Book Review: 10X Rule by Grant Cardone

I shared 10X rule last week with my nonprofit organization team at our weekly Read to Rise weekly event, I wished to share the book review with more audience and also get your feedback.

Today on Read to Rise, the book I am going to be reviewing with us is written by Grant Cardone. Grant Cardone is a real estate investor, sales trainer and professional, best-selling author, and a speaker selling out entire arenas. He’s based out of Florida, in the United States, and now has a real estate portfolio of more than $1billion at just over 60 years old. Grant has written so many amazing books… Sell to survive (2008), If you’re not first you are last (2010), Sell or be sold (2011), The millionaire booklet (2016), Be obsessed or be average (2016) and many more.

I am going to be reviewing one of his books titled 10X Rule (2011), simply put the 10X rule is a concept which says that whenever you think to achieve something, do 10 times more than you previously thought. Whatever you think that you need to do, or what you are expected to do to get things done, just do way more.

What particularly got my attention first, was that I have watched many of Grant Cardone videos on YouTube and he’s known to been blunt and you may even misinterpret his bragging right in most of his videos. Secondly, when I saw the chapters in the book, I was not surprised but curious to get started. Lastly, he used a style often used by Brian Tracy to reinforce the points in each chapter, that is at the end of each chapter in Brian Tracy’s book, you will see action exercise, Grant did similarly by asking simple questions which will always prompt you to go back if you missed the point from that particular chapter and of course he was blunt in his writing as usual from the very beginning, he started with this quote. “Anyone that suggests to me to do less is either not a real friend or very confused!”

So, lets begin, in the early chapters of the book he explained the concept of 10X rule which I stated above earlier, he specifically wants us to be aware what differentiate successful people from the unsuccessful in this book. So, he defines success as the degree or measure of attaining some desired object or end. He then pointed out the problem with success.

“Once you attain this desired end, the issue then becomes whether you can maintain, multiply, and repeat your actions in order to sustain that result.”

An interesting thing about success is that it’s like a breath of air; although your last breath of air is important, it’s not nearly as important as the next one.

Why this point stood out for me is that he made us realized that nothing in this world will be handed over to you without you putting your effort is achieving that goal, so he said success is your duty, obligation and responsibility. — Do not underrate hard work, you must work hard, even 10X than every other person to become more valuable and sustaining that valuable is even a bigger challenge

“Luck is just one of the byproducts of those who take the most action”. Don’t be confused by what looks like luck to you. Lucky people don’t make successful people; people who completely commit themselves to success seem to get lucky in life. Someone once said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

He further made his strong point in previous chapters about success clear when he put the content about action, he wrote, “action precede success, the amount of your action determines how successful you become”, he described this as four degree of action, that is those who;

1. Do nothing

2. Retreat

3. Take normal levels of action

4. Take massive action (10X rule)

Another strong content of the book was when he discussed about the mindset that has been handed over to us by government and the universe, — the middle-class mentality. Grant said, “average doesn’t work in any area of life. Anything that you give only average amounts of attention to will start to subside and will eventually cease to exist”. He believes we should all have a domineering mindset approach whether in business, career or any goal you set for yourself. You are either the first or the last. You can start achieving that by becoming obsessed with your dreams, “I suggest that you become obsessed about the things you want; otherwise, you are going to spend a lifetime being obsessed with making up excuses as to why you didn’t get the life you wanted.”

Another aspect he briefly touched is how to set goals, which is mostly what I teach and train people about. Most times we think setting goals is overrated but truth be told the life best lived is by design and you don’t have a goal if you don’t right them down, this is what I have personally learned from most world great men. Well I can help you with that, you can download my Growth plan Guide here for free http://bit.ly/GROWTH_PLAN

Remember what he said about success, the problem of keeping and expanding, so he encouraged that in all your quest in life you go all in and expand because expanding gives you that visibility. Imagine Grant having set a target for himself to reach 6 billion people with his sales program. You think he’s crazy right?

I guess that is why he also wrote briefly about fear in this book, FEAR stands for False Events Appearing Real. The important point for me in this chapter was that, we must starve our fear of its favorite food by removing time from its menu. Time, for most student of Physics, I am sure they will understand the concept of time and speed. We often procrastinate because we create time to think about that task, then that time create fear… To illustrate this, just yesterday I agreed to coordinate the Read to Rise session today, I have not even thought about the book I wanted to review, previously I thought I would review one of the newspapers headlines with the new plan from Federal government to deploy solar panels for 25 million household in the country, which is about SDGs 7 but I could not get full information yet. Then this morning, 10X rule flash through my mind, fear was about to set in, yes I have read the book but never had time to write a review, can I do this before 6pm? Before I allowed the fear to overshadow my thought, I said to myself JUST DO IT!, so I created time to write the review instead. Nothing happens without action; do you remember Physics 101? First law of motion. What is your biggest fear?

Grant followed this up with time management, the most important thing about time management is for you to be aware of how much time is available for you? Why do you think I was able to create the time to write the review today? That is because I write down my daily goals (micro) which then are accumulated into achieving my future goals (macro) and purpose in life. The first thing to do when managing time and seeking balance is to decide what is important to you. Any action that is not adding wood to your fire would be considered wasteful. What are those activities that you do, that are not valuable?

Omnipresence! Yes, you read it right, even the bible said ye are gods! Grant listed some companies who have achieved this milestones, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Google, Starbucks, Phillip Morris, AT&T, La-Z-Boy, Bank of America, World Disney, Fox TV, Apple, Ernst & Young, Ford Motor Company, Visa, American Express, Macy’s, Wal-Mart, Best Buy — these names are everywhere. Individuals such as Oprah, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, George Bush, Barack Obama, Abe Lincoln, Elvis, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Walt Disney, Will Smith, Mother Teresa, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, and so on. I am sure you can resonant with what each companies and individuals mean, this should be your goal, when people think about a particular industry or skill, your name should be the first on their mind. Remember there is no shortage of success, there are over 7 billion people in this world.

‘Omnipresence — the goal of being everywhere at all times and at the same time — is exactly the kind of massive thinking that is missing from most people’s expectations of themselves and their dreams.’ I am sure the question on your mind at this point is how will I do that? Please don’t come with excuses, Grant wrote this banter “Excuses are never the reason for why you did or didn’t do something. They’re just a revision of the facts that you make up in order to help yourself feel better about what happened.”

To wrap it up, successful people talk, think, and approach situations, challenges, and problems differently than most people — and they definitely think about everything differently. Listed below are the commonly found qualities, personality traits, and habits that make successful people the way they are.

This will allow you to become more aware of the kinds of habits and characteristics you should be developing — and encouraging yourself, your team members, employees and colleagues to develop as well. The only way to be successful is to take the same actions that successful people take. Success is no different than any other skill. Duplicate the actions and mind-sets of successful people, and you will create success for yourself.

1. Have a “Can Do” Attitude

2. Believe That “I Will Figure It Out”

3. Focus on Opportunity

4. Love Challenges

5. Seek to Solve Problems

6. Persist until Successful

7. Take Risks

8. Be Unreasonable

9. Be Dangerous

10. Create Wealth

11. Readily Take Action

12. Always Say “Yes”

13. Habitually Commit

14. Go All the Way

15. Focus on “Now”

16. Demonstrate Courage

17. Embrace Change

18. Determine and Take the Right Approach

19. Break Traditional Ideas

20. Be Goal-Oriented

21. Be on a Mission

22. Have a High Level of Motivation

23. Be Interested in Results

24. Have Big Goals and Dreams

25. Create Your Own Reality

26. Commit First — Figure Out Later

27. Be Highly Ethical

28. Be Interested in the Group

29. Be Dedicated to Continuous Learning

30. Be Uncomfortable

31. “Reach Up” in Relationships

32. Be Disciplined

I don’t know why Grant decided to put discipline as the last quality of successful people here, maybe he desired that the reader see it as a very important point to note because I believe that all other points above will not be achievable without discipline. Hard work is the accumulation of easy things you did not do when you should have, the only way you can get things done completely is through discipline. To be successful you need Clarity, Discipline and Consistency 10X more than others.

10 interesting books that makes you understand 10X Rule better;

1. Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy

2. Think and Grow Reach by Napoleon Hill

3. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

4. The 15 Invaluable Law of Growth by John C. Maxwell

5. Growth Plan Guide by Sheriff Gbadamosi — http://bit.ly/GROWTH_PLAN

6. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

7. The Men Who Built America video documentary

8. Why A Students work for C Students by Robert Kiyosaki

9. Start with Why by Simon Sinek

10. No Excuses: The Power of Self-Discipline by Brian Tracy