The principle ‘commit first, figure the rest out later’ written in The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone in 2011 was like a restart button had been clicked on my life. I had gotten into the habit of planning out every single step before I acted, which often left me over-analysed and with paralysis-by-analysis. This one idea changed everything – my career and life.
This is the guiding principle of the 10X philosophy, and Cardone puts it to good use – failing to commit before you’re fully equipped to make it happen is a set-up for a small life, he says, a life of staying within the confines of others’ expectations. Once you’re in, you will find a way to make it work, or more specifically you’ll make someone else find a way to make it work for you. It’s a more agile strategy than trying to hold back, collecting more information, resources and time, which is how bigger, more established competitors often end up deciding things, deadlocked in meetings or in boardrooms where deeper thought and analysis is supposedly required before a course of action can be agreed upon.
For me, embracing ‘commit first, figure the rest out later’ has been liberating in the extreme. It’s taken me out of my comfort zone and made me do things I might otherwise have put off forever. Whether applying it to a new project at work, or a surprise holiday, it helped me take that leap, with the sure and certain knowledge that the details would ultimately be worked out, and that a whole-hearted commitment would force me to find the means to overcome any obstacles I met.
But come on – doesn’t that principle set you up for failure? Shouldn’t you know what you are trying to do? How could you possibly live if you don’t have a plan? In fact, the do-it-when-you-feel-like-it philosophy has its own challenges. If you aren’t prepared and just throw yourself into something, then won’t you be more likely to screw up? And won’t you also suffer financial losses from time to time?
But what does The 10X Rule have to say about these worries? While Cardone recognises that playing things this big can be ‘dicey’, all too often, he says, it’s a better idea than delaying commitment until you know exactly what you’re doing, because by then the deal might be long gone. Only when you’re committed, he claims, are you likely ‘to innovate [and] solve problems on the fly’, which is because, after all, aren’t highly successful people precisely people who make stuff up as they go along?
Adopting this approach has led to me undertaking acts that I would never have previously imagined: I will, for instance, run a community event without the speakers or sponsors lined up, just because it’s something I know I could do well with the right level of hustle. I would then need to hustle to pull it together.
After all, the catch-phrase of this 10X principle is, ‘Commit first, figure the rest out later.’ It redefines business and life as a series of hair-trigger reactions, where the call to act and decide is non-negotiable, and the desired outcome must always be achieved. In other words, it’s a one-thousand-per-cent-pause-free approach to business and life.
As I’ve become a disciple of this mindset and methodology, it’s made all the difference over the past several years. It’s transformed my thinking and behavior beyond what I could have ever imagined.
So if you’re hesitating about doing something because you don’t know yet how you can do it, I say go for it. Commit first and figure it out later. That’s the power of the 10X Rule. And the payoff will be amazing.
