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

Chapter 13
Go “All In” and Overcommit

---

Now that I hopefully have rehabilitated your opinion about the nature of
obsession, let's discuss what we have to do to get you to go “all in” on every
action and fully commit to every opportunity.
Most people are familiar with the “all-in” concept as a poker term. It's what
takes place when a player puts all of his chips at risk and either gets knocked out
or doubles up. Though I'm not talking about money or chips here, I'm referring
to a much more important bet—your efforts, creativity, energy, ideas, and
persistence. Massive action is not like a poker table; you never run out of action
chips in life or use up all of your energy and effort by committing yourself. The
most valuable chips you have are your mind-set, actions, persistence, and
creativity. You can go “all in” with energy as many times as you want—because
even if you fail, you can keep going all in!
Most of society discourages the all-in mentality because we are taught to play
it safe and not to put everything at risk. We are encouraged to conserve and
protect ourselves from losses rather than to go for the big payoff. The giants on
this planet are willing to make the big plays. This mind-set is yet again based on
the myth that your energy, creativity, and efforts are material things with limited
quantities that cannot be replaced. There 
are
certain things in life that have
limits, but 
you
don't unless you impose limits on yourself.
It is vital that you get your head completely reworked about taking action and
that you understand that there is no limit to how many times you can continue to
take action. You can fail or succeed as many times as you want and then do it
over and over again. Also, you can't ever hit it out of the park if you don't
initially make contact and swing for the fences, and you will never hit it big if
you don't discipline yourself to be all in when you don't take action.
We have all heard the fable of the tortoise and the hare. The implied lesson, of
course, is that the tortoise wins because he plods along and takes his time,
whereas the hare rushes, becomes tired, and misses his opportunity to win. We're
supposed to derive the meaning that we should be tortoises—individuals who
approach our goals steadily and slowly. If there was a third player in the fable
who had the speed of the hare and the steadfastness of the tortoise, it would
smoke them both and have no competition. The fable would then be called
Smoked
. The suggestion here is to approach your goals like the tortoise 
and
the
hare—by attacking them ruthlessly from the beginning and also staying with
them throughout the course of the “race.”
Remember: There are no shortages of how many times you can get up and

---

continue! There is no failure unless you quit! It is impossible for you to “use up”
all of your energy—or creativity. It is impossible for you to run out of ideas.
You'll never lose the ability to come up with new dreams, have more energy,
think creatively, look at a situation or event differently, give someone another
call, use another tactic, or act with persistence. There will always be another
hand, another day—and another chance. If the bank you are working with
continues to refill you with new supplies of energy, creativity, and persistence,
then why 
not
go all in on every hand?
Entrepreneurs and especially salespeople suffer most when they fail to go all in
—a topic I discussed in my first book, 
Sell to Survive
. Many sales professionals
give themselves much more credit for trying to close the deal than they deserve
and think they're doing so much more often than they actually are. In reality,
most never even ask for the order once