1: The year was 2008. Dr. Benjamin Hardy had barely graduated from high school. He hadn’t taken his grades seriously and let his friends dictate the direction of his life.
Then, he made a decision that would change his life. He decided to commit to serving a two-year church mission.
Doing so allowed him to confront “the trauma and pain of my past,” Ben recounts in 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less, which he co-authored with Strategic Coach founder Dan Sullivan. This decision enabled him to “connect with my own future, connect to God, and [begin] living my life based on my own standards and decisions rather than succumbing to my current situation or peer group.”
This would be Ben’s first 10x jump.
According to the 80-20 Rule, 20 percent of our efforts generate 80 percent of the value we create.
Ben made a decision to leave behind his prior 80 percent, including “holding on to the grudge and anger against my parents for decisions or mistakes they’d made and all the other addictions or distractions that were keeping me 2x at that stage in my life, such as video games.”
One good decision begets another. When he returned from his mission trip, he decided he wanted to attend Brigham Young University. He recalls this was “an unrealistic or ‘impossible’ goal,” given his poor high school grades and “because BYU is as competitive as many Ivy League universities.”
He started out at a community college. His new 20 percent involved “becoming an excellent student, taking full responsibility for my results and grades, learning how to navigate systems and politics, and increasing my commitment to my own goals and standards.”
One year later, he was admitted to BYU.
“My next 10x was getting married and getting into a PhD program to better my understanding and mastery of psychology—advancing my life and career,” Ben explains.
“The 20 percent was becoming the type of person who could identify and attract my 10x life partner, Lauren, as well as learning psychology and philosophy at an extremely high level. It also became important to learn how to write and research at a PhD level.”
2: Still, things did not come easy. Ben applied to 15 different graduate school programs and was rejected 15 times.
“I turned this into a major gain,” he recounts, “by looking in the mirror and committing to get better, rather than being bitter as a victim.”
Ben connected with Dr. Nate Lambert, who would become a mentor and best friend. “Nate taught me how to research and write with confidence—skills I’m still using to write this book,” Ben notes.
Together, Nate and Ben wrote 15 academic papers for publication. This work was Ben’s ticket for admission to the PhD program in organizational psychology at Clemson University.
His next 10x jump involved growing his family with Lauren, completing his PhD, and becoming a professional author.
3: “Specifically, I committed to getting a six-figure book contract from a major publisher,” Ben writes. “This was my keystone goal—the one outcome I believed would create much of the freedom and opportunity I wanted. Achieving this one goal would enable me to provide for my family doing what I loved.”
His new 20 percent mandated that he overcome his fear and anxiety of “sharing my ideas and writing publicly, learning to write effectively, learning to write virally, and learning how to build a massive audience and email list of people who wanted more of my writing,” he observes.
In the spring of 2015, he wrote his first blog post. “Over the next 18 months, my blogs were read by tens of millions of people and I grew my email list to over 100,000 people.
“In February of 2017, I got a $220,000 book deal from Hachette, one of the Big-5 New York publishers. Willpower Doesn’t Work, my first major book, was published in March of 2018. One month earlier, in February of 2018, Lauren and I were granted adoption of the three children we’d been fostering the previous three years. Lauren also gave birth to twin girls in December 2018. In April of 2019, I completed my PhD.”
After all these achievements, Ben primed himself for his next 10x jump: “Since completing my PhD, I’ve published five bestselling books, including three with Dan Sullivan. I’ve 10xed the money I invest toward retirement. Lauren and I have 10xed our emotional development and maturity toward our children.”
These accomplishments necessitated that Ben let go of his prior 80 percent to dedicate his focus to the 20 percent that made all the difference. He intentionally let go of “people-pleasing, saying “Yes” to opportunities or situations I already know aren’t interesting to me, and needing to be right. I’ve also let go of needing to always be productive. I’ve embraced recovery and relaxing, and slowing time down.”
We, too, can focus on the 20 percent of our efforts that generate 80 percent of the value we create. We can “choose the 10x process and focus we most want in our lives, based on the standards and freedoms we want to experience for ourselves,” Dan and Ben write. “At every 10x stage, there is a 20 percent we’re to focus on and master and an 80 percent that will stop at nothing to keep us where you’re at.
“At each 10x stage, the 20 percent will stack and build upon each 20 percent of our previous 10x stages. Our Unique Ability will continue to develop, often in non-linear and surprising ways.
“At each 10x level, our life will get better and freer, yet the 80 percent will not go away, it will only be different. We’ll be tempted and even pressured to shift from 10x to 2x, wherein we allow the continually spawning 80 percent to distract us from going all-in on the next 20 percent.”
More tomorrow.
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Reflection: What are the 20% of actions or decisions that have defined my biggest leaps forward in life? How can I let go of the 80% that holds me back to focus on what truly drives exponential growth?
Action: I will identify and name five key 10x jumps in my life, analyzing the 20% that propelled me forward and the 80% I had to release. Regularly reviewing these jumps will help me appreciate my progress and clarify the next bold steps to take.