10 Lessons I Learned From 'The 10X Rule'

I’ve read hundreds of personal development and business books, but there are few that I can actually say changed my life in a major way.

The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone was one of them.

This book was so monumental to me in fact, that I’ve now read through it 6 times. It has been a staple of helping me get back on track during crossroads periods of my life, and I’ve gifted at least 10 copies to others as well.

Therefore, this book was too impactful for me not to write a post about it.

In this article, I’m going to share 10 of the key lessons that The 10X Rule teaches. While it’s no replacement for reading the book, I’m honored to be able to introduce some of these lifechanging concepts to you.

1. Set 10X Bigger Goals

This is the main premise of the book, and certainly one of the most important concepts that it teaches.

Grant believes that much of the reason people don’t stick with their goals and see them through to success, is because the payoff is too small.

Small goals aren’t exciting enough to keep you motivated.

Rather, if you were to set enormous goals that would forever change your life and the lives of your family, it actually becomes easier to stick with them despite the fact that they may initially seem further out of reach.

Additionally, it is better to set massive goals and fall a bit short, than to set average goals and achieve them.

Think about it – would you rather set a goal to make $50,000 a year and hit it, or set a goal to make $500,000 a year, structure your life in pursuit of that, and up netting 300k?

2. Take 10x The Action

Following up on the previous point, Grant suggests that in order to achieve 10X goals, you must also follow that up with 10X the action.

This doesn’t necessarily mean 10x the work hours, but that you are structuring your life so the work you are partaking in has 10x the impact.

Most people are not very intentional with their time. They hope opportunities will just fall into their lap, and don’t really do much with them when they show up.

Grant points out how children are prime examples of this sort of behavior. When a child wants something, they can become almost obsessive in pursuit of achieving it – to the point of throwing temper tantrums and risking getting in trouble if things don’t end up going their way.

While this compulsive, obsessive behavior is often short-lived, in those few moments you can witness a child who is ‘all-in’ in pursuit of their goal.

Grant suggests defining exactly what you want in all areas of your life (finances, family, religion, etc.), then focusing everything in pursuit of it – making structural changes to your life when necessary.

3. You Have A Moral Obligation To Succeed

Grant teaches that doing anything less than your full potential, is selfish behavior.

If you have the ability to better yourself in life, you have a moral obligation to do so – it is actually unethical not to pursue success and realize your full potential.

Some people have a hard time pursuing success for themselves. To a degree, I was this way myself. Until I took on a parental role, I did not have the motivation or the drive to really become the best version of myself.

As you think about your own growth as a person, it’s important to keep in mind who else it benefits in the process.

It should come as no surprise that your family benefits from you becoming a more driven, organized, wealthier, wise, happier person. But what about your friends? Isn’t having a more successful friend beneficial to them as well? Couldn’t you help lift them up too?

What about your community, who will be funded through all the additional tax dollars you pay as you make more money? What about the causes you care about, that you’ll be able to donate more money to? Or all the people you’ll mentor in the future?

Sometimes, keeping this in mind can help be the driver you need to keep pushing on. If you won’t pursue success for your own benefit, think about how it will help others.

4. Average Isn’t Good Enough

Here’s a sad reality – the average household is struggling. And if you look around, it’s clear to see that average is a failing formula.

When you think of ‘average’, you may picture the traditional nuclear family. A wife, a husband, 2 kids, a house in the suburbs, a car or two. This lifestyle seems stable, but it is still bound by plenty of stress.

Average appears to work until problems arise.

Average puts you in a position of dependency. You think you’re fine, until the economy collapses and you’re laid off from your job. Or someone you love has a medical emergency, and ends up owing $100,000 in medical debt.

Average actions put you in a position to live an average lifestyle, where you are prone to all the same problems that average people face.

Nobody celebrates being average and nobody rewards it either.

This is why the majority of people are underpaid, and the truly exceptional people at their craft are massively overpaid.

The marketplace rewards those who become the exception – not those who blend in with everybody else.

5. Become Omnipresent In The Market

This one is more a business principal than a personal development one, but it is one of my favorites from the book.

Grant points out examples of several prominent companies – Starbucks, Walmart, Coca-Cola, etc.

You know these companies. You know their logos, you know what they sell, you may even be familiar with some of their core values.

These companies have become so ingrained in our society that they are impossible for anybody to ignore. If you go out into the world, you’re bound to run into them whether you are trying to or not.

In business and even in your career, awareness is like a form of currency. People only have so much attention and awareness that they can give in any single day.

The average American is exposed to over 5,000 ads per day. Yet how many of those do you actually remember?

Omnipresence is a very powerful concept and if you can achieve it, you grant yourself an enormous amount of power.

6. Say Yes To Every Opportunity To Further Your Goals

How many times have you turned down something, simply because it made you uncomfortable?

Sure, you may have had some excuse that felt legitimate at the time, but this is something that most of us do far too often (myself as well, admittedly.)

This isn’t always something as drastic as a career leap or a major life change.

Let’s say for example, you wanted to make more friends with other parents. As adults, we know that making new friends can be challenging.

Yet, often the same people that are upset about having few friends, don’t take the opportunity to actually go out and meet other parents – even when it is presented to them.

They may fail to show up to the event at all, or even if they go, spend the entire time on their phone instead of striking up conversation.

Taking advantage of opportunities is difficult, uncomfortable, and hard to start. Yet it is a habit that can radically change your life if you can be bold enough to adopt it.

7. See Problems As Opportunities

Following up on the last point, Grant also teaches that you should train yourself to see problems not as setbacks that hurt your life, but as opportunities to grow and further your goals.

While this is obviously applicable to career and finance, I believe it is just as applicable in smaller situations as well.

For example, say your child is invited to a birthday party and you know other parents will be there. Your child wants you to go.

This may feel like a good time to catch up on other things, and the thought of being there isn’t exactly the most exciting anyway. Going would feel like an inconvenience, right?

Yet what if you instead saw this as a huge opportunity? Think about it.

You could…

  1. Go out and meet other parents if you’re actually intentional about building connections.
  2. Learn more about your child’s peers and who is influencing them.
  3. Develop new memories and stories to share.
  4. Practice some of the personal development concepts I’ve shared on this site so far.

In the long-term, wouldn’t this be more valuable?

Really, what you’re training yourself to do is to look for the good in things. What may seem difficult, uncomfortable or inconvenient now actually may be exactly what you need to grow as a person, and move closer to achieving your goals.

8. Define And Review Your Goals Regularly

Speaking of being intentional, it’s important to always know exactly what you’re working towards at all times.

Grant suggests making a detailed list of all of your goals, and reviewing them regularly.

Make sure they are goals that are big enough to stick to, but don’t be afraid to change them as time goes on.

The important thing is that you have a complete list of what your perfect life would look like, and that you’re very specific about it. Your goals should span all sorts of categories – they shouldn’t all be financial goals, for example.

Your list of goals can then act as a filter in which you use to base decisions. Either something aligns with at least one of your goals, or it doesn’t.

9. Focus On Results, Not Effort

Obviously when it comes to raising children, we certainly want to take every opportunity we can to praise the amount of effort they put into a task.

Yet as adults, successful people don’t think this way.

Give yourself credit for trying hard and try to take all the lessons from it that you can, but don’t think that you’ve won just because you’ve put in a lot of effort.

If you’ve failed to achieve your goals, it’s your job to pivot and change your strategy, than give it all you can a second, third, fourth time until you finally succeed with it.

In the marketplace, people only care about the final result. In business and in life, there are no participation trophies.

10. Don’t Lower Your Targets, Increase The Action

This one is important.

When you end up falling short – especially when you’ve tried really hard on something, the natural thing to do is to lower the target.

Your mind will twist all sorts of ways trying to convince you that the original goal wasn’t actually necessary – that you can lower it a bit and still be satisfied.

This is a trap. Never lower the target to justify your lack of results. Always look at how you can adjust the levels of action you’re taking – or restructure your actions so they’re more impactful instead.

Conclusion

There’s one final point that the book makes, that I think is a good way to end this.

You are solely responsible for your success. Whether you succeed or not can’t be blamed on other people – not your family, your friends, the government, the economy, your boss, etc.

It is your responsibility to put these principals into action and use them to fuel your own success in life. Nobody else can do it for you, and those who are willing to do whatever it takes – regardless of any unfair circumstances or setbacks, will ultimately be the ones that end up ‘having it all’ in the end.

I highly recommend reading through this book if any of these points resonated with you. As mentioned in the beginning, this is not meant to be a substitution for the actual book, and you’re bound to gain a lot more from actually going through it.

The 10X Rule is also available on Audible if you’d prefer to listen through instead, which is something I actually prefer.

Finally, I’m curious to hear which one of these points resonated with you the most. Please share your thoughts through the comments form below!

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