One of the key objectives of Lead on Purpose is to provide ideas and motivation to my readers to help you improve your success, regardless of your area(s) of focus. When I find things that help, I share them.

What do highly successful people do differently than others? They talk, think and approach challenges differently. They think about money differently. They are motivated in ways that are not common or natural to most people.

I recently finished listening to THE 10X RULE: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure by the highly successful Grant Cardone, author, real estate investor and sales expert.

They talk, think and approach challenges differently. They think about money differently. They are motivated in ways that are not common or natural to most people.

The entire book is inspiring, but the last two chapters are powerful. Grant discusses 32 characteristics of the successful—the ways they talk, think, act and approach their work. Here I share a subset of those characteristics (in my words), using Grant’s numbers and titles:

1. Have a can-do attitude: no matter what, it can be done. These people always maintain that a solution exists. Get to where “can do, no problem, we’ll handle it” becomes your mantra.

3. Focus on opportunity: successful people focus on opportunity, they see everything as an opportunity. Success is overcoming a challenge. Successful people use the issue at hand as a way to separate themselves from others and solve the problem.

4. Love challenges: success begets more success. Challenges sharpen successful people’s abilities. When you develop a more positive outlook, you begin to see a challenge as a stimulation to engage. Every challenge provides an opportunity to win.

6. Persist until successful: successful people persist until they become successful. The ability to persist is a quality every successful person possesses. Any worthwhile endeavor will require you to persist.

11. Readily take action: the highly successful take unbelievable amounts of action. Regardless of what that action looks like, these people take action even when they’re on vacation. The successful have been taking high levels of action before anyone ever heard their names. Successful people believe that taking actions today will bear fruit over time. Your ability to take action will be a major factor in determining your ability to create success. Action is the discipline, something you need to work on every day. Action is necessary to create success, and can be the single defining quality in people who become successful.

13. Habitually commit: be all in. There is a massive shortage of commitment. To acquire success it is vital that you quit testing the water’s temperature—you must jump in. Devote yourself all the way, don’t back out. Focus on the promise you’ve made to yourself or others. Commit fully, as though you are already successful, and demonstrate that commitment to all those with and for whom you work.

15. Focus on now: there exists only two times for the successful: now and the future. Now is the period of time the successful create the things that make them successful. Acquire the discipline to take actions to create success now. The successful understand they must keep taking action now. You cannot let one second of worry or analysis to delay you in situations like these, because every second you spend thinking is a second you could have been doing. Action is necessary, and there is no time as valuable as now.

16. Demonstrate courage: Courage helps you face difficult situations. Take action regardless of your fears. Do what you have to do at the moment. The more frequently you do things that scare you a bit, the more people will label you as ‘outrageous’ and start to gravitate toward you.

21. Be on a mission: approach your activities as though you’re on a religions mission. Always think bigger, look at the big things you can achieve. Take the approach that your endeavor can change the world. Approach every call, email, sales visit, meeting, presentation, etc. not as a job, but as a calling for which you will ever be known.

22. Have a high level of motivation: elevated motivation is critical to 10x actions. It stimulates toward action and stimulates new actions. Achieve new goals, and then regenerate for the next round of achievement. The question Grant receives most often: “Grant, how do you stay so motivated?” Answer: “I create new reasons to keep showing up.” True motivation has to come from within.

23. Be interested in results: successful people don’t value effort, work or time spent on an activity, successful people value results. period. The results are all that matter. Results should be your primary focus for the attainment of success.

25. Create your own reality: the highly successful are bent on creating big things. Create a reality that did not exist before you came along. Be obsessed with creating a reality you want to make, regardless of what people believe is possible.

29. Be dedicated to continuous learning: the most successful CEOs read 60 books and attend >6 conferences each year. successful people make time for conventions, reading books, interacting with people. Successful people read everything they can get their hands on. Join the ranks of the successful people who know their success depends on their ability to continue to seek out new information. Never stop learning.

32. Be disciplined: not talking about money, but success in every area of your life. Discipline is an orderly defined prescribed conduct that will get a person, and individual or an activity what it wants. Disciple is a requirement for you to be a 10x player. Discipline is what you use to complete any activity, until the activity—regardless of how uncomfortable, regardless of how challenging—becomes a normal, operating procedure. In order to achieve success, you must determine which habits lead to success, then do those things over and over again until each becomes a discipline.

I highly recommend you consume this book as soon as possible. I say ‘consume’ because you can either read it or listen to it. I did the latter—on an Audible book—and was immensely inspired. Grant’s enthusiasm is contagious, and he adds comments (I’m certain aren’t in the book) that will make you smile. This book, and its contents, will greatly accelerate your journey to success

Questions: Which of these actions resonate most powerfully with you? What one will you focus on first? Please leave a comment in the space below.

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The Product Management Perspective: Product managers need the enthusiasm that streams from Grant’s writings and recordings. The other key this book provides for PMs…Grant is a salesman, and he will help you better understand how they operate—a huge key to success for every product manager.