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

Chapter 16
Fear Is the Great Indicator

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Sooner or later, you will experience fear when you start taking new actions at
new levels. In fact, if you aren't, then you're probably not doing enough of the
right things. Fear isn't bad or something to avoid; conversely, it's something you
want to seek and embrace. Fear is actually a sign that you are doing what's
needed to move in the right direction.
An absence of concerns signals that you are only doing what's comfortable for
you—and that will only get you more of what you have right now. As strange as
it may sound, you 
want
to be scared until you have to push yourself to new
levels to experience fear again. In fact, the only thing that scares me is a
complete lack of fear.
What is fear anyway? Does it exist? Is it real? I know it 
feels
real when you are
experiencing it, but admit it: Most of the time, what you fear doesn't even occur.
It's been said that FEAR stands for 
F
alse 
E
vents 
A
ppearing 
R
eal, which aptly
implies that most of what you're afraid of doesn't ever come to pass. Fear, for the
most part, is provoked by emotions, not rational thinking. And in my humble
estimation, emotions are wildly overrated—and the scapegoat many people use
for their failure to act. But regardless of whether you agree with my opinion on
emotions, you must reframe your understanding of fear and use it as a reason to
move forward rather than as an excuse to stop or retreat. Use this frequently
avoided feeling as a green light to signal you to what you 
should
do!
Chances are that when you were a child, you found fear in irrational things—
the boogeyman under the bed, for example. It was an indicator to check your
closet and the dark corners of your room to see what was lurking. But as all
children eventually find, the boogeyman does not exist anywhere except in your
head. Adults have their own “boogeymen”—the unknown, rejection, failure,
success, and so on. And these boogeymen should be a sign to take action as well.
For example, if you're afraid to call on a client, then it's a sign that you should
call that client. Fear of speaking with the boss is an indication that you should
march into his office and ask for a moment of his time. Fear of requesting the
client's business means that you 
must
ask for the business—and then keep
asking.
The 10X Rule compels you to separate yourself from everyone else in the
market. And you do that by—as I emphasized earlier—doing what others 
refuse
to do. Only in this way will you distinguish yourself and dominate your sector.
Everyone experiences fear on some level, and because the marketplace is
composed of people interacting with both products and one another, the market
will face fear in the same way that you and your peers do. But rather than seeing

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fear as a sign to run—as most other people in the market will do—it must
become your indicator to 
go
.
I handle this dilemma myself by omitting time from the equation—since time
is what drives fear. The more time you devote to the object of your
apprehension, the stronger it becomes. So starve the fear of its favorite food by
removing time from its menu. For example, let's say that John needs to make a
call to a client, a task that immediately causes him to feel anxiety. So rather than
picking up the phone and making the call immediately, he gets a cup of coffee
and thinks about what he is going to do. His lengthy contemplation only causes
his fear to grow, as he imagines all the ways the call could go badly and all the
potentially terrible things that could happen. If confronted, he's likely to claim
that he needs to “prepare” before he makes the call. But preparation is merely an
excuse for those who haven't trained properly—and who use it as a reason to
justify their last-minute reluctance. John needs to take a deep breath, pick up the
phone, and just 
make the call
. Last-minute preparation is just another way to
feed the fear that will only get stronger as time is added. Nothing happens
without action.
Fear doesn't just tell you 
what
to do; it also tells you when to do it. Ask
yourself what time it is at any point in the day, and the answer is always the
same: 
now
. The time is always now—and when you experience fear, it's a sign
that the best time to take action is at that very moment. Most people will not
follow through with their goals when enough time has passed from the inception
of their idea to actually doing something about it; however, if you remove time
from your process, you'll be ready to go. There's simply no other choice than to
act. There's no need to prepare. It's too late for that once you've gotten this far.
Now, the only thing that will make a difference is 
action
. Everyone has had the
experience of failing to do something they wanted to do. Perhaps by the time
you got yourself “ready” to do something, someone else had taken action—and
now you're regretting it. Failure comes in many forms; it occurs whether you act
or not. Regardless of the outcome, I would say that it's far preferable to fail
while doing something than to fail by over-preparing while someone else walks
up and scoops up your dreams.
This scenario occurs in business every day. People give their fears much more
time than they deserve. They wait to make the personal visit or phone call, write
the e-mail, or present their proposal because they're afraid of the outcome.
Countless individuals share the same excuses for why it is “not a good time” to
take action. The client is leaving town. The client just got back into town. It's the
end of the month or the beginning of the month. The clients have been in

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meetings all day. They are about to go into meetings. They just bought
something. They don't have the budgets. They are cutting back. Business is bad.
There's been a change in management or staff. I don't want to “bug” them. They
never return my phone calls anyway. No one else can sell them. They are
unrealistic. I don't know what to say. I am not ready yet. I just called them
yesterday . . . and on and on.
All the excuses in the world won't change one simple fact: that fear is a sign to
do whatever it is you fear—and do it quickly. My wife tells me all the time that I
“seem fearless.” The truth is actually quite the contrary; I am scared most of the
time. However, I refuse to feed my fear with time and allow it to get stronger. I
opt instead to get things done quickly. I've learned that it's simply better for me
to take this approach. You will experience the same when you're finally able to
take the plunge and do what you fear. In fact, you'll be amazed at how much
stronger you become and how much more confident you are to do new things.
Taking massive action quickly and repeatedly will ensure that you appear
fearless in the marketplace. The person who takes action on whatever he or she
fears the most will be the person who advances his or her cause the most. Let the
rest of the marketplace submit to anxiety and prepare unnecessarily for False
Events Appearing Real. You've got a job to do.
Fear is one of the most disabling emotions a human being can experience. It
immobilizes people, and often, it ultimately prevents them from going for their
goals and dreams. Everyone fears something in life; however, it's what we each
do with that fear that distinguishes us from others. When you allow fear to set
you back, you lose energy, momentum, and confidence—and your fears will
only grow.
Have you ever watched some kind of performer “eat fire”? It appears that the
trick here is to completely exhaust the oxygen that the fire requires for life. Pull
away too early, and oxygen refuels the fire—which will then, of course, burn
you. The same is true with fear. If you back off from it even the slightest bit, you
give it the oxygen it needs to stay alive. So commit yourself entirely, remove
time from the equation—and you will snuff out your fears and be able to take
more action.
Eat your fears; don't feed them by backing off or giving them time to grow.
Learn to look for and use fear so that you know exactly what you need to do to
overcome it and advance your life. Every successful person I know of has used
fear as an indicator to determine which actions will provide the greatest return. I
use it in my own life, every chance I get, to remain aware that I am growing and
expanding myself. If you aren't experiencing fear, you are not taking new actions

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and growing. It's as simple as that. It does not take money or luck to create a
great life; it requires the ability to move past your fears with speed and power.
Fear, like fire, is not something from which you should pull away. Rather, it
should be used to fuel the actions of your life.