychological flexibility is moving toward chosen goals even when it’s emotionally difficult. You acknowledge and accept your emotions, but they don’t control you.

Going 10x means you’re living based on the most intrinsic and exciting future you can imagine. That 10x future becomes your filter for everything you do, and most of your current life can’t make it through that 10x filter. What got you here won’t get you there. To quote the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, “Every next level of your life will require a different you.”

History’s greatest artists and entrepreneurs understand the difference between 10x and 2x thinking. You might be thinking: What about people who don’t ever make a 10x leap? Most people reach for just a little bit more—a promotion, a little more money, a new personal record. Going for incremental progress is a 2x mindset, which at a fundamental level means you’re continuing or maintaining what you’re already doing. You’re letting the past dictate what you do and how you do it. 2x is linear, meaning you’re striving to double output by doubling effort. Do more of the same, just faster and harder. 2x is exhausting and soul-defeating. It’s extremely difficult to put the pedal to the metal and grind away for inches of progress. By contrast, 10x is so big and seemingly impossible that it immediately forces you out of your current mindset and approach. You can’t work 10x harder or longer. Brute force and linear methods won’t get you to 10x.

10x isn’t about more. It’s about less. Michelangelo understood this clearly. When the Pope asked about the secret of his genius, particularly in regard to the statue of David, Michelangelo explained, “It’s simple. I just remove everything that is not David.”

Going 10x is the simplification of your focus down to the core essential. Then you remove everything else.

10x becomes your perceptual filter for everything you do. Everything becomes either 10x or 2x. Anything that’s not 10x doesn’t meet the filter and gets released from your attention. According to constraint theory, the greatest human bottleneck is attention. Our attention is our most finite resource, even more finite and valuable than our time. Indeed, the quality and depth of our attention determines the quality of our time. Most people’s attention is scattered, tugged, and seemingly never right here and right now. Going 10x means your attention is directly on far less, but it’s insanely more potent and impactful because it’s focused rather than spread thin.

Finally, 10x is not about any specific outcome. It’s about the process. 10x is a capability. It’s an operating system you deploy for: Dramatically expanding your vision and standards Simplifying your strategy and focus Identifying and removing non-essentials Developing mastery in unique areas Leading and empowering others who excitedly share your vision

Committing to 10x and transforming yourself frees you. There are two levels of freedom—surface-level freedom and higher-level freedom. Surface-level freedom is external and more measurable. This is “freedom from”—where you’re freed from ignorance, poverty, and slavery. But there is a more abundant kind of freedom that is internal and qualitative. This is “freedom to”—which is where you take full ownership over your life.16

Expanding your freedom is the ultimate purpose of the entrepreneur’s journey, and there really is no end to how much freedom you can have or create.

“The road to hell is paved with the pursuit of volume. Volume leads to marginal products, marginal customers, and greatly increased managerial complexity . . . Hard work leads to low returns. Insight and doing what we want leads to high returns . . . Strive for excellence in few things, rather than good performance in many . . . It is not shortage of time that should worry us, but the tendency for the majority of time to be spent in low-quality ways . . . The 80/20 principle says that if we doubled our time on the top 20 percent of activities, we could work a two-day week and achieve 60 percent more than now.” — RICHARD KOCH1

Seemingly impossible or massive goals are highly practical because they immediately separate what works from what won’t, illuminating the few paths that have the greatest efficacy.

“The only way to make your present better,” said Dan Sullivan, “is by making your future bigger.”

There are many paths to 2x or linear progress, which is one reason it’s ineffective and overly complex to go 2x. There are few paths leading to 10x, making the goal simple and highly effective. Again, almost nothing will work for 10x, which is why it’s so useful.

The higher and more specific your goals and standards become, the fewer options you have—which counterintuitively, actually makes them easier to achieve. Bigger and more specific goals immediately axe almost everything you’re now doing, making all sorts of space for exploring and scanning much better options.

Without a clear goal, you can’t define the 20 percent that will effectively get you there and the 80 percent that’s taking you some other direction. Even still, when a goal isn’t much different from your current position, then you won’t need to change much to get there. Thus, you won’t need to separate the 80 from the 20, because when the destination or transformation is minor, then very little needs to change about what you’re now doing. This makes it difficult to pin-point where to focus your efforts and change and also stops you from identifying the 80 percent you’re still maintaining that isn’t serving you.

Small goals don’t require 80/20 thinking, because small goals don’t require much adjustment from your current approach. Thus, the second requirement for separating the 20 percent that matters and the 80 that’s taking you some other way is setting much bigger goals.

2x is working in the business. 10x is working on yourself and working on the business.

10x is qualitative, not quantitative—it’s about different and better, not more. The more different and better you are for a highly specific type of person, the more asymmetric the upside in everything you do.

Research shows that in order to activate a flow and high-performance state, a given task requires three things: 1) clear and specific goals, 2) immediate feedback, and 3) the challenge is above and outside the current skill-level.

10x simplifies. 2x keeps things complex and muddled. When you make 10x your target, 80 percent of your current clients and relationships become impediments. Also, 80 percent of your current activities, habits, and mindsets become impediments.

Letting go of the 80 percent isn’t easy, because the 80 percent is your comfort zone. To go 2x, you can keep 80 percent of your comfort zone. You only need to make minor and subtle tip-toe adjustments along the way to go 2x. Letting go of the 80 percent may feel as extreme as literally killing something you love. As Jim Collins put it in Good to Great: “Good is the enemy of great . . . The good-to-great companies did not focus principally on what to do to become great; they focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing. . . If you have a cancer in your arm, you’ve got to have the guts to cut off your arm.”16

“A 2x goal would involve doing the same things you’re doing now, only more of them. But a 10x goal jumps you out of that, beyond that. 10x requires operating in an entirely different way that bypasses the stresses and complications of a 2x goal.” — DAN SULLIVAN17

Necessity is the mother of invention. The needed supply always follows psychological demand—when the “why” is strong enough, you’ll find the “how.” Dan Sullivan regularly says, “Nothing happens until after you commit.”

A core aspect of hope is pathways thinking,23 meaning highly hopeful people continually adjust their pathway until they ultimately find and create a way to their goal, even in the direst of circumstances.24

When you’re 2x, you don’t want to rock the boat. You don’t want to face hard truths in the mirror. You’re committed to your 80 percent, which is your comfort zone, culture, and habitual way of operating.

Chapter Takeaways Seemingly impossible goals are more practical than possible goals because impossible goals force you outside your current level of knowledge and assumptions. Very few pathways create 10x. With genuine reflection, a 10x target spotlights the few pathways—the high-leverage strategies and relationships—with extreme upside. 10x goals enable you to clearly identity the 20 percent of things and people in your life that are producing most of your results, and the 80 percent of things and people in your life that are holding you back. Going for 2x growth means you can keep 80 percent of your existing clients, roles, behaviors, and mindsets. Only minor tweaks are needed. Going for 10x growth means you must eliminate 80 percent of your existing clients, roles, behaviors, and mindsets. 10x requires a full-scale transformation of yourself as well as everyone and everything around you. 2x is linear—to continue growing requires more effort. It’s working harder, not smarter. It’s quantitatively focused—you’re just doing more of what you’re now doing without respect to quality, uniqueness, or transformation. 10x is non-linear—enormous growth does not require more effort, but often requires less, but better. It’s qualitatively focused—you’ve elevated your vision and focus such that you’re now transforming the value and impact of what you do for increasingly specific people. Every time you make a 10x jump, you do so by letting go of your current 80 percent and going deeper...

To quote the 10x thinker, Greg McKeown, “An Essentialist produces more—brings forth more—by removing more instead of doing more.”2

To go 10x, you simplify your focus by continually letting go of everything that doesn’t meet your 10x filter. Each time you go 10x, the filter gets finer and finer, letting less pass through.

Anytime someone wants you to remain as you are, they do so for their own self-preservation. Your evolution threatens their current security, and they want that security more than the freedom that you seek. It’s plain uncomfortable at first. This is one of the most common reasons people and entrepreneurs don’t go 10x. They know it will make those around them feel uncomfortable for a time. To avoid this discomfort in themselves and those closest to them, people opt for 2x, not 10x.

Your identity is fundamentally two things: it’s 1) the story or narrative you have for yourself, and it’s 2) the standards or commitments you hold for yourself.3 The scientific definition of identity is “a well-organized conception of the self, consisting of values and beliefs to which the individual is solidly committed.”4 Put simply, your identity as a person is what you’re most committed to. It’s the story about yourself you’re committed to, and it’s the personal standards you’re most committed to.

A standard is a level of quality and norm you set for yourself. When something is truly a standard, it’s a commitment. You rarely if ever go outside or below your floor or minimum standard; otherwise it wouldn’t be a standard.

When you begin thinking in terms of quality over quantity, you funnel your energy better. You stop burning yourself out pumping out more and more, or doing a million different jobs as a rugged individualist. Instead, you focus on your 20 percent and get really, really good at what you do. You build a team around you to handle what would have been your 80 percent. However, for your team members, their role is not their 80 percent, since you’re hiring pros who love doing the other aspects of the work, whether that be logistics, editing, etc.

To get 10x better, you continually elevate the vision and standards of what you do. You commit to your 20 percent, hyper focusing on quality over quantity. You let go of the 80 percent, knowing that effort alone is not what produces exponential results.

To reach the level of quality that produces exponential results, you need to think exponentially bigger and different. You’ve got to have a vision and standards big enough, and specific enough, that the quality you’re creating is funneled toward that.

It’s not effort that matters, but where that effort is directed. Whatever you focus on and commit to, you become the master of.

Everything we do as people is driven by our goals or standards.31,32,33 You become whatever you’re striving for. Your goal shapes your process. Your goal also shapes your personal development and evolution.

despite the fact that all people are driven by their goals, and that we all form a level of proficiency in whatever we focus on, the counterintuitive truth is that massive ambitions are easier than average goals. In other words, 10x is easier than 2x.

“When 10x is your measuring stick, you immediately see how you can bypass what everyone else is doing.”

Furthermore, the 10x thinker is solving a far more nuanced and niched problem. Rather than thinking broadly, they are thinking deeply and narrowly. They’re deep in their 20 percent and have freed themselves of the cognitive load of the 80 percent. They aren’t trying to do 100 things decently. They’re trying to do one thing at a level that’s never been seen before.

“In a world that relentlessly races to the bottom, you lose if you also race to the bottom. The only way to win is to race to the top. . . . The only way to be indispensable is to be different. . . . Expertise gives you enough insight to reinvent what everyone else assumes is the truth. . . . You can train yourself to matter. . . . You are not your résumé. You are your work.” — SETH GODIN35

10x requires letting go of increasing distractions. Every time you go 10x, you become more focused and less broad. You have higher ambitions with greater and deeper scope, requiring more and better of your attention. To make something 10x better involves deep, deep work. Innovation occurs as you break everything down and put it back together in a simpler, easier, and better form.

In order to become the best, you must embrace the art of quitting. Those who become the best don’t hold on to any 80 percent activity or identity for too long.

It’s scary letting go of the 80 percent because the 80 percent is your comfort zone. It’s your security blanket. It’s what you’ve already mastered and can basically do on autopilot. It’s your paycheck. It’s your identity and how you’re known. It’s your story and your habits.

You can’t be great if you’re content being good.

The rewards for higher and unique quality aren’t linear, but exponential. 10x is easier than 2x. 10x is qualitative and takes you down a totally non-linear pathway of mastery and freedom. To go 10x requires committing fully to the 20 percent you most resonate with and eliminate everything that can’t or won’t go 10x with you. You quit everything that can’t go 10x from here, even if that means eliminating the best of what got you here.

Chapter Takeaways Going 10x involves the continuous process of increasing the quality and decreasing the quantity of everything you do. How you do anything is how you do everything. Shedding your 2x-identity can be difficult, because as people we have the tendency to avoid loss, overvalue what we currently own, and desire to be seen as consistent. Your identity is the story you believe about yourself and the standards you hold for yourself. Defining and choosing your own minimum standards, no matter how seemingly impossible to yourself and others, is fundamental to experiencing a 10x transformation. Evolving yourself to the level of a higher minimum standard requires commitment and courage, which eventually leads to the development of new capabilities and confidence (Dan’s 4C’s formula). Jimmy Donaldson’s three ingredients to his 10x process are: 1) thinking exponentially and non-linearly bigger, 2) hyper-focusing on quality over quantity, and 3) building a team to handle the 80 percent so you can focus and improve in your craft. 10x goals are easier than 2x goals for many reasons. 10x goals are less competitive. 10x goals require you to focus on very few things rather than many, which improves your brain’s ability to focus—research shows that continual task switching makes flow and high performance basically impossible.50,51 10x goals promote non-linear approaches which produce novel, innovative, and competition-free solutions. Finally, 10x goals foster leadership and tea...

“The world is divided into two types of people: those who are ‘needers’ and those who are ‘wanters.’ Needers compete for scarce resources and opportunities, while wanters are involved in the continual expansion of cooperation among abundance-minded individuals.” — DAN SULLIVAN1

Wanting and needing are two completely different things. Entrepreneurs who operate out of need won’t accomplish 10x goals because no one needs to reach them. You can survive just fine living a 2x lifestyle. Rather, 10x achievements are highly personal—they are goals you intrinsically want to reach.

want” is that you absolutely do not need to justify your desires to anyone. There is no justification of wants. If someone asks why you want something, you don’t need to explain yourself. You simply want it because you want it. That’s why. Having a purely wanting approach to life is unthinkable and even incomprehensible for most people because culture and society program people—in school and as employees—to chase a certain set of needs, especially money, as an end in itself. The things we seek are seen as limited and scarce resources which we shouldn’t want an abundance of, because if we got more than we “should,” then someone else would be left without.

Money alone is not worth chasing—and if money is all you’re after, you will struggle building wealth—which is valuable assets, skills, and creations. When you view money as wealth, then it can be easy to fall for what Graham calls “The Pie Fallacy,” which is believing there is a finite amount of wealth available at any one time, and if one person has a lot of the wealth then that takes away from someone else. However, when you realize that wealth and money are not the same thing, and that wealth is actually created, then you realize there is no finite pie. Money is an abstraction, it’s a finite game. Wealth is reality, it’s an infinite game. There’s no scarcity of wealth. Wealth is the byproduct of choosing freedom, and you can create as much wealth as you want.