1: Imagine our goal is to raise $10 million.
Which is a better approach? Would we rather solve 100 problems at $100,000 each?
Or, attempt to solve a single $30 million problem?
Dr. Alan Barnard, one of the world’s leading experts on constraint theory and decision-making, believes the second approach is a far better strategy.
Why? “For multiple reasons,” Alan believes, as quoted by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy in their book 10x is Easier than 2x.
“First, by pouring our attention into the $30 million problem, we develop learning and expertise at that level. The level of quality and depth to solve that single problem will be fundamentally different than the quality and depth to solve 100 cheaper and broader problems.”
Second, by attempting to solve the $30 million problem, we don’t have to be perfect. We’ve “given ourselves a huge margin for error that even if we only achieve one-third of the goal, we’ll reach our $10 million standard.”
Dan and Ben write: “In real estate, it’s easier to get one property worth $10 million than 20 properties each worth $500,000. Once acquired, the management of the single property is infinitely easier and less time-consuming than managing 20.”
2: In 1959, Dr. David Schwartz wrote the classic book The Magic of Thinking Big: “A personnel selection executive told me that he receives 50 to 250 times as many applicants for jobs that pay $10,000 per year as for jobs that pay $50,000 a year. This is to say that there is at least 50 times as much competition for jobs on Second Class Street as for jobs on First Class Avenue. First Class Avenue, U.S.A., is a short, uncrowded street.”
The income levels are no longer relevant, but the principle remains: “The competition is highest for average goals, Dan and Ben write.
Not only that, “but the excitement is lowest and the pathway forward is dramatically more complex and confusing with small and linear goals,” they note.
Which is why Dan and Ben argue that 10x is easier than 2x.
“When 10x is your measuring stick, you immediately see how you can bypass what everyone else is doing,” Dan notes.
To solve a 10x problem requires to think in a more nuanced way. “Rather than thinking broadly, we think deeply and narrowly. . . We aren’t trying to do 100 things decently. We’re trying to do one thing at a level that’s never been seen before.”
3: Jimmy Donaldson is better known as MrBeast, the #1 YouTuber in the world with over 320 million subscribers.
During an interview with Joe Rogan in March of 2022, Jimmy was asked, “Do you have a lot of guys ask you for advice? like ‘Hey, I want to be like MrBeast.'”
Jimmy opened his Twitter feed and showed the 10x results for someone he was mentoring.
“Before I started mentoring him,” Jimmy said, “he was doing 4.6 million views on YouTube per month, making $24 grand. Probably seven to eight months later, we got him up to 45 million views, and he had a $400,000 month.”
Joe was impressed. “What kind of advice did you give that makes such an exponential change?”
Dan and Ben write: “Read Jimmy’s next response very carefully. It clarifies how he applies the 10x process to achieve exponential results by intentionally doing less.”
“As weird as it sounds, it’s much easier getting five million views on one video than 100-thou-sand views on 50 videos. . . You could upload one great video per year and get more views than if you uploaded 100 mediocre videos. It’s very exponential. To do well on YouTube, you just need people to click your videos and watch them. . .
“If you get people to click your video ten percent more, and watch your video ten percent longer than mine, you don’t get ten percent more views, you get like four-times the views. You have to think exponentially. A ten percent better video gets four times the views, not ten percent more views.
“Once you understand that, you funnel your energy better, and really hyper-obsess over these videos. Triple the amount of time you’re putting into that video cause you’re not going the get triple the views, you’re going to 10x the views.
“So [I help those I mentor] make their videos really good, and also help them build out a team, like an editor. Cause if you’re doing five jobs, then you can only put 20 percent of your time into each. If you hire an editor, that editor can put 100 percent of his time into that. You can’t spend then hours a day editing, but he can.”
One of the key messages here is the importance of quality over quantity. MrBeast is living the 80-20 rule: 80 percent of our results come from 20 percent of our efforts.
“It’s not about more volume and more effort,” Dan and Ben write. “That’s 2x-thinking, which is linear, slow, and can never produce the exponential results Jimmy describes.
“When we begin thinking in terms of quality over quantity, we funnel our energy better. We stop burning ourselves out pumping out more and more, or doing a million different jobs as a rugged individualist.
“Instead, we focus on our 20 percent and get really, really good at what we do. We build a team around us to handle what would have been our 80 percent.”
Dan and Ben sum up three takeaways from Jimmy’s message regarding 10x thinking:
A: “Think exponentially, which means thinking both much bigger and non-linearly.
B: “Hyper focus on quality over quantity, and get really good at what we do.
C: “Build a team to handle everything else so we can focus on achieving quality in our craft.”
More tomorrow.
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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.