Not Going 10x is Your Biggest Risk
At the end of 10x is Easier Than 2x, author Dan Sullivan shares a model for the Four Core Levels of Entrepreneurship that you must move through in order to go 10x. He encourages the reader to do it over and over and over again in their business so the business can jump 10x over and over and over again. He says, the more you do it, the easier it will be and the faster you achieve exponential success.
Level 1 Entrepreneurship: This level is characterized by the leader being a solopreneur, a micromanager, or just a rugged individual who is able to accomplish all the HOW themself and doesn’t think of a WHO when executing tasks or solving problems.
Level 2 Entrepreneurship: In this level, the entrepreneur actually turns their focus to the WHO, not HOW. Rather than micromanaging their team, the leader gives them vision, clarity, culture, and standards to live by; and they lead themselves! Leaders must execute well on this to achieve a 10x transformation. When going 10x, the leader will be the bottleneck if they don’t force themselves to lead a self-managed team. How the leader leads will attract the right "who" needed to grow.
Level 3 Entrepreneurship: This level represents the creation of a self-managed company. The leader empowers people to take their job and run with it themselves, and the company grows accordingly.
Level 4 Entrepreneurship: This level is a special operating environment characterized by everyone being encouraged to operate within their own unique abilities; where they get to create their own roles and job descriptions, and focus on what makes them special and how they can best contribute to company success. They get to create their own top 20% task list and then leverage their 80% tasks out.
The inherent jump between each of these levels is going 10x. Sullivan asserts that the biggest risk to your company is not continuing to push yourself to go 10x every time. If you desire to attract and retain top talent in your organization, you will need to be able to offer them MORE responsibility and MORE opportunity over time. Talent has to be able to envision their lives getting bigger and bigger inside the world you’ve created for them in your organization. Just as you desire to move toward a role focused on harnessing your most unique abilities, so too does your talent. As the leader at the top of your organization, you must go 10x so your talent can achieve the same.
We talk about leadership as a responsibility to grow the lives of other people; it is furthermore your responsibility to grow the business. And if you are not motivated enough to do that, you need to move yourself out of the leadership role and put someone in that position who is willing and able to do that.
In my personal business journey, I have recently been challenged to make a big decision: am I going to go 10x or am I going to go 2x? You would think it would be an obvious decision after reading this book to say, “YES! Let’s go 10x! I am all-in, baby!” However, 10x growth usually has a dollar amount assigned to it. And to grow in a 10x fashion in the ways you know you can, you may have to step out in faith by making a large monetary investment. Sometimes that amount is just enough to be scary, and then you have to rely on faith that you are making the right decision. You furthermore must commit to the notion that not only you are going to make the personal effort required to get the return on this investment, but that everyone around you is going to make that same investment successful through their hard work.
Recall that the biggest risk to your company is not going 10x – so the question then becomes, how can I ensure the success of my investment? Share your investment plan with your team. Share your larger vision – what success looks like in the end – for the return on this investment. Empower them to be stakeholders in the return. Get their feedback – do they agree with this investment? When you share openly with your people like this, getting their affirmations that they believe in the investment and they are excited about the future, and hearing that they believe this will propel your company to 10x, that’s when you know you have a winning formula. And you should step forward in confidence to pursue that investment.
Affirmations are important – and powerful. Seek out those people in your world who live extraordinary lives – peers, mentors, coaches – and ask for their feedback. I can assure you they too have made big leaps of faith, big or risky investments, to achieve the extraordinary lifestyle they enjoy today. Soak up some of that confidence as you prepare to take your own leap of faith.
This book was a great reminder that if you desire to achieve BIG in your life, you have to grow in ways beyond just working harder. You’ve got to grow with great thinking, as well. Grow your thinking to new heights. Ask great questions to get great answers.
Written by Schuyler Williamson
REALTOR. Leader. Veteran. Business Owner. Investor.
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God Bless!
~ Schuyler Williamson