Adam Decker

One very valuable tool that people looking to optimized their efforts have been applying for a good while now is called the 80/20 rule. This rule stems from a few studies that found that 80% of results came from 20% of inputs or changes. Since these studies came out, a number of books have been written and many people began trying to apply this rule to get more results from smarter efforts.

The thing I love about The One Thing is that it takes this idea to its logical conclusion. If 20% of efforts gives you 80% of your results, then what 20% of that 20% gives you 80% of the 80%? What’s the 80/20 of the 80/20? And what about the 80/20 of that? And then it condenses this into one question.

What’s the one thing I could be doing, such that by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?

I want you to read that again.

What’s the one thing I could be doing, such that by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?

This is a powerful question, because it forces you to think about the effects of the actions you take and to take time to figure out exactly what the best use of your time is to get the result you want.

It’s also a very hard question to answer. It requires deep thought, which is hard. But if you can get this question to be a habit in your life, you will find that it makes reaching goals much easier.

Think And Grow Rich.

The Classic. The one that started it all. The original work on how the super-successful became that way, and the clarion-call of hundreds of self-help gurus ever since.

The things this book teaches have been hashed, re-hashed, and made into hashbrowns. Everybody who learns about self-development seems to know what this book is about, but so few seem to really get it.

You might have encountered the principles in a book or DVD of the latest trends in self-development. Books about the Law of Attraction, such as The Secret, made millions off of telling people that by simply seeing themselves as being successful, they will magically attract their deepest desires. This is complete and utter crap.

However, it is the easiest thing in Think and Grow Rich to seize upon. There is a massive focus on visualizing success and already having what you desire. However, in my reading and experiments with the method afterward, this is merely the first step.

One story Hill uses to illustrate his method is about a preacher who wanted to have one million dollars. He visualized, he felt, he touched, he already owned the money. He set a date by which he would receive the money. If that was all he had done, he would have failed.

On the final day, unsure exactly how he would receive the money, he held a great meeting. There, he described exactly what he would do with one million dollars if he had it. The audience was greatly moved, and in particular, one man at the back. This man was a multi-millionaire, and was so impressed by what the preacher said he was going to do, that he provided the money right then and there.

The key point that everybody misses is that the preacher laid out exactly how he was going to use the money for good. He had a plan, and he was going to add value to many people lives.

Adding value is the key. If you visualize selfishly, thinking only of attracting things to yourself so your life becomes easier, you will get nothing.

If, on the other hand, you come up with a plan to make other people’s lives easier, to solve a problem or to create something that people will appreciate, that is when the law of attraction actually starts working for you.

Set goal for yourself. Visualize having that goal. Now, figure out how to either use that goal to help people, or how to help people so you can reach that goal. If you do that, you have a much better shot of reaching it.

This is the book I started my entrepreneurial crash course with. As soon as I started reading it, I could see why my mentor wanted me to start with it.

Grant Cardone is a man of huge ambition, and this book is his thoughts on how to achieve all of our ambitions. His energy is contagious and inspires you to think about possibilities and how to achieve them.

The main focus of the book is very simple. Do ten times more than you think you should in just about everything if you want to be successful.

Ten X-ing Our Lives

Grant advises us to “ten x” parts of our life, starting with our efforts.

When we set a goal for ourselves, we try to guess how much effort it’s going to take to accomplish the goal. However, we almost always misjudge how much effort it’s actually going to take. We get disappointed that we haven’t reached our goal yet, and stop trying out of frustration.

The Ten X rule says that you have to take how much effort you expect your goal to take, and then multiply that by ten. That’s how much effort it’ll actually take. If you think it’ll take 10 calls to get a meeting and sell a product, make 100 calls.

By doing this, you’ll expect that reaching your goal is going to be hard, so you’ll be mentally ready for the obstacles and roadblocks you find in your way.

The next thing Cardone talks about is motivation. He says small goals make for small effort, so we have to 10x our goals in order to have the motivation to work through everything to reach them.

What goal do you want to reach? How much money do you want to earn in your life? How good at sports? What matters to you? Now take that goal, and multiply it by ten. Now multiply it by ten again. Now you have a goal worth straining for.

My Takeaways

This book has been fantastic for getting me in the right mindset to set goals and be mentally ready to achieve them. It impressed on me how hard reaching high goals can be, and just how rewarding striving for those goals can be. Why fight to reach a goal to simply be content when you can fight to achieve something amazing? I know I would much rather do that.

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