This book was excellent!! I was so excited to start writing a book review for ya’ll before I even finished the book. This book is called The 10x Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure. This audiobook was 7hr 30 min long, and it captured my interest the WHOLE time, and left me wanting more from this author Grant Cardone. I continue to watch his videos on his YouTube channel.
What is the 10X Rule?
The 10X Rule is about taking massive action (10X action) in order to achieve success in life, business, any area of your life. Grant says that if you want to achieve a certain goal, it’s going to take 10X the amount of effort AND time that you think it will take.
He says that oftentimes, people underestimate how long or how much effort it’ll take to finish something. So then when they put forth a little effort and don’t get the results they were hoping for, they give up. But he says, DO NOT GIVE UP. And keep funneling in massive energy and time towards it (and money if you have it). Because you have to commit and invest in something, in order for it to happen. You can’t just invest pennies and be cautious with small risks and expect a big return.
Who Is He?
Grant Cardone has built a sales training empire and a huge real estate portfolio – he’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars. His wife Elena Cardone is his business partner, and she describes him as a beast. At first, I didn’t know much about him, but after going through this book, wow Grant Cardone is a beast. He has this fire within and intense focus and ability to go after what he wants, no matter who or what is standing in his way. The way he reads this audiobook is with the same fervor he attacks life – he is very passionate and has a very urgent tone of voice that convinces you to act now. I actually listened to the audiobook when I was running on the treadmill and it really motivated me to push harder on the treadmill, haha!
Four Types of People
He talks about how there are 4 different types of people when it comes to taking action.
- People who don’t act, and won’t be convinced to act. They like making excuses.
- People who retreat and do what’s safe, perhaps because they tried it before and they saw that it didn’t work out.
- People who do an average amount of action and convince themselves they’re doing enough.
- People who take 10X massive action and are very successful in what they set out to do.
He says that the biggest trap is the third group of people – people who do normal amounts of action and convince themselves they’re doing enough. They’re in denial basically. But they haven’t created enough momentum. They haven’t committed enough. They haven’t gone all in. They’re still stoppable if some big obstacle happens, or they don’t act with the urgency they need and opportunities slip away.
Count Results, Not Effort
He says don’t pat yourself on the back for trying or for putting forward some effort. He says to focus on the result. For example, he says if you called someone 40 times and still haven’t closed the deal, it’s basically as if you didn’t call at all – in terms of results. So he emphasizes results. Sure, there are other benefits to growing and learning from putting forth effort, but he says that you need to push yourself to get the result you want.
10X Goals
The 10X rule is about putting forth 10X effort AND also having 10X goals and dreams. He pushes you to think bigger than your wildest dreams. He doesn’t want you to dumb down your dreams to make them more reasonable / achievable. He wants you to 10X your biggest dreams. Now that was a way of thinking that I haven’t been pushed to do in a long time! Isn’t it weird that we live in a world where we’re not challenged to think of the biggest, wildest possibilities for ourselves? Instead we’re encouraged to think small? Hmm that’s not cool.
His Own TV Show
Grant gives an example of how he wanted to have his own TV show. But he started with no connections in the TV industry. He details the steps that he took to get his foot in the door and land his TV show. It wasn’t like the opportunity just came to him and fell in his lap. This guy had to HUSTLE and show up at people’s offices to ask for appointments and had to invest his time and money to move things forward (even fly out for trips without a guaranteed meeting). He had to take a gamble on things hoping for the chance that it may work out. He didn’t wait for the TV networks to move forward with his show, he convinced the guys in charge that he was the one for the job and moved the timeline forward. I was amazed at his story because it took guts and such a strong belief in himself to practically create space for himself in this industry.
The Early Days
Grant also talks about his early days when he had nothing and was starting off. He was 25 and had just gotten out of a drug rehab program. He had gotten fired from a bunch of jobs, and got his start by cold calling and knocking on doors to gain customers. None of these people knew him and he kept showing up and calling them – even at nighttime and even on weekends. People started to be impressed with how persistent and how hardworking he was. And he built up his businesses from there. He still does things like that – picking up the phone and calling. So you can’t say that Grant inherited lots of privilege and that’s why he was successful. This guy literally built it all up from scratch and a lot of hard work.
The basic gist is that whatever is too much trouble for other people, he’s willing to do that and go above and beyond for his clients and for his business. He doesn’t shy away from hard work. He knows that taking incredible amounts of action is the only way to move towards your goal.
Obscurity
Another interesting point he made was that a new entrepreneur’s biggest challenge is obscurity. Just not being known by enough people. That’s why marketing is so important. Potential customers can’t buy from you if they don’t know who you are or what you’re offering!
In those early days, he didn’t have any money to spend on advertising, so he had to keep making phone calls and going to people’s offices to become known. Now he uses social media, his YouTube channel, talks, books, partnerships and more to broaden his network.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I thought this was a really good book to light some fire under me to get me to take more action. And it really depends what you need in your life right now. If you want someone who will soothe you and encourage you and tell you that you are enough as you are, then I would check out other authors / resources like Louise Hay. If you want someone who is more blunt and will tell you to start hauling a** and work harder, then Grant Cardone may be your guy. There’s a time and place for both types of methods to motivate yourself. 🙂
One Word on Massive Action
I leave you with one more thought from Grant. He said something interesting about the 3 types of people listed above who aren’t really taking much action: If you look more closely at their life, they are probably taking massive action on some other area of their life – maybe video games, or shopping, or a TV show, or some other area of their life. I can vouch for this theory. In the past, if I wasn’t taking massive action in my business, I was probably obsessing over something else that wasn’t important. Or just being extremely distracted by it and sinking a lot of time into it. SO if you’re going to take massive action on something in your life anyways, make it be on the thing that will make the most difference in your life. Make it count!!
If you’re ready to 10X your life, here’s the book. The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure.
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Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.
