So What Is 10X Thinking Really About? Hint. It’s Not Just “Hard Work.”

You sometimes see writing extolling the virtue of thinking and working “10X” or “20X.”

But what does this mean?

A lot of people seem to think this means working 10 or 20 times harder than normal.  Yes, hard work is important, but it isn’t everything.

Increase The Scale of Your Thinking

Instead, a 10X approach means you accomplish much more in life as you change the horizon of your vision–moving up, up, up the scale of ambition and the scope of action you are pursuing.

For example, do you think of maybe, one day, maybe, owning maybe one house that you will rent out?  Or do you plan to own 50 units at some point–or 500?  The frame of reference is radically different and will lead to different results, assuming you have the brains, energy, and moxie to make it happen.  This is about changing the scope of your ambition, which also changes the speed of your execution.  You move quicker, because that first home purchase isn’t the end-all-be-all of what you plan to accomplish.

But You Still Have To Focus on the Micro-steps

Here’s another way to say this: 10X Thinking Means You Focus On Larger Cash Flows.  You broaden your horizons and think big.  However, a word of caution.  You don’t go from zero houses owned to ten or from no stocks to $1,000,000 in stocks in the blink of an eye.  You still have to take action at the micro level and learn the ropes.  The first house you buy will be nerve-racking and confusing.  That first stock or index fund will make you nervous.  You have to take action in sensible, scalable steps, learning as you go.  This will naturally scale up as you get experience, assuming you have the 10X mindset.

So the key is the scope of your thinking.  This shifts what you focus on, how fast you execute, and ensures you don’t over-index on minutiae for too long.