The 10X rule means investing ten times more and reaching ten times further.

Perusing the shelves of your average bookstore, you’re bound to find a plethora of titles that promise you the secrets to a successful life. But with so many options, it can be hard to know which is the best one.

So, before you get sucked into another questionable formula for success, consider the 10X rule – a surefire way to succeed at whatever you want.

The 10X rule is based on the knowledge that success always requires more effort than you originally thought. You can look back on your life and easily see that your endeavors always demanded ten times more effort than you thought they would. Success in business pursuits always came when you invested ten times more than your competitors.

So, if you want to sell a product and think making ten phone calls a day will help you do so, you should probably aim for closer to 100 phone calls per day.

But putting in this added effort won’t just help you achieve your daily goals; the 10X rule will help you accomplish a whole lot more.

This brings us to the second half of the 10X rule: all your goals should be ten times bigger than what’s considered realistic.

In other words, reach for the heavens and pick a goal that’s beyond your wildest dreams. It might seem silly, but if you aim too low you’ll still be disappointed when you achieve your goal, and feel crushed if you fail. It’s much more desirable to fail to meet an incredibly high expectation than to attain a mediocre goal.

For instance, say your dream is to be an author. Writing a novel should be your goal, not writing a two-page short story. Even if you successfully accomplish the latter, you still won’t consider yourself a writer.

In this way, the 10X rule is about trying harder and dreaming bigger.