10X Is Easier Than 2X (Part I)

Author

Matt Karamazov
December 15, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 20 minutes

*Business owners and entrepreneurs looking to scale their operations - and themselves - to levels unimagined by any of their 2X competitors.

*Ambitious leaders and professionals of all persuasions who are always on the lookout for that edge, that game plan for getting to where they want to go, and in the fastest and smartest way possible.

*Anyone who is unsatisfied with their current trajectory in life, and who wants not only to jumpstart their progress and get moving, but also to see just how far they can go and where it's possible for them to end up.

*Unique, creative thinkers who are willing to discard the "good enough" life they have now in favor of the brilliant life it's possible for them to live.

“Going 10x means you’re living based on the most intrinsic and exciting future you can imagine. That 10x future becomes your filter for everything you do, and most of your current life can’t make it through that 10x filter.”

-Dr. Benjamin Hardy, 10X Is Easier Than 2X

Total transformations are never linear, and they are rarely obvious. It requires something completely different than what came before, a radical change in behavior and thinking, and if you're not consciously aiming for these types of 10X transformations, you'll never experience them.

The best books, however, can be catalysts for these types of shifts, and that was exactly my experience with Dr. Benjamin Hardy's book. It represented not an addition to my life and my business results, but a multiplication of my efforts and rewards. My life and my business have never been the same.

10X Is Easer Than 2X is not a difficult book to read or understand, and once you see what Hardy's writing about, you can't unsee it. The goal of the book is to inspire entrepreneurial leaders to aim for "breakthrough" goals, not merely "incremental" goals (2X) - which will never lead to radical transformation.

One of the major themes of the book is that, in aiming for these kinds of 10X transformations, you'll have to let go of about 80 percent of what you're doing now. What got you here won't get you there, and as you keep ascending higher and higher in developing your own Unique Ability (more on that later), you'll have to keep zoning in on the 20% that will get you to that next level.

In fact, as you progress, the people on your team will be able to take on your former 80%, especially if it represents their 20%. Then, they'll develop their own Unique Abilities, and they'll be able to offload their 80% in a virtuous cycle of continuous, never-ending improvement.

If all this sounds a little bit abstract, we'll get into specifics later. These are just the broad strokes. But this kind of big-picture thinking is likely to start a spin-cycle inside your brain as you start to get a handle on all the possibilities this idea opens up for you to expand your four most important freedoms:

*Time Freedom

*Financial Freedom

*Relationship Freedom

*Purpose Freedom

The above framework comes from Dr. Hardy's coauthor, Dan Sullivan, the world's leading coach for highly successful entrepreneurs and the originator of this 10X idea. They've teamed up on several book projects before, and I've written breakdowns on those books here, here, and here.

But it's those four fundamental freedoms that you'll need to keep expanding if you want to keep making progress. The projects and purposes you devote yourself to, the people you choose to surround yourself with while you do, the money it'll take to make them real, and the time it'll take to bring it all together.

This all must seem like a lot more work, but it's actually less. It's easier than going 2X, and that's because we're talking about a total reimagining of business as usual, not something that's "a little bit better" than what came before.

In this breakdown, we'll be covering several Key Ideas that are going to bring all of this together, but right away, this idea will likely seem strangely familiar. Because you've done this before...

#1: You’ve Gone 10X Before

“By seeing 10X more clearly in your own past, you’ll also be able to more clearly see it in your future. You’ve gone 10x many times.

Anytime you’ve committed to something you wanted and transformed through that commitment, you went 10x. You made a fundamental and qualitative upgrade that permanently expanded your freedoms and agency.

When you went from crawling to walking, you went 10x. You committed and transformed yourself. You can look back and see that at one point, you weren’t able to do something and then you made the transformation.

When you learned how to speak, you went 10x. When you learned how to read, you went 10x. When you learned how to make friends, you went 10x. Anytime you committed to something beyond what you’d done and transformed through that commitment, you went 10x.

Learning to drive a car (or fly a plane) is a 10x jump. Becoming an entrepreneur is a 10x jump. Anytime you go 10x, you no longer operate as the same person you did prior to the 10x. You’ve altered your identity, mental models, and way of being. You’ve expanded your Unique Ability.”

Reference experiences are one of the most powerful tools in your transformation toolbox. By "reference experiences" I mean specific times that you can look back on and remember that you've got what it takes.

These are actual events in your life that you can look back on and remind yourself that you've been here before. You've done this once, you can do it again. So it's not that you have to learn how to go 10X; you have to re-learn how to go 10X.

One specific thing I've noticed about some of the most successful people in the world is that they all, virtually without exception, possess an almost delusional self-belief in their own ability to figure it out; to win; to go 10X.

#2: Almost Everything is Noise

“Almost everything is noise. Almost everything you’re now doing is a distraction from 10X.”

The entire modern world is an attention trap, designed to strip you of your personal power and remove your attention from the actualization of your highest potential to the latest scandal or psy-op du jour.

You're also doing this to yourself by continuing to engage in low-leverage activities that will only keep you stuck at 2X levels. Most of what you're doing is holding you back, obscuring the pathway toward your 10X transformation.

So what you have to do is rigorously analyze everything that you're working on and doing on a day-by-day level, and measuring it against those activities that will bring you to 10X.

If something doesn't measure up, cut it. Ruthlessly eliminate it. Discard it without mercy, and refocus your extremely limited attention on those things - and only those things - that carry within them the seeds of a 10X transformation.

You won't be able to see what those things are so long as you're mechanically going about your accustomed routine. You need to take a step back. No, a step up and look at it from a more holistic perspective. From the perspective of someone who has already gone 10X and is now illuminating the path for those behind them. More on this later.

#3: It’s Never Crowded Along the Extra Mile

“In all aspects of life, the competition is highest for average goals. Not only is the competition highest, but the excitement is lowest and the pathway forward is dramatically more complex and confusing with small and linear goals.

With unrealistic, impossible, or ‘10x’-level goals, the competition is lowest, the excitement is highest, and the pathway forward becomes simple and nonlinear. You stop following the crowd. You shift toward quality rather than quantity and stop competing with anyone.”

There are several important things at work here. First, the obvious. Most people are trying to "make six figures," or "get a six-pack," etc. Everyone wants to buy a Porsche or a Lambo, move into a big house, or whatever else. Nothing against luxury cars whatsoever - I drive one myself - but as a goal, it's pretty damn boring. Unimaginative at best, harmful to the soul at worst.

The same dynamic is at work in our careers. There are plenty of people trying to become doctors and lawyers, but how many people do you know who are gunning for the presidency of the American Medical Association? Who's actually trying to make it onto the Supreme Court?

Better yet, how many people do you know who are actually concerned with taking their physical and intellectual potential to the absolute upper limit of human possibility? It's that a lot more exciting than trying to get some little promotion at work so you can buy a slightly more expensive house?

The former are 10X goals, and not only are they much more intrinsically rewarding and exciting, but you also turn your back on competition once you set those kinds of goals in the first place.

Who are you even competing against if your goal is to read 10,000 books (my personal goal), or ensure humanity's future as a Type II civilization? I'd take the bus for the rest of my natural life if I had to, if it meant that I could throw my entire being into achieving those kinds of goals.

#4: The Goal Determines the Process

“The higher and more specific your goals and standards become, the fewer options you have - which counterintuitively, actually makes them easier to achieve. Bigger and more specific goals immediately axe almost everything you’re now doing, making all sorts of space for exploring and scanning much better options.” 

One of my favorite reframes of all time is to change the question from "if" something were possible, to "how would I do it?" It's powerful because it forces you to reevaluate the path ahead in a way that "smaller" questions just don't.

Money examples are always the easiest to explain, so I'll use one here. If your goal is to earn $100,000 a year, there are a multitude of "good" options for doing so. You could enter any number of professions, start innumerable different kinds of businesses, put into action a variety of strategies and schemes.

But if your goal is to earn $1M in a single year, then the "playing field" of options narrows considerably. At that income level, you pretty much have to start some kind of business, and even then, you're probably going to come to the conclusion that you'll need to prioritize growing your personal brand if you want to scale fast.

There are still way too many options for making money on the internet, though. One million dollars could come as a result of sponsorships, courses, coaching, ad revenue, etc. You've got to narrow these down. So which monetization strategy do you pursue?

Well, to reach $1M in revenue, you could sell 100,000 books at $10 each. You could do that. Or, you could sell 4,000 copies of a $250 course based on your expertise. And let me tell you, it's much easier to find 4,000 people willing to pay you $250 than it is to find 100,000 people willing to pay you $10.

Even better than that, though, is coaching and consulting. There's no reason why you can't do a combination of all these, but for simplicity's sake - both here in this example and in the real world - you're going to want to begin with just one. And again, let me tell you, it's a lot easier to find 10 people willing to pay you $8,333 per month for coaching than it is to find 4,000 people willing to pay you $250.

Are any of these paths easy? Absolutely not! In all likelihood it will take you years to build the kind of skill set that would be worth $8,333 to someone. But it can be done. There are people who have done it; people who have become so good at what they do, that they are sought out by the wealthiest people in the entire world and paid exorbitant sums to offload the knowledge and expertise that's already trapped inside their heads.

Also, if you notice, even the act of becoming the kind of person who possesses the skills and ability to charge $8,333 per month for coaching necessitates a 10X transformation as well. No one is born carrying that much value inside their mind.

That kind of expertise and pricing power is developed, intentionally, over the course of months, years, decades. And yes, it's hard! It's hard to transform yourself into the kind of person who's able to command fees like that. But poverty has its challenges as well, and I'd argue, not trying to live up to your potential is harder on the psyche than actually going for it.

#5: Develop Your Unique Ability

“The scariest and most exciting thing you’ll ever do is be your truest self, holding nothing back, and with no apology. This is how you develop mastery in your Unique Ability.”

What is your Unique Ability? What is the unique value you provide to others, which no one else can? This is your 20%, that part of your work - your calling - that you could never, ever outsource or delegate. It's what you're uniquely suited to do, what you've decided to make the focal point of your entire career.

A few obvious ones: Will Smith's Unique Ability is acting. The dude literally doesn't know how to cook or drive. I doubt that he could tell you almost anything about what most people consider "common knowledge," but he went all-in on his Unique Ability, literally to the exclusion of basic functions of adult human beings.

Kobe Bryant was another one. His 80% probably includes taxes, the laundry, other basic household chores, as well as common, "fun" activities like drinking and clubbing.

Sure, he probably had some vague idea of when tax season was, and obviously he's been to a nightclub before, but his Unique Ability was playing basketball at the superstar level, and literally everything else was part of his 80%, a total distraction from what he decided he was placed on this Earth to do.

So you have to ask yourself:

“What is the 10x jump that excites you most, which requires you go all-in on your Unique Ability to realize?”

And...

“What’s the 80 percent of your life keeping you busy but unproductive, because it’s keeping you outside your Unique Ability?”

Have you an idea of what your Unique Ability, in fact, is? Or haven't you explored the edges of your experience enough and tried enough different things? Have you searched for your Unique Ability? Or, perhaps more accurately, have you decided what it's going to be?

#6: Asymmetric Upside

“The more different and better you are for a highly specific type of person, the more asymmetric the upside in everything you do.”

The common advice you'll get in the creator economy is to "niche down." What this means is to stop trying to appeal to everybody, and instead go narrow, disqualify most people from working with you, and go all-in on catering to the needs and problems of a specific customer avatar. It's good advice.

For example, there are tons of ghostwriters. Some very good, most painfully average, a few just awful. I won't name any names. But people aren't looking for "ghostwriters," they're looking for A ghostwriter, someone with domain knowledge, and experience in writing for a specific type of client, say, tech CEOs or politicians.

So if you were to hang out your shingle as a "ghostwriter," yeah you'd probably land a few clients here and there, but no one would think, "Wow, this person is perfect for me and my project." You're no different than a million other ghostwriters cold-pitching them in the DMs.

What niching down does for you, however, is differentiate you from the crowd and help your perfect client come to the decision that you are exactly who they are looking for. Then, price isn't even an object. Because you have no competition.

#7: Who Do You Want to Be a Hero To?

“Who do you want to be a hero to? Ask yourself your own version of this question, for it illuminates your fitness function, 20 percent, and the focus of your Unique Ability development.

First, you define your Dream Check. This Dream Check should be ballpark 10x what you’ve been paid to this point for a Unique Ability project. This is a massive, even absurd, amount of money to be paid for something that would ultimately be extreme play and transformational for you to do.

Then ask yourself these two questions: 

1. What specific value would I need to provide such that my Dream Check would be a no-brainer and extreme bargain for the person who would happily pay me? 

2. What would need to be true of my Unique Ability to be valuable enough that someone would see it as a no-brainer and extreme bargain to write and pay me my Dream Check?

In order to provide that level of value, you would have to become 10x better and more specific in your Unique Ability. You’d have to be able to produce 10x value for the person who wants it - whatever specific results those are.

Who do you want to collaborate with? Who do you want to create specialized value with and for? What kind of Unique Ability would you need to have for you to get that Dream Check? What specialized skills and abilities and results do you want to create and develop?

10x is about better, not bigger. Hence, to get your Dream Check, you’d become 10x better and more valuable in some unique and specific way to whomever you want to be a hero to.

What would your 20 percent be - where you’d go all-in to further master your Unique Ability and transform yourself into the kind of person where getting that Dream Check isn’t just crazy, but feels completely natural?”

#8: Claiming Exponential Rewards

“The rewards for higher and unique quality aren’t linear, but exponential. 10x is easier than 2x. 10x is qualitative and takes you down a totally nonlinear pathway of mastery and freedom.

To go 10x requires committing fully to the 20 percent you most resonate with and eliminate everything that can’t or won’t go 10x with you. You quit everything that can’t go 10x from here, even if that means eliminating the best of what got you here.”

If it helps, what you're shooting for when you go 10X lies so far beyond the results that most people experience that the rewards are exponentially better too.

You won't merely gain small increases in satisfaction and quality of life, but exponential leaps that are hard to even imagine while you're still stuck in 2X thinking.

It requires the sacrifice and elimination of literally everything that can't make that 10X jump with you, but the hardships and those sacrifices are so completely worth it once you reach the other side.

Even the attempt will change you and how you move through the world. And one of the most important things you'll have to eliminate are the beliefs that a 10X better future aren't possible for you.

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