Why do some people achieve success while others stay stuck despite working harder? What if the conventional wisdom about incremental improvement is actually holding you back?
Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy’s book, 10x Is Easier Than 2x, challenges traditional thinking about growth and success. Their book reveals why pursuing massive goals is actually simpler than seeking modest improvements.
Get ready to discover why thinking bigger could be your key to unprecedented growth with these 10x Is Easier Than 2x quotes.
Quotes From 10x Is Easier Than 2x
What if the secret to success isn’t working harder but thinking bigger? In 10x Is Easier Than 2x, Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy argue that 10x growth is easier and more rewarding to pursue than 2x growth. They explain that, unlike 2x growth, 10x growth transforms how you approach work and life, forcing you to focus on what matters most, leverage your strengths, and think creatively to find new opportunities.
Let’s look more at their ideas with four 10x Is Easier Than 2x quotes.
“In other words, the easiest way to get 2x growth is by going for 10x, because 10x forces you to stop almost everything you’re doing, which is ultimately a waste of time anyway.”
Sullivan and Hardy explain three reasons 10x growth is more achievable and transformative than 2x growth:
1. 10x growth makes you work smarter, not harder. When people try to achieve 2x growth, they typically do so by increasing their work and effort—putting in longer hours at the office, for instance. This approach is tiring, and it doesn’t lead to meaningful changes to how you work. Pursuing 10x growth is such a monumental task, however, that it drives you to rethink your approach. You simply can’t work 10 times harder or longer, so you’re forced to find new ways to work smarter. This ambitious level of growth sparks your creativity, helping you think up transformative solutions and continually grow yourself and your company.
2. 10x growth provides focus. There are many ways you can achieve 2x goals, which makes it harder to determine where you should best focus your efforts. This often leads to scattered efforts, wasted resources, and slower progress as you try different approaches. In contrast, 10x goals are so ambitious that most approaches wouldn’t work, revealing only a few paths you could take. This instantly narrows the field of possibilities to only the most transformative ideas, allowing you to take more decisive action and not waste time on low-impact efforts.
For example, a small bakery trying to double its revenue might consider extending hours, adding products, increasing marketing, and so on. With so many options, the bakery might waste months testing different approaches or spread itself too thin trying everything at once. But if it aimed for 10x growth, the bakery would need to think bigger, and there are only a few ideas that could achieve this scale, like franchising nationally or becoming a large-scale supplier. This clarity helps the bakery focus its resources and energy on the most impactful opportunities rather than getting distracted by smaller improvements.
3. 10x growth means less competition. Most people set achievable targets, creating a crowded field of competitors all striving for similar outcomes. Since fewer people are aiming for ambitious 10x goals, you’ll have a better chance of success.
For example, let’s look at how this works for a personal trainer. Most trainers might compete for clients in the $50-$100 per session range, creating an overcrowded market where dozens of trainers fight for the same customers. But imagine a trainer who aims 10x higher—targeting high-end clients at $500 per session. This trainer would need to develop premium expertise, create unique programs, and deliver exceptional results. While this seems harder at first, there’s actually less competition at this level because few trainers put in the work to reach this market, making the path to success clearer for those who do.
“When you choose freedom over security, then you embrace a life where you choose exactly what you want, rather than vying for what you think you need.”
Sullivan and Hardy argue that to achieve transformative growth, you must commit to pursuing your true desires in life. This means going after the things you want without needing to justify them to yourself or others.
The authors explain that we often hold back from going after things we want because we’re afraid of losing things we think we need—like money, status, or security. However, worrying too much about meeting these needs can limit your potential and keep you at mediocre levels of success. This way of thinking makes you more likely to play it safe or make compromises that go against your true desires or values. For example, you might stay in an unfulfilling job because you need the paycheck, instead of pursuing your dream career.
Sullivan and Hardy write that when you let go of your attachment to external markers and put your true desires first, you free yourself to pursue bold goals, create the most value, and reap the greatest rewards. This is because by focusing on what truly excites and energizes you, you can discover and develop your special strengths, which in turn allow you to create valuable work that no one else can replicate.
The authors add that when you develop your special strengths and create unique work, you remove yourself from competition with anyone else. Your perspective shifts from seeing the world as a place with limited resources to compete over to a place full of opportunities to innovate and create new possibilities for yourself and others. As you grow into the best version of yourself, opportunities to create extraordinary value—and be well compensated for it—naturally follow.
For example, imagine you’re an artist who loves making cardboard sculptures, but you feel pressured to take commercial illustration jobs to pay your bills. If you focus on your true desire, you’d devote more time to your sculptures, even if it means living on a tighter budget at first. Over time, your dedication could lead to breakthroughs in your artistic style, attracting galleries and collectors who may highly value your distinctive work.
“When you’re in the gain, you’re never measuring yourself against anything external. You’re only measuring yourself against yourself. More directly, you’re measuring”
Sullivan and Hardy argue that how you measure progress greatly impacts how easily you can achieve transformational growth. It can either motivate you and help you build momentum, or it can discourage you and cause you to miss valuable lessons.
The authors write that many people judge their progress by how close they are to their end goals—like how many items they have left on their to-do list or how many chapters they have left to write for their book. However, judging progress this way can actually hinder your ability to reach your goals.
Instead of looking at how far you still have to go to reach your goal, the authors recommend you look backward to see how far you’ve come. Measuring progress backward is better for two reasons:
1. Greater satisfaction: Recognizing how far you’ve come makes every step feel like a win. In contrast, when you always measure against an ideal future state, you’ll feel discouraged and unsuccessful no matter how much you achieve.
2. Valuable learning: By reflecting on past experiences, you can extract valuable lessons that help you toward your goal. For example, if a product launch fails, you can identify what went wrong and improve for next time. In contrast, if you measure forward against your ideal outcome, you’ll consider the launch as an outright failure and move on without reflecting on ways to improve.
“It’s not effort that matters, but where that effort is directed.”
Sullivan and Hardy argue that to achieve 10x growth, you need to focus your efforts on just a few things and become truly exceptional at them. They write that it’s better to do a few things exceptionally well than to try to do a decent job with many things because the biggest rewards go to the best performers in any field. So, by becoming exceptional in a few things, you can achieve results that far exceed what you’d get by spreading yourself thin.
To decide what to focus on and what to let go of, Sullivan and Hardy recommend you use the Pareto Principle as a guide. The Pareto Principle states that 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results. Because of this, the authors advise you to regularly identify the 20% of your activities that matter most and let go of the less important 80%.
Sullivan and Hardy acknowledge that your brain is wired to be more sensitive to losses than gains, which makes it difficult to let go of parts of your life, even when you know they’re holding you back. To overcome this, the authors suggest you reframe losses as gains that move you forward.
For example, if you cut back on watching TV so you have time to work on your side hustle, you might feel initially deprived because you’re attached to your routine of unwinding with a show every night. Instead of focusing on this loss, recognize that you’re actually gaining valuable time and energy for your passion project.
