Who does not want a 10X growth?

Everyone wants spectacular business growth. Yet there are so few who actually achieve it. And when they do it, it appears as if the universe has always been waiting for someone to do it. The equations of the business change forever. Competitors are left miles behind wondering what happened. Amazon became the largest book seller very quickly, and the book selling business changed for ever after Amazon. Same thing can be said about what Google made to the searches (and many other things), what Uber made to the car rental business and what Flipkart did to the retail business. Many of the recent initiatives from the Indian government — take Aadhar, Jan-dhan or GST for instance — are similar game changers. In the later, the 10X would apply to the reach as opposed to profitability.

One important point to note here is that 10X is more a mindset than anything else. The 10X mindset warrants resourcefulness, out of the box thinking, long-term vision, courage to get out of comfort zone and an appetite for experimentation. The growth follows as a consequence of these actions.

Note that 10X does not necessarily mean the growth achieved would be exactly 10 times — in the extremely successful cases it could be 100 times or even more. However, 10X means that the target is not 1.2X, 1.5X or even 2X — it is much larger than that; and the means to achieve it therefore would be quite different from the ones that are needed for the former.

It is not everyone’s cup of tea. Doing what no one has done before involves taking risks and doing experimentation. It is not a deterministic game with predictable outcomes anymore. There is uncertainly, failed experiments and roadblocks. If one does not have an appetite for them, then 10X is not for them — howmuchever attractive it may sound.

However, if you still feel up for it, Congratulations! 10X does not have to be too hard either. A billiant success.com article questions why go 2X when you can go 10X; as the later could be actually be faster, easier, cheaper and more enjoyable. As further motivation, here is a recent video of Dan Sullivan where he claims that 10X is easier than 2X:

Doing what no one has done, put differently, is going from zero to one. This, as Peter Thiele explained very well in his bestseller “Zero to One”, gives you the unique opportunity to become the dominant player. Businesses who do not do it perish sooner or later, as the cheese gets moved away.

How big do you need to think? The answer is “pretty big”. To get an idea, check out Google’s 10X thinking that fuels its impressive growth.

Technology is an essential part of the 10X game. Why? It’s because technology opens up possibilities of doing things which were not possible before. Whether you are talking about improving the people angle, improving the process, improving the equipments or managing things better, technology will invariably come into the picture.

However, technology needs to be seen as an enabler rather than an end in itself. So one should not get carried away by technology, although some times it is difficult not to fall for the charms of the high-tech.

As I end this article, here is a parting thought: 10X is a slang for Thanks. Being grateful for the kind of opportunity we have in our very lives would calm our mind, and help open it up for our 10X thinking.