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

Chapter 2
Why the 10X Rule Is Vital

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Before we get into how important it is for you to think and operate according to
the 10X Rule, let me share a little of my own story. For every project in which I
have ever been involved, I underestimated the time, energy, money, and effort
necessary to bring my project to the point of success. Any client I targeted or
new sector of business into which I ventured has always taken 10 times more
mail, calls, e-mails, and contacts than I had originally predicted. Even getting my
wife to date and eventually marry me took 10 times more effort and energy than
I had calculated (but it was worth every bit!).
Regardless of how superior your product, service, or proposition is, I assure
you that there will be something you don't anticipate or correctly plan. Economic
changes, legal matters, competition, resistance to converting, too new of a
product banks freezing up, market uncertainty, technology changes, people
problems . . . more people problems, elections, war, strikes—these are just a few
of the potential “unexpected events.” I don't say this to scare you but instead to
prepare you for where the biggest opportunities exist. 10X thinking and actions
are vital; they are the only things that will get you through these events. Money
alone cannot do it; it can help, but it can't do the job for you. If you march into
any battle without the proper troops, supplies, ammunition, and staying power,
you will return home defeated. It's as simple as that. It's not enough to occupy a
territory. You have to be able to keep it.
I started my first business when I was 29 years old. Most people won't go into
business for themselves because they aren't willing to take the financial haircut
necessary. I had prepared for this—or so I thought—and assumed that it would
take me three months to get to the income level of the job I previously had. Well,
it took me almost three years to get my business to provide me with the same
income of the previous job. That was 
12
times longer than I had expected. And I
almost quit after three months—not because of the money but because of the
amount of resistance and disappointment I experienced.
I had a very specific list of reasons why my company wasn't going to work. I
had compiled it in an attempt to talk myself out of continuing. I was beyond
disappointed; I was distraught and all but destroyed. I literally went to a friend
and said, “I can't do this anymore—I'm done.” I made up reason after reason
why it wasn't working out—the clientele didn't have the money, the economy
sucked, the timing was wrong, I was too young, my clients didn't get it, people
didn't want to change, I sucked, they sucked—and on and on.
I eventually realized—after spending so much time trying to figure out why
things weren't working out—that it was completely possible that I was missing

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the answer entirely.
I never considered that I had merely incorrectly estimated what it would take
to move a new product into the marketplace at the very beginning of the process.
I had presented a new idea, for sure, but it wasn't one that anyone had asked for.
I had limited funds, so I wasn't able to hire people and couldn't afford to
advertise—which was unfortunate because no one knew me or my company. I
didn't know what I was doing and was cold calling other organizations. If this
was going to work, it would depend on my ability to increase my 
efforts
—not
my excuses.
Once I quit calculating all the wrong reasons, I committed to making this work
by increasing my efforts 10 times. And as soon as I did that, everything started to
change—immediately. I went back into the marketplace with the right estimation
of effort and started seeing results. Instead of making two to three sales calls a
day, I started doing 20 to 30. When I ramped up my full commitment and
aligned the correct levels of thought and action, the market started responding to
me. It was still hard, and I was disappointed from time to time. But I was getting
four times the results by making 10 times the effort.
When you have underestimated the time, energy, and effort necessary to do
something, you will have “quit” in your mind, voice, posture, face, and
presentation. You won't develop the persistence necessary to get your mission
accomplished. However, when you correctly estimate the effort necessary, you
will assume the appropriate posture. The marketplace will sense by your actions
that you are a force to be reckoned with and are not going away—and it will
begin to respond accordingly.
I have consulted with thousands of individuals and companies over the past 20
years—and I have never seen one of them correctly estimate effort and think.
Whether it was building a house, raising money, fighting a legal battle, getting a
job, selling a new product, learning a new position, getting promoted, making a
movie, or finding the right partner in life, it always took more than what people
calculated. I have yet to meet anyone who claims that 
any
of these things was
easy. Achieving these goals may seem easy to those who are on the outside
looking in, but those who know firsthand what it took would never make such a
statement.
When you miscalculate the efforts you need to make something happen, you
become visibly disappointed and discouraged. This causes you to incorrectly
identify the problem and sooner or later assume that the target is unattainable
and ultimately throw in the towel. Most people's—including managers'—first
response is to reduce the target rather than increase their activity. I have watched

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sales managers in organizations do this for years with sales teams. They give a
quota or agree on a target at the beginning of the quarter and then midway
through find they are unable to reach the target, so they hold a meeting and
reduce the target to some more attainable figure in order for the team to stay
motivated and have a chance of winning.
This 
major
mistake should never even cross your mind as an option. It sends
the wrong message to the organization—that targets are unimportant and the
only way to win is to move the finish line. A great manager will push a person to
do more at the risk of coming up short, not target less. This idea of changing
targets to make everyone feel good will lead to a further weakening of morale,
hope, expectations, and skills, and everyone will start assigning reasons—better
known as excuses—as to why the team is unable to attain its targets.