Are You Wiser Than When You Woke Up? — Day Two: 10X Is Easier Than 2X

Two days ago, Wednesday, I sat typing “Joyful” with no internet connection or power supply. Almost every device I had was down, except my laptop, with which I am using to write this.

So, I read and wrote.

I continued reading Dan Sullivan's book, and two ideas stood out to me that I think can change how we think about exponential growth and a fulfilled life:

1. 10X IS easier than 2X

I made a post about this on X and reshared it again, and a friend commented, "degens no go like see this one" 😂😂.

But what exactly does "10X is easier than 2X" mean?

At first it sounds absurd, right?

If I want to double my results, shouldn't that obviously be easier than trying to multiply them by ten?

Not necessarily.

The idea, as I understand it, is that a 2X goal often allows you to continue doing what you're already doing, just more of it.

A 10X goal doesn't.

If I decide I want to write twice as much, I might simply spend twice as much time writing. But if I decide I want to produce ten times the result, I eventually have to ask much harder questions:

What should I stop doing?

What is actually producing the most value?

What can I eliminate, automate, delegate, or outsource?

Where should I be putting my best energy?

That's why 10X can, in a strange way, become easier than 2X.

The size of the goal forces you to rethink the system producing the result.

It forces focus.

It forces intentionality.

It forces you to cut out a lot of things that might be consuming your time without producing anything close to proportional value.

There's a common saying: “If you aim for the stars, you'll at least hit the moon.”

The point isn't that you will magically achieve 10X because you set a 10X goal. The point is that the person who seriously pursues 10X will likely have to operate very differently from someone merely trying to achieve a little more.

And if you keep improving that system, your “minimum” can eventually become someone else's extraordinary.

The 4 C's

There is also a progression to this.

Commitment, Courage, Competence, Confidence.

Commitment

Nothing meaningful happens without a willingness to commit.

You have to decide what you are actually pursuing and commit to it.

For example, if my 10X goal is to become an exceptional writer, I might commit to writing for six focused hours every day, with my phone and other distractions away from me.

The specific goal will differ from person to person.

But the principle remains:

You have to commit before you can build.

Nothing is ever done without a will to commit.

Courage

Then comes courage.

The courage to let go.

When you decide what matters most, you also have to decide what doesn't matter enough to keep.

There are things that consume your time, drain your energy, produce very little return, or simply distract you with temporary pleasure.

You have to be willing to let them go.

This is where I think the Pareto Principle becomes useful.

The idea is that a relatively small portion of our inputs can often produce a disproportionately large portion of our results.

So the question isn't simply:

“How can I work harder?”

It becomes:

“What work actually produces the most?”

Find that work.

Do more of it.

Get better at it.

Then eliminate, automate, delegate, or outsource as much of the lower-value work as you reasonably can.

And this isn't a one-time exercise.

As you grow, the things producing the most value can change. So you have to keep evaluating what deserves your attention.

Competence

Once you've removed a lot of the unnecessary, you have more room to become genuinely good at what matters.

That's where competence is built.

You spend more time in your chosen field.

You practice.

You learn.

You make mistakes.

You improve.

And over time, you become more capable.

Confidence

Then competence begins to produce confidence.

Not the empty kind that comes from simply believing in yourself, but the kind that comes from knowing you've put in the work and can actually deliver.

That confidence gives you the courage to attempt something bigger.

And the cycle begins again:

Commitment → Courage → Competence → Confidence → Bigger commitment.

That's the part of 10X thinking that is the most interesting to me.

It is not simply about setting a ridiculous goal.

It's about becoming the kind of person and building the kind of system capable of carrying that goal.

But that brings me to the second thing I learned.

Because there is another problem with success.

Getting there isn't the same as staying there.

2. Success Must Be Sustained

In my previous article, Are You Wiser Than When You Woke Up? Day One, I wrote about the importance of sustaining success.

Reading The Dominion Mandate by Mensa Otabil brought me back to that idea again.

From the life of Paul the Apostle, I took four things that I think are worth applying to anyone who wants to build something meaningful and sustain it over time.

1. Master Your Field

Paul wasn't simply present in the places he went.

He knew what he believed, understood his message, communicated it boldly, and developed a level of influence that could change the people and communities around him.

That made me think about mastery.

You shouldn't merely participate in your field.

Become exceptionally good at it.

Whether you're building a company, writing, designing, coding, investing, teaching, or doing anything else, competence creates credibility.

And credibility creates influence.

In business, mastery can become a compelling presence. The kind of presence that makes people trust your work, choose your product, recommend you to others, and keep coming back.

You want to get to a point where your competence speaks loudly enough that people can recognize the value you bring.

2. Restrain YOU

This one is about discipline.

Success and influence don't eliminate your weaknesses.

You still have yourself to deal with.

Your desires.

Your ego.

Your impulses.

Your appetites.

And the greater your influence becomes, the more important self-control becomes.

You can spend years building a reputation, a company, a career, or a legacy and damage it through a moment of poor judgment or lack of self-control.

So you have to learn to discipline yourself before your lack of discipline destroys what you've spent years building.

Your character has to be strong enough to carry the weight of your influence.

Your character has to be strong enough to carry the weight of your influence.

3. Contain Your Fame

The third is humility.

Success can make you believe that you did everything yourself.

You didn't.

Someone taught you something.

Someone opened a door for you.

Someone gave you an opportunity.

Someone supported you when nobody was watching.

Someone probably believed in you before you had much to show for yourself.

No one builds anything worthwhile entirely alone.

So share the credit.

Recognize the people who helped you.

Don't allow other people's praise to inflate your ego, intentionally or unintentionally.

You can acknowledge your contribution without pretending you were the only contributor.

There is something about remembering the people who helped you that keeps you grounded.

No one builds anything worthwhile entirely alone.

So share the credit.

Recognize the people who helped you.

4. Build for Scale

Finally, build for scale.

Don't only build something that works today.

Build something that can carry more tomorrow.

Lay the foundation properly.

• Build systems.

• Build processes.

• Build people.

Create structures that don't require you to personally hold every single piece together.

Because if everything depends on you, you've built a job, not necessarily a scalable system.

A strong foundation isn't only for what you have today.

It's for what you're trying to carry tomorrow.

if everything depends on you, you've built a job, not necessarily a scalable system.

Growth Is Not the Whole Story

And I think this is where the two books meet for me.

10X Is Easier Than 2X makes me think about how to grow.

The Dominion Mandate makes me think about how to sustain what grows.

One asks me to think bigger, simplify, focus, and develop leverage.

The other reminds me that growth without discipline, humility, mastery, and strong foundations can eventually collapse under its own weight.

So maybe the goal isn't simply to become successful.

Maybe the goal is to become the kind of person who can create, sustain, and carry greater levels of success.

And that requires more than ambition.

It requires principles.

• Discipline.

• Mastery.

• Humility.

• Courage.

• And very importantly, continuous growth.

Which brings me back to the question I've been asking myself:

What did you learn today?

Are you wiser than when you woke up?

Even if it's just because you read this.

If this helped you in any way, subscribe to get more reflections like this as they land, and share it with someone you think it might help..