1: The year was 2002. Chad Willardson was one of 100 trainees who started the financial advisor training at Merrill Lynch in Southern California. He was 24 years old.
The success metric was clear: Achieve $15 million under management within 18 months or be fired.
“It was a brutal and intense growth curve,” Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy write in 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less.
The question, of course, was: “Who was willing to let an inexperienced young kid manage their money?” Dan and Ben write.
Early on, Chad decided he would only work with clients with more than $100,000 to invest.
“His manager replied that getting any client willing to invest $100,000 would be literally impossible,” the authors write. “No one with that amount of money (this was 20 years ago) would trust someone Chad’s age.”
Chad refused to lower his standard. For months, he “was the first person in the office each day, arriving to work before sunrise, and the last to leave,” they note. “He spent hours studying and passing big exams and certifications, reaching out to countless business owners in the area to build relationships, and reading business, wealth management, and personal development books.
“While the other advisors and trainees were at the bar drinking and partying on their nights and weekends, Chad was putting in that extra work.”
Chad made hundreds of calls every day. He experienced non-stop rejection. For the first six months, he didn’t sign a single client.
2: Then, one morning, “Chad received a surprising phone call from a man he had cold-called six months previously,” Dan and Ben write.
“Ready to retire, the caller had over $600,000 to roll over into a retirement investment account. Remembering their positive phone conversation and Chad’s multiple follow-up outreaches, he wanted Chad to be his wealth advisor.
“Chad’s first client had $600,000, six times more than what his manager said would be an impossible minimum standard,” they note. “This boosted Chad’s confidence and resolve to keep going. During the next several months, Chad took on plenty of clients—all with more than $100,000 for him to manage.”
Soon after celebrating his first anniversary in the Merrill Lynch program, he raised his minimum standard for new clients from $100,000 to $250,000.
“He developed mastery at the level of his standard and focus,” the authors write. “By the time the 18-month program ended in 2005, Chad had more than doubled the trainee graduation hurdle and had $30 million under management.”
He was far from being done. Over the next seven years, he added another $280 million under management, making him amongst the top 2 percent of Merrill Lynch advisors.
“At that point,” Dan and Ben write, “companies like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and UBS were recruiting Chad and offering more than $4 million cash as a signing bonus!”
Chad wasn’t interested. He decided he would start his own firm, Pacific Capital.
“He summoned the commitment and courage to completely start over and go back to zero,” the authors observe. “He committed his focus to working exclusively with high-growth entrepreneurs who were millionaires or multimillionaires. He committed to become more niche and specific in who he served and how he helped them.”
His focus would be on quality. Not quantity.
“To provide the best and most nuanced support,” they write, “he couldn’t cast a wide net. He had to clarify the specific whales he wanted to help, and how he would create 10x value for them differently from any other financial firm.”
He would work only with entrepreneurs with a minimum of $1 million to invest.
He was relentless about focusing his efforts on the 20 percent that generated 80 percent of the results.
“Chad’s goal shaped his focus and mastery,” they note. “His 20 percent now was radically different and more specific than the 20 percent of his previous 10x jumps that had gotten him here.
“Rather than cold-calling, hosting seminars, or walking business to businesses as he had before, he joined networks of entrepreneurs who were already successful and leveraged the reputation he had built in the industry. . .
“He has achieved 10x results by continually raising his minimum standard and by elevating himself and his value to the level of his rising standards.”
In 2021, he raised his minimum standard for new clients from $1,000,000 to $2,500,000.
In 2022, he raised his minimum standard for new clients from $2,500,000 to $5,000,000.
In 2023, he raised his minimum standard for new clients from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000.”
Chad now personally manages over $1 billion in assets.
“Chad doesn’t just raise the standard for his clients. He also raises the standard for himself,” Dan and Ben write. “Each year, he takes on fewer clients, but the value of each client is 10x the average of his former clients.
“Moreover, the value and impact Chad provides these whales is far more unique and precise than when he was working with a broader range of clients. He knows that achieving more does not mean doing more. . .
“Unlike many financial advisors, Chad is also an entrepreneur, with multiple companies, ventures, and investments. He’s continually 10xing himself such that even his biggest clients are simply trying to keep up with Chad’s exponentially elevating lifestyle and financial standards. He’s living by example, not offering broad and cookie-cutter theory or products.”
Chad has fully embraced the 10x process. “Most people are afraid to shed old standards and and strategies,” the authors note, “especially ones that worked.”
3: So what makes Chad different?
He “exhibits a quality that only the world’s top achievers do,” they note, “the ability to rapidly accept a new identity.”
Chad let go of being the person who made hundreds of cold calls each day.
He let go of being the first in the office each morning and the last to leave each night.
He let go of being a top producer at one of the biggest international financial firms.
He let go of answering his own emails, attending every client meeting, or even having his own office.
He let go of being available 24/7.
He let go of looking fancy in a suit.
He let go of believing busyness was a status symbol.
“None of the things he let go of were bad,” Dan and Ben write. “Indeed, many of them were crucial in Chad getting where he had gotten.
“Yet, to continually expand and 10x himself, he had to evolve beyond his then identity (the 80 percent) and embrace a new vision and standard (the 20 percent). . .
“Holding on to the 80 percent is embracing a 2x identity wherein you avoid major changes and maintain your status quo.
“To go 10x again and again, Chad shed the identity that got him here for the identity that would get him there.
“Once something became 2x, he let that 80 percent go, passing it off to a capable Who or eliminating it altogether. He further simplified his life down to the 10x standard which most excited him, choosing an increasingly niche and nuanced 20 percent focus and mastery.”
More tomorrow.
_________________________
Reflection: What is my 20 percent that if I went all-in on, I’d become 10x more valuable and impactful? What are the few things I do and the few people I work with that produce most of my success and excitement? What is my 80 percent that keeps me grinding away, and ultimately a distraction for my biggest future jumps?
Action: Journal my answers to the questions and commit to taking action.