29. Be Dedicated to Continuous Learning
The most successful CEOs are reported to read an average of 60 books and attend more than six conferences per year—whereas the average American worker reads an average of less than one book and makes 319 times less income. Although the media often discuss the disparity between the rich and the poor, they frequently fail to cover the amount of time and energy the wealthy have committed to reading, studying, and educating themselves. Successful people make time for conventions, symposiums, and reading. There has never been a book, audio program, download, webinar, or speech from which I have not benefited—even from the ones that sucked.
The most successful people I know read everything they can get their hands on. They approach a $30 book as though it has the potential to make them a million dollars. They see every opportunity to train and educate themselves as the most solid and sure investment they can make. Unsuccessful people, on the other hand, simply worry about the cost of a book or seminar without ever giving consideration to the benefits it will provide. So join the ranks of successful people who know that their income, wealth, health, and future are dependent upon their ability to continue to seek out new information and never stop learning.
30. Be Uncomfortable
Those who succeed were—at one point or another in their lives—willing to put themselves in situations that were uncomfortable, whereas the unsuccessful seek comfort from all their decisions. The most important things I have done in my life were not the things I was comfortable doing; in fact, many of them made me very uneasy. Whether it was moving to a new city, cold calling a client, meeting new people, doing a new presentation, or venturing into new sectors, most of it was uncomfortable for me until I got used to doing it. It is so tempting to become content with your surroundings, daily rituals, and habits—most of which are probably not furthering your mission. It feels good when things are familiar. However, successful people are willing to put themselves in new and unfamiliar situations. That doesn't mean that they are always changing just for the sake of changing; however, they know that getting too comfortable, too relaxed, and too familiar causes a person to become soft and lose his or her creativity and hunger to stay out front. So be willing to be uncomfortable, and do what makes other people uncomfortable as well. It is a sure sign that you're on your way to success.
31. “Reach Up” in Relationships
If it were up to me, this would be a basic course for every year that someone attended school. It would include drills in which people are encouraged to do things that they are not comfortable doing. The successful constantly talk about having people around them who are smarter, brighter, and more creative. It's unlikely that you'll hear one of them say, “I got here by surrounding myself with more people just like me.” Yet the average person typically spends his or her time with like-minded people or even those who bring less to the table than they can.
Make a habit of “reaching up” in all of your relationships—toward people who are better connected, better educated, and even more successful. These individuals have much more to share than your supposed “equals.” This habit is connected to their willingness to change, challenge tradition, grow, and do what others can't fathom. Reach up—never sideways and never down! You must base your decisions on what will be the greatest investment to move you toward your ethical commitment to create success for yourself, your family, and your business. The people with whom you surround yourself will have a great deal to do with whether you achieve your goals—or not. You don't want to go horizontal. You want to go up—and you do this by associating yourself with bigger thinkers, bigger dreamers, and bigger players. Black belts don't learn new skills from white belts. They can be reminded of the basics, but a white belt cannot take the black belt to a red belt. And you can't become a scratch golfer by playing with bogie golfers. You have to interact with people who are better than you. It's the only way to become better yourself.
32. Be Disciplined
Remember: We are not just talking about money here. This refers to being successful in all areas of life—and to do so, you will not be able to compromise this thing called discipline. Discipline is an orderly, prescribed conduct that will get you what you want—and it's a requirement for 10X players. Unfortunately, most peoples' disciplines look more like bad habits instead of the—admittedly uncomfortable—10X actions they should be taking over and over again.
Discipline is what you use to complete any activity until the activity—regardless of how uncomfortable—becomes your normal operating procedure. In order to ever attain and keep success, you must determine which habits are constructive—and discipline both yourself and your group (see point 28) to do those things over and over again.
If you find you do not have all of the previously mentioned success traits and habits—or you see yourself having most or some of them most of the time but occasionally fall off a bit—no worries. I would expect that most of the people reading this don't consistently display every single one of these qualities all the time. Become aware of what the list is, keep it close to you, and make a new commitment to making these techniques part of who you are rather than merely something you “do.” Although I don't personally operate in the success column 100 percent of the time, I do make efforts to ensure that I spend most of my time doing what successful people do.
None of the things on this list is a superhuman quality. Every single one is attainable. Don't use just one or two of the techniques. Start thinking and operating with them, and they will become a part of you. Use them all.
Chapter 23
Getting Started with 10X
So where do you even get started with all this? What kinds of challenges might you run into? And how do you make 10X a truly persistent discipline? All you really have to do is look at the list of what successful people do to determine what you need to do. When to start? Well, remember: There are only two times that exist for successful people. You want to focus to some degree on now but keep most of your attention on the future you desire to create. You certainly can't start yesterday, and if you wait until tomorrow, you won't be a success because you will have violated an important tenet of the successful: Act now and then keep acting with the knowledge that enough actions taken now will create the future. When successful people become lazy, they add time to their decisions. At that point, they are probably more concerned with protecting what they have than with creating new levels of success. And conservation of success or what to do with it once you get it is not what this book is about!
I wrote this book at 52 years of age and have currently created enough success for myself, only to have an appetite for more. I truly believe that I have yet to entirely fulfill my capacity or abilities. I don't want it just for the game or the money but mostly because I really do consider it to be an ethical obligation to utilize my potential. Whatever—or whoever—drives you, go get it now—and quit being reasonable with yourself.
I am undertaking a major personal and professional expansion as I write this—all while expanding my family and my philanthropic desires. Everyone in my organization and even my clients will tell you that when I go at something, I always go now with an unreasonable belief to do whatever is necessary to hit my targets. I am not an organizer, a great planner, or a manager. I realize that taking action without adding time, meetings, and overanalysis is both an asset and a deficiency. The people who know me would probably also tell you that when I embark on a project—whether it is writing a new book, creating a seminar program, developing a new product, starting a new workout, improving my marriage, or spending time with my daughter—I go at it completely. I'm all in, fully committed, like a hungry dog on the back of a meat truck. I know myself fairly well. When I get involved in something, I am completely unreasonable with the actions I take until I get the results I want. I don't make excuses for myself, nor do I let others make excuses.
Now means now—not a minute from now. Start with first things first; make your initial
list of goals, then a list of actions that will propel you in that direction. Then—without overthinking it—start taking those actions. A few things to keep in mind as you start: 1. Do not reduce your goals as you write them.
2. Do not get lost in the details of how to accomplish them at this point.
3. Ask yourself, “What actions can I take today to move me toward these goals?”
4. Take whatever actions you come up with—regardless of what they are or how you feel.
5. Do not prematurely value the outcome of your actions.
6. Go back each day and review the list.
As you get started on this path of 10X, you may feel a bit overwhelmed. You might even notice a tendency to start talking yourself out of getting started and taking action. Don't be tempted to wait. You know it doesn't work to delay. Think of yourself like being a car stuck in the mud; you need just enough traction to move an inch, and then you can begin to get out. It may require that you get dirty—but it's certainly better than being stuck.
As I've mentioned previously, you want to be aware of friends and family who offer supposed “advice” because they love and care about you. Many of them may suggest that they don't want you to be “unrealistic” and then disappointed. The vocabulary and mind-set of average people, even those you love, is always the same—be careful, play it safe, don't be impractical, success isn't everything, be satisfied with what you have, life is to be lived, money won't make you happy, don't want so much, take it easy, you don't have experience, you're too young, you're too old—and on and on. When you hear what average people say and think, thank them for their advice. Then remind them that you want their support in going for it, and let them know that you would rather commit to your dreams and goals and be disappointed than never commit and be disappointed.
Let me give you a real-life example of using 10X that took place for me as I was writing this book. You'll see as you read the following scenario how I was able to employ many of the habits and traits of the successful to reach the goals I had set for myself—and even go beyond what I had initially imagined. Sometime before I wrote my last book, If You're Not First, You're Last, I realized that although I had habitually been taking massive action in my life, I had yet to really think in 10X magnitudes. So I decided to test out my 10X Rule as I wrote this book. As I reset my targets to match 10X thinking, I realized that one of my goals was to become the name that is synonymous with sales training. I wanted to become the person who people think of first when they consider sales training, sales motivation, strategies—anything to do with selling. This was the concept of domination that I had in mind as I wrote If You're Not First, You're Last. I had my new, considerable goal in place—but no clue as to how to accomplish it. I know, however, that had I stopped and tried to figure out “how” to do this before I committed to making it my goal, I never would have gotten started. I probably would have decided immediately that it was impossible.
Once I clarified the right-sized target and avoided overwhelming myself with technicalities and “how” minutiae, I then allowed the target to determine which actions would be most consistent with its size. It seemed as though a big enough goal would automatically move me to the right actions. A little trick I used was to ask myself quality questions like “What do I have to do to become the name people think of when it comes to the topic of sales?” I immediately began writing down answers and ideas: (a) Get 6 billion people to know who I am. (b) Get a TV show. (c) Get a radio show. (d) Get my books into every book store and library. (e) Get on all the major talk shows and news shows. (f) Make If You're Not First, You're Last a New York Times best-seller. (g) Make a major push using social media to have people around the world become acquainted with my name. Again, I didn't know how to do any of this at this point—nor did I want to figure it out during these early steps. I know I would only become derailed by the “how tos” and the “cannots,” and I just wanted to focus on hitting my target.
As I considered my goal of becoming synonymous with selling, I knew I was setting a target big enough to keep me interested. I was inspired to do anything consistent with the answers we developed to our quality questions. Every single action my company and I took was aimed at getting my name out there. We didn't know anything or have any connections to television. I had written two self-published books but didn't even know how to get a book published, much less sold in book stores. At this time, I hadn't done any TV/news or media interviews and assumed that sites like Facebook and Twitter were for people who didn't have anything better to do. Yet of all the goals I had listed, I firmly believed that getting a TV show would have the biggest bang. I know that all the actions I took were somehow connected and were going to be vital.
I immediately went to my wife and informed her that I was somehow going to get a TV show where I could demonstrate my ability to enter any company anywhere and sell anything in any economy—and increase that company's sales. I knew that this would help me avoid any potential obscurity among sales organizations worldwide. Without reservation, she responded, “That would make an incredible TV show! You'd be great—let's do it! How can I help?” No questions asked—just full support.
I was extremely excited, but I did everything I could not to share my new idea with anyone who might tell me it was impossible. I realized this was a big and exciting enough challenge to get all my resources behind. I also knew it wouldn't take place overnight.
My first move was to inform my team—and emphasize that any project that moved us in the direction of our target had to get done. I made it clear that I didn't want to hear “I can't, we can't, it's too hard, it can't be done.” We started making 10X moves by making calls to anyone we knew who could put me in touch with someone involved in the media, television, and book industries. This was somewhat of a painful step. People who work in the book and television industries have seen more than their share of failures and have therefore come to view projects like this in a fairly pessimistic light. They didn't hesitate to let me know—multiple times—how long something like this would take and that I couldn't set my expectations too high. I was hammered by the average kind of thinking ingrained in so many people—the very kind that keeps them from accomplishing what they want. I repeatedly received comments like “300 shows are pitched for every single show that gets picked up,” “The networks aren't spending money,” “A sales show is not a topic people care about,” “There are over 750,000 books written a year,” “When you don't have a well-known name, getting on TV is very difficult,” and on and on.
Although this might be about the time when many people consider giving up, I didn't—and you can't either. Realize that everyone who's trying to get their “break” is going through the same thing. I had to continually disregard the naysayers and refocus on my goals. I would look again at what I had to do to accomplish that goal and then do it—regardless of whether I was scared or comfortable. Remember: Successful people embrace fear and discomfort!
I don't know if it was because of what we were doing or because we kept our focus on what we wanted, but I think it had to be a combination of both. I hired my first PR firm, and even though it was a complete disappointment, I didn't give up, because I knew it was important. When the second one didn't work out, I hired another one. We were undertaking a lot of projects simultaneously; they all took time, energy, money, and creativity, and they were all new to us. I had no way to gauge whether it was going to work or not. Additionally, I was doing this at a time when the economy was terrible. Everyone was contracting. My company—and the economy at large—was experiencing the greatest economic reduction I'd seen in my lifetime. My clients were reducing employees by up to 40 percent. My best competitor cut his staff in half, and countless others literally shut their doors. Entire companies were collapsing—and even complete industries were at risk. Everyone was scared, but I kept one important point in mind: that the most successful expand while others get smaller. They take risks while others conserve. So rather than cut my
staff or cut our expansion, I eliminated my own salary—and took the money I normally paid myself and used it to fund 10X.
Even as I was challenged like never before on every front imaginable, I did everything I could just to keep the target in focus. It wasn't easy, and there was no guaranteed outcome, but I did everything I could to remind myself that we could make it happen. The more committed I became, the more challenges I faced. I almost felt as though the universe was just trying to see how strong I was and whether I could stick to it. My PR firms would get me one measly interview in three months, the banks were asking for more and more money, and my income had been cut off (by me, of course—but it still hurt!). The only thing I had going for me was my marriage, a new baby coming into the world, and my fierce belief in my capacity to persist and work. I was in love with my 10X goal. I knew it wasn't just good for me but that the world needed to know a new way of doing things. To me, it wasn't just an issue of personal success; it was about being on a mission to help. The entire world was suffering economically. I felt that my goal was substantial enough to move the bar in a big way—and not just for me. I felt that the risk of expansion was worth more than the money or the energy I was expending. The goal has to be more valuable than the risk—or you have determined the wrong target.
The Ten Times Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure Page 17
