Is it better to do less than to do more? What are the things that you should truly focus on in life?
Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy’s book, 10x Is Easier Than 2x, reveals how to narrow your focus and achieve exponential growth by mastering fewer, more impactful activities. They challenge the common belief that success comes from juggling multiple priorities by advocating for excellence in select areas.
Check out how to revolutionize your perspective on personal and professional growth.
Why You Should Narrow Your Focus
Sullivan and Hardy argue that to achieve 10x growth, you need to narrow your focus 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.
(Shortform note: While Sullivan and Hardy argue that specializing in a few things is the key to success, others argue that being a generalist who’s competent in many fields is more advantageous in today’s rapidly changing world. In Range, David Epstein says that unlike stable environments like sports where practicing one specific move leads to mastery, most real-world situations are unstable environments where today’s solutions might not work tomorrow. With modern technology automating more and more specialized tasks, the skills you gain in one area may quickly become obsolete. Because of this, Epstein recommends becoming a generalist with broad, strategic thinking skills that allow you to creatively handle new problems.)
The Pareto Principle
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%.
(Shortform note: In The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss suggests you apply the Pareto Principle in conjunction with Parkinson’s law to get the maximum results with minimum effort. Parkinson’s law says that work will expand to fill whatever time you give it. In other words, if you give yourself two weeks to complete a task, you’ll spend the entire two weeks on it even if it can be done more quickly. To make use of the two laws, Ferriss recommends prioritizing only high-impact 20% activities while also shortening the time you allow for them. Giving yourself tight deadlines forces you to focus even more and prevents you from finding busy work to fill your day.)
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.
(Shortform note: Psychologist Daniel Kahneman explains just how sensitive we are to loss. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman writes that we feel the pain of losing something about twice as intensely as we feel the pleasure of gaining the same thing. Through experiments, he found that most people need to gain $200 just to mentally offset losing $100. This helps explain why it’s hard to give up familiar routines or possessions, even when logic tells us they’re holding us back.)
