The 10X Rule presented me the idea that success is not like money or time: these things (money and time) are finite – they’re not things that you can stretch forever and keep on collecting more and more – but success, because it’s intangible, ‘like air’ – is a resource that if you think the way that you need to think, there is no end to it. The moment that I read it, the more I dug into the book, it all started to make sense and it’s the way I live my life.
Cardone notes how many people tend to fall for the ‘zero-sum game’ myth of success, the false premise that ‘whatever one person has, another person loses’. He notes that success isn’t a finite commodity, like gold or oil. When you sweat success, you’re not depleting a finite supply, you’re generating more – again and again and again through creativity, effort, and tenacity.
It was his revelation that there could be limitless success that was truly transformative. Mount hails from the latter group, reared to believe that only a few individuals ‘were going to get ahead’, that when someone succeeded in a dramatic way, it used to mean ‘fewer tickets had been sold to the game’. This inherent scarcity invited unhealthy combativeness, ultimately shrinking personal horizons.
Yet as soon as I started turning this new lens on my life, I ran into a few stumbling blocks. Most difficult was moving out from under a false, scarcity-based lens and into a paradigm of ‘abundance’ — not that one’s accomplishment is any less or any more worthy just because anyone else surpasses it. I had to actively re-train my thoughts all day, every day to get into the mindset that there might be plenty of room for me, too. I wrote mantras to myself and save success stories from every field to my desktop so I’d have something to read when I doubted myself.
But over time, as I began to apply the 10X Rule more seriously to things I did, I found that a lot changed. I no longer became anxious when people around me did or achieved something better than me. Their achievement propelled me into action rather than envy. I let people help me more. I became much more trusting of and open to sharing ideas with others which, paradoxically, brought more me opportunity, not less.
It did not come without a cost. There were times when I felt particularly inadequate. There were times when I wondered if striving for such high levels of accomplishment could possibly be sustainable indefinitely. Dealing with this prompted me to live out Cardone’s advice: If you think of success as a responsibility, not a luxury, that is a different mindset and will help you through the tough times. When you think of success as a responsibility to yourself and in your pursuit of success you’re thinking: ‘How can I honour this responsibility that I have to myself, to my family, to my community, to society?’
One example of this was regarding a project I was in charge of at work. The goal was really ambitious: basically, we hoped to grow our business by 10 times what we originally planned. Midway through the project, the workload got stressful, and I’m sure many other people around me were ready to downscale our targets towards something more ‘realistic’. But I remembered Cardone’s principle.
After all, while we didn’t ultimately match the complete doubling of our efforts, we got awfully close. And not only did we exceed the alternate targets, we also learned a great deal. And that, as I learned again, just going for the gusto even if you don’t quite get there, means that you can nevertheless get further than any ordinary ambition.
The shift from scarcity to abundance mindset revolutionised my life – both professionally and personally. At work, innovation, work and cooperation exploded as did new projects. In private, I felt more purpose and satiation. I finally understood that success is not a finite resource, like energy, it can be produced, multiplied and shared without ever being exhausted.
For instance, I began to mentor junior professionals in my discipline. I was concerned that such a move might hinder my own success, but it did the opposite. Their fresh and new-found perspectives fed into my own professional growth, creating their own cycle of success.
Until I embraced the idea of infinite success, I found it hard to think of problems as possibilities; to view others’ successes as motivation not competition; or to find joy in the simple act of trying. For those whose thinking is constrained by limiting rules – whether your own or someone else’s – I encourgage you to embrace the idea of Infinite. The 10X Rule offers plenty of tactics, but more importantly it offers a whole new way of seeing success.
To any who are still having doubts about adopting these ideas, I say go for it. But start small and increase your expectations to be higher and work a lot harder by setting and re-setting your goals at a higher level. The transformation is spectacular and will give you a real lift, never mind what I’ve described. The sky isn’t even the limit – OUR MINDSET may be!
