Be honest with yourself: Do you have more energy and creativity available than you're using? Average student, average marriage, average kids, average finances, average business, average products, average body type . . . . Who really desires “average”? Imagine that the products and services we're so often tempted to buy used “average” in their advertising: “This fairly average product can be found at an average price and delivers mediocre results.” Who would buy such a product? People certainly don't go out of their way to find and pay for run-of-the-mill merchandise. “We are offering cooking classes that will guarantee that you become an average cook.” I can do that now without taking classes. “New movie opening this weekend—average director, average acting, and the critics are raving, 'two hours of average action.'” Oh—can't wait to stand in line for that one!
Taking normal action is the most dangerous of the levels, because it is the most accepted by society. This level of action is authorized by the masses, and therefore people who don't take normal actions don't draw the necessary attention required to catapult them to success. Companies call me constantly to help the lower performers in their organization, yet they're overlooking the average and even top performers who are still only taking average actions. This book is probably more likely to wake up a “normal” action taker than someone who does nothing or retreats since the “do-nothing” person wouldn't even bother to buy this book in the first place and the retreater probably won't even go into the bookstore. People who take average or normal levels of action will buy the book—and hopefully come out from under the spell that has been placed on them. It is only by moving from the third to the fourth degree of action that a person can turn an average existence into an exceptional life.
The Fourth Degree: Massive Action
Though it might sound far-fetched, massive action is the most natural state of action there is for all of us. Look at children; they're in constant action, except when something is wrong. This was certainly true about me for the first 10 years my life. It was nonstop massive action except when I was sleeping. Like most kids, I was full-out, all the time—with people frowning and hinting that maybe I should bring it down a notch or two. Did that happen to you? And have you done it to your own children?
Until adults started telling me otherwise, I didn't know anything else other than massive action. Even the most basic elements of the universe in which we live support massive amounts of action. Dive beneath the surface of the ocean and you will see constant and massive amounts of activity taking place. Just beneath the crust of the planet on which you walk is tremendous movement that never stops. Look inside an ant mound or into a beehive, and you will see colonies of living beings generating massive amounts of action in order to ensure their survival into the future. Nowhere in any of these environments are there signs of retreat or no activity or anything close to what would be considered normal levels.
My dad was a very hard worker and very much a strong disciplinarian who was definitely willing to take massive action. Unfortunately, he died when I was 10, which really hammered me. I look back now and realize that this event caused me to immediately begin retreating from areas of life in which I needed to take action. Meanwhile, I was expending a lot of energy in areas that really shouldn't have received any of my attention: drugs, alcohol, and a whole list of other useless activities. This continued throughout high school and then college, with a few more losses along the way. I continued to progressively retreat from those things that were good for me and continued concentrating on more destructive areas. I wasn't necessarily lazy or unmotivated; I simply didn't have the proper direction and was being misinformed about how to attack life.
I spent most of this time bored, without purpose, and gravitating to areas in life in which I could expend a lot of energy but not produce constructive results. I think this is something that most people endure at some time in their lives; I just happened to encounter it early on.
As I mentioned in a previous chapter, I experienced a major wakeup call at the age of 25. I knew that I had to get redirected or else I would pay the ultimate price. I made a decision to make the same commitment to the creation of success. Since it was already hard work not succeeding, I just changed the focus. Despite the fact that my father had been gone for 15 years, he still provided a great role model for me. He believed in a strong work ethic, was willing to do whatever it took to provide for his family, and went after success as though it was truly his duty and calling. I am sure he enjoyed the financial rewards and sense of personal accomplishment that came with his achievements; however, it was also clear to me that he thought it to be his responsibility to his family, church, name, and even God. He just ran out of time!
Once I finally woke up from my period of misdirection and misinformation, I committed all my energy to my career. Ever since the age of 25, the one thing I did right—whether it was in my first sales job or the first company I built—was to approach whatever task was before me with massive amounts of action. It was never retreat, no action, or even average amounts; it was constant, persistent, and immense attack on the target.
Massive action is actually the level of action that creates new problems—and until you create problems, you're not truly operating at the fourth stage of action. When I started my seminar business at the age of 29, I employed the 10X Rule to create a name for myself. I would start my day at 7 AM and not get back to my hotel until 9 PM. I spent the day cold calling companies and offering to do presentations to their sales and management teams. I would visit as many as 40 organizations in a single day. I remember being in El Paso, Texas—a city where I had never been, knew no one, and no one knew me. Within two weeks, I had seen every business in that market. Although I was unsuccessful in making every one of them a client, I certainly secured more business by taking massive action than I would have otherwise.
A real estate agent once traveled with me to observe firsthand how I was growing my business. After three days of shadowing me, he admitted, “There is no way I can do this for another day. I am only riding with you, and I'm exhausted.” I approached every day like my life depended on the actions I took. I refused to leave the city without knowing I did everything possible to meet every business owner there. Cold “visiting” companies taught me more about taking massive action than any other activity I have ever done and has proved more valuable to me in my other ventures.
When you are taking massive action, you aren't thinking in terms of how many hours you work. When you start operating at the fourth degree of action, your mind-set will shift and so will your results. You will end up instigating opportunities that you will have to address earlier, later, and in a different way than you would on a “normal” day, so a routine day will become a thing of the past. I continued this commitment to massive action until one day it was no longer an unusual activity but a habit for me. It was interesting to see how many people would ask me, “Why are you still out this late at night?” “What are you doing calling on us on a Saturday?” “You never quit, do you?” “I wish my people worked like this.” And even— “What are you on?” I was on something; I was treating success as my duty, obligation, and responsibility, and massive action was my ace in the hole. Signals that you're taking massive action are having people comment upon and admire your level of activity.
However, you can't think in terms of compliments or how many hours you work or even how much money you're making when you're operating at this degree. Instead, you have to approach each day as though your life and your future depend on your ability to take massive action. When I started my first business, I had to make it work; there was simply no two ways about it! If I wanted people to know about me and about what I represented, then I was going to have to do a lot—period. The problem wasn't competition; it was obscurity. No one even knew who I was. This has been the single biggest problem I've encountered in every business I have built, and I imagine that it's one most entrepreneurs face. People don't know you or about your new produ
ct—and the only way to burst through obscurity is by taking massive action. I didn't have money to invest in advertising, so I spent all my energy on phone calls, traditional mail, e-mail, cold calls, return calls, visits, and more calls. This level of massive action may sound—and is indeed—exhausting at times. However, it will create more certainty and security for you than probably any other education or training you will ever receive.
I have been called a lot of things due to my commitment to action—a workaholic, obsessive, greedy, never satisfied, driven, and even manic. Yet every time I have been labeled, it's always been by someone operating at less than the fourth degree of action. I have never had someone who is more successful than I am considering my excessive action to be a bad thing—because successful people know firsthand what it takes to achieve this kind of success. They know themselves how to get where they want to go and would never identify massive action as undesirable in any way.
Taking massive action means making somewhat unreasonable choices and then following these up with even more action. This level of action will be considered by some to be borderline insane, well beyond the agreed-upon social norm—and will always create new problems. But remember: If you don't create new problems, then you're not taking enough action.
You can also expect to be criticized and labeled by others when you start taking massive action. The second you start hitting it big, you will immediately be judged by the mediocre. People who operate at the other three levels of action will be threatened by your activity level and will often make it seem somehow “wrong” in order to make themselves right. These people cannot stand seeing others succeed at these levels and will do everything to stop them. Whereas a sane person would step up to your level, a mediocre person will tell you that you are wasting your time, this won't work in your industry, it is a turnoff to your clientele, no one will want to work with you, and so on. Even management occasionally discourages employees from putting forth this kind of substantial effort. You will know you are stepping into the realm of massive action when you (1) create new problems for yourself and (2) start to receive criticism and warning from others. But stay strong. This activity will break you out of the hypnotic state of mediocrity that you've been taught to accept.
And in order to deliver at that level of massive action, you must take every opportunity that comes your way. For example, my wife is an actress. I tell her all the time to say yes to every audition, regardless of whether she is prepared or whether she thinks the part is right for her. It's better to suck and be seen than not to be seen at all! “But what if I bomb?” my wife asks me. I tell her, “Hollywood is filled with terrible actors that are still somehow working.” Maybe they won't pick you for the part you went up for but will see that you're perfect for some other part. The goal is to be seen, thought of, and considered—in one way or another. Your only problem is obscurity, not talent. In order for the endeavor you've chosen to work out for you, you have to make constant, relentless effort. Massive action can never hurt you and will always help you. This is also one place where quantity is more important than quality. Money and power follow attention, so whoever can get the most attention is the person who takes the most action and sooner or later will get the most results.
No one is going to come to your house and make your dreams come true. No one is going to march into your company and make your products known to the world. In order to stand out from the crowd—and for customers to even consider your products, services, and organization—you must take massive action. I talked about the importance of domination in my last book, If You're Not First, You're Last. I was not alluding to physical domination but rather to mentally occupying the space of the public—so that when people think of your product, service, or industry, they think of you. Making massive action a discipline will break you through obscurity, increase your value to the marketplace, and help you generate success in any area you elect.
Chapter 8
Average Is a Failing Formula
Look around, and chances are you'll see a world filled with average. Although this is—as I have previously stated—the “acceptable” level of activity upon which the middle class is built, there is a growing amount of evidence that this thinking is unworkable. Jobs are being shipped overseas, and unemployment is becoming even more rampant. Members of the middle class are unable to get their heads above water, people are living longer than their savings, and entire companies and industries are being wiped out as a result of average products, average management, average workers, average actions, and average thinking.
This “addiction to average” can kill the possibility of making your dreams a reality. Consider the following statistics: The average worker reads an average of less than one book a year and works an average of 37.5 hours per week. This same person makes 319 times less money than the top U.S. CEOs, who claim to read more than 60 books a year. Many of these financially successful executives are maligned for the huge sums of money they receive; however, we often fail to appreciate what these people have done to get where they are today. Although it might not always look like they're working very hard, we often dismiss the fact that they somehow managed to attend the right schools, make the right connections, and then did what was necessary to move up the food chain. It all required substantial action on their part. You can resent them if you choose, but that doesn't change the fact that they are being rewarded for the success they've achieved.
After the economy suffered so greatly in 2008, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz began to do what almost every other CEO in America was doing—cutting expenses and getting rid of nonperforming locations. He then did something that most CEOs did not do: he traveled all over the country to meet with Starbucks patrons. Long after the average worker had gone home, billionaire Schultz was visiting his stores and meeting with coffee drinkers to find out how Starbucks could better satisfy customers. Although the media didn't do much reporting on this, it was a pretty astounding pattern of events. Here was a guy making his way across the country at 9 PM to get feedback from people buying his products. This is a prime example of embracing a “greater-than-average” thought and action process. This is clearly above and beyond what the marketplace—and any customer—expects. It far exceeded any action considered commonplace for a CEO, and Starbucks' very solid and strong growth was reflected in stock charts.
This company makes a product that people do not absolutely need—especially during troubling economic times. Yet Starbucks continues to sell and grow both its brand and return to investors. This demonstrates that although the quality of the product is clearly important, the individuals who work for an organization are truly the force that will make the most difference. Schultz knew exactly how to approach the situation. Despite the recession, despite temporary contraction, he still managed to “expand” his organization—not necessarily with more locations but by using his personal energy, resources, and creativity to take massive action, touch each of his stores and many of his patrons, and increase the presence of his brand and its revenues.
Any undertaking that includes accepting average will fail you sooner or later. Anything conducted in standard amounts simply won't get the job done. The normal levels of action at which most people operate fail to take into account the effects of various forces—such as gravity, age, resistance, timing, and the unexpected. When average actions hit any resistance, competition, loss or lack of interest, negative or challenging market conditions, or all of these, you will find your project tumbling down.
Finally, I want you to take into consideration the concerted efforts of individuals and groups who actually impede your efforts. Although I am not one to be paranoid or live in fear, I learned the very expensive lesson that these people do exist when I was approached by a group who claimed to want to make me their partner. However, they never intended to bring me in as a partner but instead intended from the outset to steal from me the success I had created in my life. I never planned on this in any of my equations, and
it literally robbed me of years of efforts. So take it from me—you cannot plan on everything, and people will try to take from you what they are unable to create themselves.
When I look back and attempt to analyze what happened with these criminals, I realize that I was susceptible to their enticement because I was no longer operating at 10X levels. This really opened my eyes to the fact that the moment I started resting on my laurels—and thought that I could “coast a bit”—I made myself a target. It is almost impossible to plan for every situation. In your lifetime, you will experience extraordinary conditions, some of which may be hostile and unpleasant. The best way to plan is to condition your thinking and your actions to 10X levels. Succeed so big that no one person or event or series of missteps can take you down! Average levels of anything will fail you—or at the very least, put you at risk! If, on the other hand, you create more success than you want or need, you'll always be prepared—even when those who can't create success for themselves try to steal it from you.
Although I experienced years of success at levels that others deemed to be quite impressive, I knew in my heart that I had quit taking massive action. And sure enough, these guys decided to peel a little of my success away from me—and got away with it. It was quite an expensive and humbling setback—but it really woke me up to the fact that you are never safe to move to normal levels of involvement and activity. Once you do so, I assure you, what you have and what you dreamed of will start to disappear. This holds true for your health, marriage, wealth, and spiritual condition. Normal gets you just that—normal.
The Ten Times Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure Page 6
