Chapter 15

Burn the Place Down

Once you take 10X actions and start getting traction, you must continue to add wood to your fire until you either start a brushfire or a bonfire—or burn the place down. Don't rest, and don't stop—ever. I learned this the hard way after achieving a lot of success and then resting on my laurels. This is a commonly made mistake. Do not do it! Keep stacking wood until the fire is so hot and burns so brightly that not even competitors or market changes can put your fire out. Your fire has to continue to be stoked, and that means more wood, more fuel, and in your case, more actions. Once you start operating like this, it will become almost second nature to continue—because you are going to be winning. It's easiest and most natural to continue taking massive actions when you are winning—and winning is only possible with massive actions.

When you begin to “heat things up,” you'll quickly become aware—even obsessed—with the possibilities before you and will start to see new levels of positive results. Your actions will start to perpetuate themselves like a flywheel that, once it gets going, continues going. Newton talked about the law of inertia: An object in motion continues in motion. Keep taking action until you can't stop your forward momentum. You might even find yourself operating on less sleep and food because you are literally subsisting on your adrenaline generated by your victories. It will be about this time that people start offering you admiration—and ...

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