This great book by Grant Cardone shows the importance of being obsessed with your life. Give yourself permission to have an intense desire to win in every area of your life and throw yourself all in on your dreams. That is a sure way to achieve success and to stop being average as your education, money situation, gender, race, religion and abilities don't matter anymore. Below I outlined the main points that I took from this book.
As with any summary, I believe it should be used as a refresher, as a list of guiding points that help remember the contents of the book. To fully understand and apply the following points, it is highly recommended to actually read the book. It does not replace the actual experience of reading the book, nor is it intended to.
You can purchase “Be Obsessed or Be Average” (Audible/Hardcover) here.
1. Don't settle with being average.
Being average won't let you have any impact on this world. Being obsessed is the only way to inspire others and make an actual difference on this planet. Don't just settle with getting by, like so many in the middle class. Choose to thrive and prosper. People who are telling you to "relax and enjoy life" are not trying to help you. They are trying to making sense of why they gave up. Ignore the advice of quitters. People settle for average because their parents and peers told them that it was alright to settle for less. "Life is to be enjoyed, take it easy, be grateful - someone else is worse off than you, don't work too hard". Their definition of enjoying life is watching Netflix all day? If they are not pursuing their dreams with obsession, using all their time to realize those dreams, then don't lower your standards for them. Most people have given up on their dreams and desires, so don't take advice from them and don't settle with living a smaller life.
2. Set goals and work to achieve them.
Write down your future. If you're the star of the movie of your life, how would you want it to play out? What is your legacy, what will people remember you for? Revisiting your goals and dreams every morning and reminding yourself of the actions that you need to take to achieve them is crucial for becoming successful. This will help you stay focused and committed. Be obsessed with your goals. Your destination is going to be changing a lot, so adjust your goals and action plan every month. Those with the smallest goals have the biggest money problems. Once you internalize your goals, you will see everything around you as a means of achieving them. The moment you quit doing this, you will find yourself living with no intent, in a repetitive cycle of work without purpose. The ultimate fuel to help you stay obsessed is your maturing and changing purposes throughout your life.
3. Dominate your life.
Even if you got everything right in #1 and #2, you still need to dominate all areas of your life and commit to excellence in every facet of your existence in order to achieve success. Write down all parts of your life and become obsessed with making time for those areas, rather than making excuses. Don't waste your time on tasks that don't fuel your obsessions and don't get you close to your goals, such as washing your car and mowing the lawn - you can pay someone else to do that. Your time and focus are precious. What you are obsessed with becomes your reality, so if you are obsessing over money problems, you will have money problems. Obsess instead on making more money and understanding what it means to you and how it can help you achieve your dreams and goals. Don't be a spectator in your life, even if you work for someone else - take responsibility for growing the company of your employer, not just earning a paycheck. Right now, you can jump on the phone and make a sale to improve your financial situation, you can do 20 push-ups and improve your physical condition, you can take a video and send it to your spouse or kids to let them know how you care about them. Be obsessed with dominating every area of your life.
4. Become obsessed with sales.
The most important thing for any company is the revenue line on the financial statements. People spend too many time organizing and planning and forget to develop a strategy for selling their product or idea and executing on it. Selling is important for every person. When you're trying to get a date, you're selling yourself. When you're trying to get a job, you're selling yourself. When you're trying to sign up a customer for your new business - you're selling your service. Become obsessed with sales, and go into every sales situation believing that you will close the deal. And once you get to a good point, don't rest on your laurels, nobody who has made a great contribution on this planet does that. Overpromise and overdeliver, remind yourself of how your offer is worth more money than you are asking for. People don't buy price, they buy the product, the solution to their problems, the people and the company.
5. Enjoy uncomfortable situations.
Don't avoid "danger", accept risk in your journey of pursuing your obsessions. Fear is most often just an indication that you're on the right path, that you should do this. When something is uncomfortable for you to do, it means that you are growing. Nobody ever achieved greatness by staying in their comfort zone. The greatest you will be discovered far outside your comfort zone. Being the biggest fish in the smallest pond will be the death of your ambitions. Adopt a mindset of - "I would rather others to think less of me, than for me to think less of myself".
6. Persistence.
If there is one thing that separates the great achievers and average people, then it is persistence. Persist, even if it no longer makes sense to you, remind yourself of your goals and dreams, and keep finding ways to get there. The most successful people in the world have often persisted in their efforts for years until someone believed in them. If you are attracting haters, it's a sign that you're on the right track. There is no such thing as a part-time obsession. You and only you are responsible for your success. Feed the beast - stay focused on what allows you and your business to grow, and invest no time, energy or resources in those things and people that don't.
7. Education.
Commit to educating yourself. It has a totally different outcome when you actually get to choose what you are learning. Seek to always get better at what it is that you do, to learn more. Get a habit of reading books and taking courses, the most successful people are life-long learners. Grant spends 10% of his income on training programs, conferences, coaching, books and more.
8. Create an obsessed team.
You are the average of 5 people you spend the most time with. Get rid of the naysayers and underachievers, they will give you a permission to quit. Hang around people who will lift you up, people who are even more committed to success than you. Create a team of the best people you can find, get them as obsessed as you are about getting you where you want to go. Make sure your team is working towards their targets, and don't let them off the hook. Establish a culture of obsession, where people are expected to exceed quotas. Great organizations are never one-man operations, if you're doing great things, like-minded people will want to work with you. Always look for opportunities to grow your company and hire more people, and do those interviews personally, to see what kind of a person is before you.
Take a look at my summaries of other books by Grant Cardone:
If You’re Not First, You’re Last
The Millionaire Booklet
Sell Or Be Sold
The 10X Rule