The 10x rule ffirs indd I 3/14/11 10: 22: 47 AM ffirs indd II 3/14/11 10: 22: 47 am the 10x rule The Only Difference Between Success and Failure Grant Cardone John Wiley & Sons, Inc

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THE 10X RULE
Exercise
What does it mean to go “all in”?
Why do most members of society discourage this?
What is the reason why salespeople fail?
Fill in the following: If you 
commit and 
deliver, 
you’ll make yourself grow because 
.
Why do we want new problems?
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103
CHAPTER
14
Expand—Never Contract
A
s of the writing of this book, our country is still experienc-
ing very serious economic stress. Unemployment num-
bers and fi nancial uncertainty are reaching heights not seen 
since the Great Depression. During major economic contrac-
tions like these, the world becomes convinced to reduce, save, 
be careful, and stay cautious. Although this mind-set focuses 
on self-preservation and protection of assets, it is the very kind 
of thinking that will guarantee you never get what you want. 
And although the majority of the world has entered a state 
of contraction, small percentages of people and companies 
are still capitalizing by expanding. These people understand 
that these times of tightening are unique opportunities to take 
from those who are taking a defensive posture by reducing 
spending.
Because contracting is a form of retreating, it violates the 
concept of the 10X Rule, which demands that you continue 
to act, produce, and create in massive quantities regardless of 
the situation or circumstances. I will admit that it can be very 
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104
THE 10X RULE
diffi cult and counterintuitive to expand while others are taking 
protective measures. However, it’s an approach you must adopt 
in order to take advantage of opportunity. Remember: Regard-
less of what is happening in the world at any given time, most 
people are not taking massive action. Although there are, of 
course, times when you must defend, retreat, and conserve, you 
should only do so for short periods of time—in order to prepare 
yourself to reinforce and attack again. You would never 
contract as a continued business effort. Although we frequently 
seem to hear reports of companies that failed because they 
expanded too fast, the case for many of them probably wasn’t 
so simple. Most companies fail not because they stay on the 
offensive but because they don’t properly prepare themselves 
for expansion and cannot dominate the sector.
The idea of constant, unwavering expansion is counterin-
tuitive and even unpopular; however, it will separate you from 
the rest of the pack more than any other single activity. The task 
of expanding when others are contracting should not be reduced 
to some simplistic concept. This is a very diffi cult discipline to 
apply in the real world. Yet once you get into the groove of mak-
ing it your innate method of responding, the ability to continu-
ously, relentlessly attack any activity will give way to forward 
movement. Any disagreement with this comes because most 
people only attack to the point where they meet resistance—
and then back off. It’s kind of like challenging the schoolyard 
bully and then running away; it always turns out badly. If you 
approach trials in this way, the market, your clients, and your 
competition will not believe that you’re committed to a persis-
tent attack. Therefore, they will threaten or criticize you—and 
you will back off. You’ll fi gure that it didn’t work—but the only 
reason why it didn’t work is because you didn’t stick with it long 
enough for the market, your clients, and your competition to 
fi nally submit to your efforts. Repeated attacks over extended 
periods of time will always be successful.
You must implement the tactic of expansion regardless of 
whether the economy and those surrounding you encourage 
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Expand—Never Contract 
105
you to do so. I say this because we live in a society that pro-
motes contraction most of the time, and when it does support 
expansion, it is typically too late in the cycle—hence the recent 
meltdown. News of contraction should serve as an indicator 
for you to do the contrary. You never want to blindly follow 
the masses; they are almost always wrong. Instead of follow-
ing the pack, lead them! The way out is to expand, push, and 
take action—regardless of what others are saying and doing. 
I watched others in my sector cut staff and promo-
tion dollars during this recent recession—which served as a 
green light for me to augment my own forces. I didn’t cut 
employees or promotional spending. Instead, I increased both. 
Even though I saw our revenue shrink with the rest of the world’s, 
I opted to cut my own salary as an alternative. I redirected those 
monies to promote the business, which helped to increase my 
footprint and take market share from other organizations that 
were retreating. In fact, I spent more money on advertising, 
marketing, and promotion in the course of those 18 months 
than I had in 18 years! I realize how counterintuitive this 
was. I fully admit that it was scary and that I often second-
guessed my actions. Yet I knew that if I could continue to keep 
pushing forward, I would gain tremendous ground. 
Even more important than the money I spent were 
the demands I made on my staff and myself to repeatedly 
expand the use of our most valuable resources: energy, cre-
ativity, persistence, and contact with our clients. By doing so, 
we immediately increased production in every area: phone 
calls, e-mails, e-newsletters, social media posts, personal 
visits, speaking engagements, teleconferences, webinars, 
Skype conferences, and the like. Over that year and a half, 
I published three books, introduced four new sales programs, 
produced more than 700 segments of training material for 
a virtual training site, did 600 radio interviews, wrote more 
than 150 articles or blog entries, and made thousands of 
personal phone calls. While the rest of the world withdrew, 
we expanded on every front possible.
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THE 10X RULE
Pretty much everyone in the world was convinced that 
their only saving grace was to save—so they did. It’s always 
intriguing to me that when people start saving money, they 
immediately begin saving everything else—almost automati-
cally. It is as though the mind is unable to distinguish between 
saving paper bills or numbers in a bank and conserving 
energy, creativity, and effort. The whole world held back in its 
expenditure of both dollars and effort while just a few people 
expanded. Who do you think came out on top?
People have asked me how—and why—I decided to 
expand when things were so uncertain. My answer to them 
was, “I would rather die in expansion than die in contraction. 
I would rather fail pushing forward than in retreat.” Consider 
this yourself: At which of the four degrees of action intro-
duced in Chapter 7 do you choose to operate? If you allow the 
economy to determine your choice, you will never be in 
control of your own economy.
The solution? Get off the sofa, get out of your home, 
and make your way into the market! Get in front of clients, 
seek out opportunities, and show that you are advancing in the 
market. Only retreat for brief moments, if necessary, in order to 
shore up resources so that you can prepare to expand with even 
more action. Your energy, efforts, creativity, and personality 
are worth more than the dollars that men create and machines 
print. And although spending money is the most common way 
for businesses to expand, it is certainly not the only way—and 
is not nearly as valuable as taking 10X actions consistently and 
persistently.
Remember 10X, baby. You want to expand with the goal 
of dominating your sector and getting attention by taking 
massive action. Only then will you be able to expand your con-
tacts, infl uences, connections, and visibility with the goal of 
creating new problems. You will then continue to expand until 
everyone—including your supposed competitors—knows you 
are the dominant 10X player and always associates your name 
with what you do.
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Expand—Never Contract