The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure by Grant Cardone

I spend a lot of my time reading about success, so when I came across The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure by Grant Cardone I immediately added the book to my to-read pile. It is quite a confident statement to say that a rule is the ONLY difference between success and failure, but Grant is definitely a confident man and the title sets the tone for the whole book.

Grant describes The 10x Rule as “the Holy Grail for those who desire success” and that it “is a discipline”. At the core, The 10X rule is that “You must set targets that are 10 times what you think you want and then do 10 times what you think it will take to accomplish those targets”.

His logic for setting goals that are bigger is logical. He says “Any goal you set is going to be difficult to achieve, and you will inevitably be disappointed at some point along the way. So why not set goals much higher than deem worthy from the beginning?” It is a classic example of “Shoot for the stars. Even if you miss you will land amongst the stars!” However, to do 10 times more what you think, on a goal you already made 10 times bigger, sounds a little excessive. Again, I can see the logic. He states you should “Assume that every project you attempt will take more time, money, energy, effort and people than you can imagine”. People often underestimate how much resources are really needed to complete a goal. Even when it comes to writing a blog post I always underestimate how long it will actually take.

Success, to Grant, is a duty. He says that “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 to their full potential”. When you see success an option then you don’t commit fully and you let yourself off if you don’t achieve the level of success you would like. This isn’t how successful people operate. They see “success as a duty, obligation, and responsibility”.

The book explores four types of action you can take:

• Do nothing
• Retreat
• Take normal levels of action
• Take massive action

Normally, you would assume that people each level requires more work and that is why some choose to do nothing. In fact, Grant believes that “Regardless of which degree of action you operate in, they all require work in their own ways”. If it takes work to do nothing, then you might as well do something, right?

When it comes to goal setting, the advice is “to make your goals substantial enough that they keep your attention” and he means SUBSTANTIAL. In the Chapter ‘Competition is for Sissies’ Grant “You always want to be in a position to dominate – not compete”. He feels very strongly about generally ignore the competition, being a forward thinker, breaking the norm and setting out to dominate the field.

As you can imagine a book about achieving great success has to discuss fear and this book is no exception. Grant states that “Fear is actually a sign that you are doing what’s needed to move in the right direction”. This was a new take on fear for me, but when you consider it there is value. Often, fear happens when we are pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone. That is how we grow and move forward so we should push past that fear. Grant also suggests that you should “Starve the fear of its favourite food by removing time from its menu”. Time only makes a fear grow, so act now!

Overall, I loved this book. I can imagine that some would find Grant a bit intense. His business is in sales and he states that his mission is to “introduce the entire planet to Grant Cardone”. I am mean that is a BIG ambition.

This book isn’t for the faint-hearted. Grant has high standards, claims that “The 10X Rule is meant for the few people obsessed with creating an exceptional life” and I would agree. If you want to achieve masses of success, be a thought-leader or a game changer then read this book. If you want an average level of success then leave this book alone.

I read The 10X Rule as part of PropelHer’s Book Club for Ambitious Women. Want to join a community of ambitious women who read excellent books to support personal development and professional success? Come join PropelHer’s Book Club.

Like what you read? Leave a comment below and why not buy a copy of The 10X Rule for yourself?