On my way back from Rome, I had a really long layover and ran across The 10X Rule in Hudson News. I had never heard of the book or the author but after 3 pages I was hooked. 

The author, Grant Cardone, shares some really dope lessons on business and creating an exceptional life for yourself and family. The crux of the book is something he calls 10X action, or “Massive Action”. Work 10 times harder and set goals 10 times greater than you normally would and you will begin to see your life change. Although this book focuses on more traditional business, 100% of his lessons can be carried over into the creative world. This is definitely a must-read for anyone who wants to take their career and life to a new level.

A lot of great excerpts in this book, here are some of my favorites:

Grant, On Success:

• Success is not something that happens to you; its something that happens because of you and your actions.

Grant, On Competition:

• The problem in business isn’t competition, its obscurity. Make yourself known through massive action, social networks, emails, personal meetings, etc.
• Instead of competing, focus on domination. Have so much power in your field that clients, the market and even your competition think of you first.
• Don’t look at what others do and try to copy, look and what they refuse to do and make that your focus.

Grant, On Goals:

• The goal is never the problem. Action in the right amount, along with persistence, can make any goal attainable.
• Write down your goals everyday as if you’ve already achieved them.
• Average goals = average actions = average problems. Rid yourself of the concept of average.

Grant, On taking action:

• Persistance will always catch up to talent. Persistence is the multiplier of success.
• Luck is the byproduct of those who take the most action. 
• When you take massive action, a magical momentum is created when you reach your goals. Which in turn causes you to set and reach even loftier goals.

Grant, On Fear:

• Fear is a sign to do whatever it is you fear and do it quickly. Don’t feed fear with time!