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

If You're Not First,
You're Last
. I was not alluding to physical domination but rather to mentally
occupying the space of the public—so that when people think of your product,
service, or industry, they think of 
you
. Making massive action a discipline will
break you through obscurity, increase your value to the marketplace, and help
you generate success in any area you elect.

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Chapter 8
Average Is a Failing Formula

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Look around, and chances are you'll see a world filled with average. Although
this is—as I have previously stated—the “acceptable” level of activity upon
which the middle class is built, there is a growing amount of evidence that this
thinking is unworkable. Jobs are being shipped overseas, and unemployment is
becoming even more rampant. Members of the middle class are unable to get
their heads above water, people are living longer than their savings, and entire
companies and industries are being wiped out as a result of average products,
average management, average workers, average actions, and average thinking.
This “addiction to average” can kill the possibility of making your dreams a
reality. Consider the following statistics: The average worker reads an average of
less than one book a year and works an average of 37.5 hours per week. This
same person makes 319 times less money than the top U.S. CEOs, who claim to
read more than 60 books a year. Many of these financially successful executives
are maligned for the huge sums of money they receive; however, we often fail to
appreciate what these people have done to get where they are today. Although it
might not always look like they're working very hard, we often dismiss the fact
that they somehow managed to attend the right schools, make the right
connections, and then did what was necessary to move up the food chain. It all
required substantial action on their part. You can resent them if you choose, but
that doesn't change the fact that they are being rewarded for the success they've
achieved.
After the economy suffered so greatly in 2008, Starbucks founder Howard
Schultz began to do what almost every other CEO in America was doing—
cutting expenses and getting rid of nonperforming locations. He then did
something that most CEOs did 
not
do: he traveled all over the country to meet
with Starbucks patrons. Long after the average worker had gone home,
billionaire Schultz was visiting his stores and meeting with coffee drinkers to
find out how Starbucks could better satisfy customers. Although the media didn't
do much reporting on this, it was a pretty astounding pattern of events. Here was
a guy making his way across the country at 9 PM to get feedback from people
buying his products. This is a prime example of embracing a “greater-than-
average” thought and action process. This is clearly above and beyond what the
marketplace—and any customer—expects. It far exceeded any action considered
commonplace for a CEO, and Starbucks' very solid and strong growth was
reflected in stock charts.
This company makes a product that people do not absolutely 
need
—especially
during troubling economic times. Yet Starbucks continues to sell and grow both
its brand and return to investors. This demonstrates that although the quality of

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the product is clearly important, the individuals who work for an organization
are truly the force that will make the most difference. Schultz knew exactly how
to approach the situation. Despite the recession, despite temporary contraction,
he still managed to “expand” his organization—not necessarily with more
locations but by using his personal energy, resources, and creativity to take
massive action, touch each of his stores and many of his patrons, and increase
the presence of his brand and its revenues.
Any undertaking that includes accepting average will fail you sooner or later.
Anything conducted in standard amounts simply won't get the job done. The
normal levels of action at which most people operate fail to take into account the
effects of various forces—such as gravity, age, resistance, timing, and the
unexpected. When average actions hit any resistance, competition, loss or lack of
interest, negative or challenging market conditions, or all of these, you will find
your project tumbling down.
Finally, I want you to take into consideration the concerted efforts of
individuals and groups who actually impede your efforts. Although I am not one
to be paranoid or live in fear, I learned the very expensive lesson that these
people do exist when I was approached by a group who claimed to want to make
me their partner. However, they never intended to bring me in as a partner but
instead intended from the outset to steal from me the success I had created in my
life. I never planned on this in any of my equations, and it literally robbed me of
years of efforts. So take it from me—you cannot plan on everything, and people
will try to take from you what they are unable to create themselves.
When I look back and attempt to analyze what happened with these criminals,
I realize that I was susceptible to their enticement because I was no longer
operating at 10X levels. This really opened my eyes to the fact that the moment I
started resting on my laurels—and thought that I could “coast a bit”—I made
myself a target. It is almost impossible to plan for every situation. In your
lifetime, you will experience extraordinary conditions, some of which may be
hostile and unpleasant. The best way to plan is to condition your thinking and
your actions to 10X levels. Succeed so big that no one person or event or series
of missteps can take you down! Average levels of anything will fail you—or at
the very least, put you at risk! If, on the other hand, you create more success than
you want or need, you'll always be prepared—even when those who can't create
success for themselves try to steal it from you.
Although I experienced years of success at levels that others deemed to be
quite impressive, I knew in my heart that I had quit taking massive action. And
sure enough, these guys decided to peel a little of my success away from me—

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and got away with it. It was quite an expensive and humbling setback—but it
really woke me up to the fact that you are never safe to move to normal levels of
involvement and activity. Once you do so, I assure you, what you have and what
you dreamed of will start to disappear. This holds true for your health, marriage,
wealth, and spiritual condition. Normal gets you just that—normal.
See what average thoughts and actions will get you—average problems that
can quickly become overwhelming problems. What if you live 20 years longer
than your savings? Many of us will have to take care of other family members
because they didn't have a 10X mind-set or operate at 10X levels. What about
the possibility of long-term health issues or some state of economic emergency
that hasn't been foreseen? What happens to entire classes of people who made
average financial plans when faced with extended periods of very difficult
economic times or decades of extended unemployment? Average is a failing
plan!
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.
Companies, industries, artists, products, and individuals who continue into the
future successfully are those who approach every activity with the outlook that
average is just not good enough. You need to change your commitment and
thinking to be far above any concepts of average. I promise that when you do so,
you will immediately start influencing other areas of your life. Your friends and
family will start to change, results will improve, you will find yourself getting
luckier, you may experience time flying by, and the actions you are taking will
begin to improve your associations with people.
Average is also the reason why most new companies fail. A couple of people
get together, have a great idea, write a business plan, start a company, and base
their predictions on everything going in their favor. They may even create what
they consider to be conservative projections. “Let's say we show the product to
10 people. We're bound to sell at least three of them. That's conservative and
realistic.” Someone in the group says, “Let's cut that in half to be especially safe.
Can we still make it?” They decide that even based on the more conservative
plan, they will be successful. But they didn't correctly assess how many people
they would have to call on just to 
do
the initial 10 presentations. Even the most
amazing product on earth might require 100 calls just to get the 10 meetings.
Just because you have the next step of the project completely planned out doesn't
mean that the rest of the world is there with you. They've committed to their
schedules, their products, and their projects. Merely getting the opportunity to
see the right people will take enormous effort and persistence. Most people are

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building business plans based on average considerations and ways of thinking,
not the massive amounts of action that are necessary to push through.
When new ideas come together, they are influenced by the excitement and
enthusiasm of those who generate them. Many negative considerations—such as
competition, the economy, market conditions, manufacturing, lending, raising
money, the preoccupation of your clients with other projects, and the like—are
set at what everyone considers normal or average difficulty. Then, when
optimistic projections prove unrealistic, even the most conservative objectives
are missed. A key partner might get sick, there might be some significant change
in economic conditions, or some global event might occur that shifts everyone's
attention for the next six months. People involved in the new venture start to lose
their enthusiasm, bickering ensues, and as things become more difficult than was
originally considered, failure emerges as a likely possibility. The partners go
through more money than anyone projected—and with no income. One of the
dreamers begins to have second thoughts and wonders if perhaps he should bail
since the players don't seem mentally, emotionally, or physically prepared to take
the massive action necessary to push through market resistance.
Continuing with this scenario, in order to resolve the lack of income problems,
members of the group try to borrow or raise money from their friends—where
they hit even more resistance. They realize that it will become increasingly
difficult for most people to ante up to the “unreasonable” amounts of relentless
10X actions that are necessary to see things through and were missing from the
business plan. The partners start to believe that their company relies more
intensely on raising money than it does on increasing actions because they didn't
correctly estimate the 10X level of thoughts and actions necessary to keep going.
Average assumes—incorrectly, of course—that everything operates stably.
People optimistically overestimate how well things will go and then
underestimate how much energy and effort it will take just to push things
through. Anyone who has made it in business will support this concept. You
simply cannot train or prepare for normal amounts of gravity or resistance,
competition, and market conditions. Don't think average; think massive.
Compare your actions to having to carry a 1,000-pound backpack that you will
wear every day into a 40-miles-per-hour wind on a 20-degree upward slope.
Prepare for massive, persistent action, and you will win!
Most businesses fail because they are unable to sell their ideas, products, and
services at prices high enough to sustain the company and fund its activities. The
company isn't able to collect revenue in quantities great enough because the
people with whom the company has been built—employees, customers, and

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vendors—also take only average amounts of action.
Average never yields anything more than average and usually much less.
Average thinking and actions will only guarantee you misery, uncertainty, and
failure. Rid yourself of everything that is average including the advice you get
and friends you keep. Sound too tough? Remember that success is your duty,
obligation, and responsibility. And since there is no shortage of success, any
apparent limitations you are experiencing might simply be the result of thinking
and acting average. Rid yourself of every concept of average. Study what
average people do, and prohibit yourself and your team from considering
average as an option. Surround yourself with exceptional thinkers and doers. Let
your friends, family, and work associates know that you treat average like a
terminal disease. Remember, average anything will never get you to an
extraordinary life. Look up the word average and see for yourself what it holds
for you—typical, ordinary, common. That should be enough to abandon the
concept from all your considerations.

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