The Ten Times Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure

by Grant Cardone

  Once I quit calculating all the wrong reasons, I committed to making this work by increasing my efforts 10 times. And as soon as I did that, everything started to change—immediately. I went back into the marketplace with the right estimation of effort and started seeing results. Instead of making two to three sales calls a day, I started doing 20 to 30. When I ramped up my full commitment and aligned the correct levels of thought and action, the market started responding to me. It was still hard, and I was disappointed from time to time. But I was getting four times the results by making 10 times the effort.

  When you have underestimated the time, energy, and effort necessary to do something, you will have “quit” in your mind, voice, posture, face, and presentation. You won't develop the persistence necessary to get your mission accomplished. However, when you correctly estimate the effort necessary, you will assume the appropriate posture. The marketplace will sense by your actions that you are a force to be reckoned with and are not going away—and it will begin to respond accordingly.

  I have consulted with thousands of individuals and companies over the past 20 years—and I have never seen one of them correctly estimate effort and think. Whether it was building a house, raising money, fighting a legal battle, getting a job, selling a new product, learning a new position, getting promoted, making a movie, or finding the right partner in life, it always took more than what people calculated. I have yet to meet anyone who claims that any of these things was easy. Achieving these goals may seem easy to those who are on the outside looking in, but those who know firsthand what it took would never make such a statement.

  When you miscalculate the efforts you need to make something happen, you become visibly disappointed and discouraged. This causes you to incorrectly identify the problem and sooner or later assume that the target is unattainable and ultimately throw in the towel. Most people's—including managers'—first response is to reduce the target rather than increase their activity. I have watched sales managers in organizations do this for years with sales teams. They give a quota or agree on a target at the beginning of the quarter and then midway through find they are unable to reach the target, so they hold a meeting and reduce the target to some more attainable figure in order for the team to stay motivated and have a chance of winning.

  This major mistake should never even cross your mind as an option. It sends the wrong message to the organization—that targets are unimportant and the only way to win is to move the finish line. A great manager will push a person to do more at the risk of coming up short, not target less. This idea of changing targets to make everyone feel good will lead to a further weakening of morale, hope, expectations, and skills, and everyone will start assigning reasons—better known as excuses—as to why the team is unable to attain its targets. Never reduce a target. Instead, increase actions. When you start rethinking your targets, making up excuses, and letting yourself off the hook, you are giving up on your dreams! These actions should be an indication that you're getting off track—that you should begin thinking in terms of correcting your initial estimation of effort.

  The 10X Rule assumes the target is never the problem. Any target attacked with the right actions in the right amounts with persistence is attainable. Even if I want to visit another planet, I must assume that the right actions taken in the right amounts over whatever time necessary will allow me to accomplish this. When people inadequately measure the actions necessary, they inevitably start to rationalize. Mankind seems to have this built-in, automatic calculator whose only purpose is to explain away failure. The problem is that the first and most often used calculations always seem to target something other than activity level. This calculator tends to be more emotional than logical; it judges the project, clientele, economy, and individual to be deficient as a means of justifying why things are not working out. This is probably due to all the false content that has been loaded into the calculations by the media, educational system, and our upbringings—excuses like, “the market isn't ready,” “the economy is bad,” “this isn't wanted,” “I'm not cut out for this,” “our targets were unrealistic,” and on and on. But more often than not, it's simply that you just haven't correctly assessed the amount of action necessary. Regardless of the timing, the economy, the product, or how big your venture is, the right acts done to the right degree over time will make you successful.

  I can assure you from experience—after 30 years of building companies and bringing new products and ideas to market—that there will be something you will never foresee, regardless of how detailed your business plan is. I don't care if your product cost nothing to make and it's 100 times superior to its closest competitor; you will still have to apply 10 times more effort just to push through all the noise in order to get people to even know about it. Assume that every project you attempt will take more time, money, energy, effort, and people than you can imagine. Multiply every expectation you have by 10, and you will probably be safe. And if it doesn't take 10 times more than anticipated, great. It is better to be pleasantly surprised than greatly disappointed.

  If you want to save time in getting your idea or product to market, then you must make sure you do 10 times more of everything in order to be in more places with more people over shorter durations. For example, if you planned on it taking one person to pitch your idea, then plan on it taking 10 people in order to possibly be able to reduce the time it takes. But remember—10 times more people will take 10 times more money, and someone will have to manage those people.

  10X parameters allow for a variety of unplanned variables that can strike at any point during a project: employee problems, lawsuits, economic swings, national or global events, competition, illness, and so forth. Add to this list any marketplace resistance to your projects, people being set in their ways, shifts in technology, and, well, you have a whole slew of additional potential events.

  For some reason, people who develop an idea about something they want to bring to the market tend to embrace a sense of optimism that frequently causes them to grossly misjudge what it will take to complete their project. While enthusiasm for any project is clearly important, you cannot forget one important fact: Your potential customers are not as enthusiastic about this project—because they don't even know about it yet. The potential market is likely just starting to wrap its head around the notion. Then, too, there is the possibility of apathy—that there will be no interest whatsoever.

  I'm not telling you to be pessimistic; just be prepared. Tackle your project with the 10X Rule—like your life depends on it. Manage every action as though you have a camera on you every step of the way. Pretend you're being recorded as a model by which your children and grandchildren will learn how to succeed in life. Attack everything with the ferociousness of a champion athlete who is getting his last opportunity to claim his pages in the history books. And always remember to follow through completely: That is the great common denominator of all winners. They see every action through to completion. Make no excuses, and adopt a “take-no-prisoners” attitude. Approach every situation with an “in-it-to-win-it-whatever-it-takes” mind-set. Sound too aggressive? Sorry, but that is the outlook required to win nowadays.

  I know you've probably heard this before, but success does not merely “happen.” It is the result of relentless, proper actions taken over time. Only those who operate with the appropriate view and corresponding actions will have success. Luck clearly has something to do with it, but anyone who is “getting lucky” will tell you that their “luck” is directly proportional to what they've done. The more actions you take, the better your chances are of getting “lucky.”

  Chapter 3

  What Is Success?

  I know I've already used the term success several times, but let's clarify what it actually is. It probably means something different to you than it does to me. The definition really depends on where a person is in life or what has his or her attention. Success in early childhood might mean receiving an allowance for the fi
rst time or getting to stay up past one's bedtime. But that would no longer be of interest just a few years later, when success in the teen years might mean getting one's own bedroom, cell phone, or a later curfew. Success in your early 20s might mean furnishing your first apartment and getting your first promotion. Later on, it might be marriage, kids, more promotions, travel, more money. As you age and conditions change, the ways in which you define success will transform yet again. When you're much older, you're likely to find success in good health, family, grandchildren, your legacy, and how you will be remembered. Where you are in life, the conditions you're facing, and the situations, events, and people on which your attention is most focused will influence your definition of success. Success can be found in any number of realms—financial, spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, philanthropic, communal, or familial. However, wherever you find it, the most crucial things to know about success—in order to have it and keep it— are the following: 1. Success is important.

  2. Success is your duty.

  3. There is no shortage of success.

  I will discuss the first point in this chapter, and the other two in subsequent chapters.

  Success Is Important

  Regardless of their culture, race, religion, economic background, or social group, most people would agree that success is vital to the well-being of the individual, the family unit, and the group—and certainly to the future survival of all of these things. Success provides confidence, security, a sense of comfort, the ability to contribute at a greater level, and hope and leadership for others in terms of what is possible. Without it, you; your group, company, goals and dreams; and even the entire civilization would cease to survive and thrive.

  Think of success in terms of expansion. Without continued growth, any entity—be it a corporation, dream, or even an entire race—would cease to exist. History is full of examples that support the notion that disaster occurs when expansion doesn't continue. We can include the Vikings, Ancient Rome and Greece, Communist Russia, and an endless list of companies and products. Success is needed in order to perpetuate people, places, and things.

  You must never reduce success in your mind or in a conversation to something that doesn't matter; on the contrary, it is vital! Anyone who minimizes the importance of success to your future has given up on his or her own chances of accomplishment and is spending his or her life trying to convince others to do the same. Individuals and groups must actively accomplish their goals and targets in order to carry on. If not, they will either cease to exist or be consumed and become part of something else. Companies and industries that wish to maintain their status must successfully create products; get those products to the market; keep clients, employees, and investors happy; and repeat that cycle over and over.

  There are far too many “cute” sayings that seem to dismiss the importance of success, like “Success is a journey, not a destination.” Please! When terrible economic contractions occur, everyone quickly realizes they can't eat or make house payments with cute little sayings. The economic events of the past several years should have made it obvious how badly we all underestimated the importance of success—and how essential it actually is to our survival. It is not enough just to play the game; it is vital that you learn to win at it. Winning—over and over again—at everything in which you involve yourself ensures that you will be able to further expand. And it guarantees that both you and your ideas will survive into the future.

  Success is equally important to a person's sense of self. It promotes confidence, imagination, and a sense of security and emphasizes the significance of making a contribution. People who are unable to provide for their families and their future put themselves and their families at risk. People who aren't successful can't buy goods and services. This can cause an economy to slow down and taxes to diminish, which will then negatively impact funds for schools, hospitals, and public services. About this time, some will say, “But success is not everything,” and of course, it isn't everything. Yet I always wonder what point people are trying to make with this statement. When someone in my seminars says this to me, I often respond by asking something along the lines of, “Are you trying to diminish the importance of something you haven't been able to attain?”

  Get real! Regardless of whatever goals you are trying to attain—success is absolutely critical. If you quit caring, then you quit winning; quit winning long enough, and you will just plain quit! Do kids benefit when they see their moms and dads losing or quitting? Does anyone benefit when you can't get your art sold or that great book published or that great idea that will improve everything across? No one will benefit from your failure. However, if you were able to reverse it and attain the goals and dreams you set for yourself—now, that would be something.

  Chapter 4

  Success Is Your Duty

  One of the greatest turning points in my life occurred when I stopped casually waiting for success and instead started to approach it as a duty, obligation, and responsibility. I literally began to see success as an ethical issue—a duty to my family, company, and future—rather than as something that may or may not happen to me. I spent 17 years getting a formal education that was to prepare me for the world—and not one course was on success. Not once did anyone talk to me about the importance of success, much less what I had to do in order to get it. Amazing! Years of education, information, hundreds of books, time in class, and money, yet I was still missing a purpose.

  However, I was fortunate enough to have two distinct experiences in my life that served as major wake-up calls. My existence and survival were being seriously threatened in both cases. The first occurred when I was 25. My life was a pitiful mess, caused by years of approaching life aimlessly, drifting with no real purpose or focus. I had no money, plenty of uncertainty, no direction, too much free time, and still hadn't made a commitment to approach success as an obligation. Had I not had this realization and gotten serious about my life, I don't think I would be alive today. You know, you don't need to grow old to die. I was dying at the age of 20 as a result of no direction and no purpose. At that time, I couldn't hold a job, had surrounded myself with losers, was terminally hopeless, and if that weren't enough, using drugs and alcohol on a daily basis. Had I continued on without a serious wake-up call, I would have continued to live a mediocre existence at best and probably much worse. Had I not committed to a life of success, I would not have identified my purpose and would have merely spent a lifetime fulfilling everyone else's purpose. Let's face it, there are plenty of people living mere existences, and I should know. At that time in my life, I was in sales and treated it with disdain. When I committed to sales as a career and then decided to do whatever I had to in order to become successful at selling, my life changed.

  My second awakening took place at the age of 50, when the economy was going through the biggest contraction since the Great Depression. Literally every aspect of my life was being put at risk—as it was for billions of other individuals, companies, industries, and even entire economies. It became evident almost overnight that my company was not powerful enough in its sector, and its future was now in jeopardy. Additionally, my financial well-being was being put in jeopardy. What others thought was tremendous financial wealth was now in danger as well. I remember turning on the TV one day and hearing reports about how unemployment numbers were increasing, wealth was being destroyed due to stock market and housing corrections, homes were being foreclosed on, banks were shutting down, and companies were being bailed out by the government. I realized then that I had put my family, my companies, and myself in a precarious situation because I had started to rest on my laurels and had discontinued approaching success as my duty, obligation, and responsibility. I had lost my focus and purpose.

  At both of these pivotal points in my life, I woke up to the fact that success is important in order to have a full life. In the second case, I realized that greater quantities of success are necessary than most people calculate, and the continu
ed pursuit of success should be approached not as a choice but as an absolute must.

  Most people approach success in the same way that I did when I hadn't committed to it. They look at it as though it doesn't matter—like it's an option or perhaps just something that only happens to other people. Others settle for just a little success, believing if they have a “little,” everything will be all right.

  Treating success as an option is one of the major reasons why more people don't create it for themselves—and why most people don't even get close to living up to their full potential. Ask yourself how close you are to your full capability. You might not like the answer very much. If you don't consider it your duty to live up to your potential, then you simply won't. If it doesn't become an ethical issue for you, then you won't feel obligated and driven to fulfill your capacity. People don't approach the creation of success as a must-have obligation, do-or-die mission, gotta-have-it, “hungry-dog-on-the-back-of-a-meat-truck” mentality. They then spend the rest of their lives making excuses for why they didn't get it. And that is what happens when you consider success to be an alternative rather than an obligation.