Be Obsessed or Be Average by Grant Cardone


Grant Cardone is one of the people that I look up to and strive to learn from the most. His work ethic, his ability to overcome adversity, and the structure of his family are all things that I strive towards and look to take pieces from. After attending a conference of his in the summer of 2018, finishing a couple of books throughout 2018 and 2019, and attending the 10X Conference in Miami, FL in February of 2019, this book was the logical next one of his to work through. I thought that I had this philosophy pretty much understood through his other content and all the things that I’ve learned from other sources also but I did learn a lot from this and really enjoyed all that he shared throughout this book. Lately, and throughout my life, I’ve been obsessed with learning, that’s the goal.

Amen. Something that I live by 100%. This is the truth and I’ve seen it time and time again.

“If bad things happen to good people, you know bad things are gonna happen to people that are doing bad things.” — Grant Cardone

It’s our OBLIGATION. As Grant says, “Success is my duty.”

“If you can, you must.” Is the recurring theme for this section of the book.
Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

This was a wonderful series of questions that I really enjoyed. I loved the breakdown with the categories and the way that they were divided. It’s a very valuable exercise and something that I believe we should all do. It’s essential that we are totally honest with ourselves and understand all that God has created us for, everyone is unique and we were all created to do incredible things.

To be sure that you want all that you can possibly have and accomplish in life, answer these questions yes or no as quickly as possible:

Secretly or publicly, have you always wanted to do unbelievable things?
Do you dream of doing something that will make the entire world stand up and take notice?
Have you ever considered what it would be like if your name became a household name or wonder what it would be like to be famous, a celebrity, paparazzi?
Do you want your name to be synonymous with a breakthrough that changed the world for the better?
Would you love to walk into a crowded room and have everyone know your name?
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to fly in a private jet or even own your own?

This exercise is best done while you’re sitting down and able to write your answers. Answer intuitively, the first thing that comes to mind.

Finding your obsession questions:

Personal interests:

1. What excites you right now?
2. What is so exciting to you right now that you would do anything to accomplish it?
3. What bores you that you don’t want to do?
4. What is the thing or things that you have always wanted to do in your life?
5. What don’t you want to do no matter the payoff?
6. What do you do that causes me to forget to eat?
7. What have you been interested in since childhood?

Money motivation:

1. What are you willing to do for no money?
2. What would you like to do for a lot of money?
3. If money had nothing to do with your life, what would you do with the time in your life every day?
4. What amount of money would give you the security that you believe you need?
5. What amount of money would you need to have complete and total financial freedom?
6. What amount of money would you need to have choices in your life?
7. What amount of money would you need to really make a difference for the better not just in your life but in the lives of others?

Skills and talents:

1. What can you do better than anyone on this planet?
2. What are some of your native skills? They are skills that are almost not even learned and natural, like you were born with them.
3. What have you always been good at?
4. What have you always been bad at?
5. What skills or talents do you have that you ignore? Something that you used to have that you are now ignoring that you are maybe now denying in yourself.
6. What are you terrible at and shouldn’t ever be doing?
7. What do you do that is a complete waste of your time and talent?
8. In what areas do others think more of your abilities than you do?
9. What are some skills that you need to develop? In your life, you have attention on them, you know that you need to develop these skills.

Market research:

1. What is a product or service that you complained about over and over and over again?
2. What great idea have you had for starting a company or inventing some thing but have not yet done it?

Legacy:

1. What do you want to be remembered for?
2. 100 years from now, what do you want people to say about you?
3. What contribution can you make to society that you would be so proud of?
4. What do you want to make sure people never say about you?

Other inspiring people:

1. Who are 5 people that inspire you? Write them down as fast as you can.
2. What are those people doing that you admire? What have they done in their life that you admire the most?
3. What do those that you admire have in common with each other?
4. What quality do you wish you shared with that list?
5. What do you have in common with each of those people?
6. If you could meet anyone, anyone dead or alive, and spend time with them, who would it be?
7. Who is the most important person in your life today?

Lifestyle:

1. What makes you feel good?
2. What gives you energy?
3. What activity bores you and does not make you feel good?
4. What things are you doing that you later regret?
5. What bad habits do you need to stop? What good habits do you need to start?
6. What do you need to do more of that would make you feel better about yourself?

What if:

1. What if you were going to write a book, what would it be about? What inspirational lessons could be drawn from your life?
2. If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you do?
3. If you could be known for doing just one unbelievable great thing, what would that one thing be?

Your life changes when you become obsessed with yourself and improving the quality of your life, you cannot help others until you help yourself. By loving yourself and becoming better, no one gets hurt, and you actually positively impact others.

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Facts facts facts. And that’s the mission. All the most successful people that I follow say that they have their next goals set BEFORE they even accomplish their first goals.

The people on this planet that makes the biggest difference know how to keep updating and refocusing their obsessions.

Have to have to have to, this is non-negotiable. The future is coming no matter what we do, we better control it as best we can.

FEED THE FUTURE.

Create goals that continue to support your purpose and write them every day.

He shared that he wrote a whole book in just a few hours. While I’m not surprised by that because I know how Grant works and how his mind works, that’s just wow. Though now, I aspire to do much the same thing, I know that I can.

One Sunday afternoon, Grant wrote the book Sell or be Sold. He wrote it start to finish in under 3 hours.

Time is the only thing that you can’t get back, it is imperative that we allocate it wisely. Love the way this was written. If we aren’t getting better, why are we here? Tough, blunt, but honest. It’s just the truth. There is sin in the world so it will never be perfect but we must continue to become better and better each day.

Stay focused on what allows you and your business to grow, you and your life to grow, you and your marriage to grow. And invest no time, no energy, and no resources on those things and people that don’t help you grow.

To do something truly meaningful, we always need others and I love mentors. Mentors are going to be fluid and they might not be people that we are going to want to continue to look up to, everyone’s goals are different.

Photo by Joshua Ness on Unsplash

Immerse yourself in mentor’s knowledge. Truly successful people should know exactly what they did to experience that success and will be generous enough to codify it, consume their content. You don’t have to know your mentors personally. Make sure you’re not going alone, if the people in your life are not on this path with you, you’re alone.

Everything must be focused on growth. The key here is that we remain profitable as a company. If all we do is grow the top line, it won’t be sustainable.

Once you cut the waste out of an organization, never look at that again. Grant spends 95% of time on income and 5% on expenses. You can’t grow your company by getting smaller.

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Love this concept. Alignment is so important for a successful company, there should be one voice and one sound.

Your daily sales meetings should reinforce who your company is, what your company does, and what you expect from your team. And what you provide to your customers. Everyone NEEDS to be aligned.

Such great descriptions of what matters most. Such a great way to remind each and every person both within the company and interacting with the company of the company values and its overall positioning. My favorite is the last one, “I refuse to show up average.”

There is glass all throughout Grant’s office because he’s a transparent person. Some of the mottos that Grant Cardone places all throughout his office:

“We are in a hurry to serve.”
“Success is my duty.”
“I refuse to let the customer not do business with us, no one can buy a lower price.”
“When value exceeds price, buyers make decisions.”
“If the buyer doesn’t buy, it’s our fault, not their fault.”
“I refuse to not call the customer back, even if they tell me not to call them back.”
“Not buying my product costs you more than buying my product costs you.”
“I do more than is asked of me with every opportunity.”
“I don’t need to be here forever but I will be all here today.”
“I refuse to show up average.”

100%. What brings you fulfillment and happiness and satisfaction is going to be uniquely you. So spending days and days just covering the expenses is not going to get you there.

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How can you be happy or satisfied if you’re not doing what you want every day?

This is so true and seemingly difficult for so many to not only comprehend but also put into practice. We MUST be surrounded by good influences, great influences. There is not much as detrimental as a bad influence that we surround ourselves with.

There is no domination without discipline.

There are either good influences or bad, it’s black and white there is no gray.

I’ve seen this play out in my own life also. If I’m not committed to a task, there is no incentive, no motivation, no desire to be creative so more often than not, I never really am creative. It’s no surprise then that the companies that are the most innovative have fantastic levels of commitment.

“Where you lack commitment you will lack creativity.” — Grant Cardone

Love this mindset and I agree. Often times, a company can get too comfortable and a company can become too reliant on just a couple of people. When a health emergency sidetracks them, what do you do? When they decide to retire early, what do you do? You cannot let yourself be caught in that spot as a company. We must cultivate relationships with multiple people within the company so that anyone can make the company run and move forward.

You need to continue to bring new people into the company so you don’t become dependent on just one or two people.

Always always always. If we are not recruiting the best people, we are becoming the worst company. It’s so important to know that we must be trending in the right direction. If we are not becoming better, we really are becoming worse — because someone else is always working to become better.

Every great organization knows they must be recruiting every day, constantly, perpetually.

This is the way that the company should be run in my mind.

“Assume that the only people who will be left in your business at the end will be you.” — Grant Cardone

Love this. I know that I can make good decisions and lead things towards success and I do really care if I have the power to determine, predict, and influence an outcome, love it.

“I care if I have the power to determine, predict, and influence an outcome.” — Grant Cardone

This is something I find so entirely true and so valuable. We NEED to make decisions.

“Relentless people make decisions NOT suggestions.” — Tim Grover

If you can’t make a hard decision, you can’t be a boss.

If you aren’t willing to be in control and have people call you a control freak, you can’t be a boss.

I agree. I do the same. This is how it should be. We should all have such faith and belief and confidence in our work that we know that it is the best it could possibly be unless someone presents another way.

“I believe I know the best in everything until someone else takes control and says, ‘no, I have something else.’” — Grant Cardone
“You get rewarded in direct proportion to the difficulty of the problem you solve.”
“Your entire career, your success will be determined by your ability to make sense of things that don’t make sense.” — Grant Cardone

Motivation and focus are ESSENTIAL. It is imperative that we understand what is needed to obtain those things and continue to maintain them over time also.

To be obsessed and stay obsessed, you must lose your mind. Grant shops for things: houses, cars, watches that are too expensive for him because it provides motivation and focus.

It’s so so so so important that we are always surrounded by people who have the same aspirations for greatness.

“I am obsessed and refuse to have an average life.” The core of the book. Find people who think the same way.

Photo by Stanislav Kondratiev on Unsplash

This book was wonderful, incredible, just spectacular. An average life is one that I cannot define but it is definitely not one that I want. I want greatness and excellence in every single way that God has for me and for all of us. I know that everyone is different and what some might think is crazy is what God has designed for others. It is essential that we are going to become obsessed with all that we can become and all that God has destined for us to become. I’m obsessed.

I gave this book a 4.5/5

To read this book, get it here


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