1. True culture is built when you can remind people of the past but keep them focused on a bigger and better future.
2. Transformations don’t happen in isolation. If you don’t have a coach, mentor or operating board of advisors, you are underperforming. Guaranteed.
3. The way to create 10x is not by optimising a process or tweaking a system. It is by taking ideas and turning them into reality. There is a great quote by Robin Sharma, “Ideation without execution is delusion”.
4. Focus on building a community, because community drives achievement. Pour your heart into the community. People love you for who you are, not who they think you should be.
5. Don’t be an a**hole. You will always lose.
6. Take 100 per cent responsibility for your actions. If someone doesn’t respond to your email or text message, that means your communication wasn’t compelling enough to deserve a response.
7. Take vacations. I really didn’t take any. I paid the price in every way imaginable.
8. Take care of the right people. As I look back at our 10x growth, the turning points were always marked with great hiring or firing decisions.
9. Your artifacts of success are the insurance policy to achieving your goals. When you have your plans written own, your tracking systems established, reporting dialled in, everything changes because you start operating from a powerful place where facts meet inspiration. When you work with me, I will always go back to building out our artifacts of success.
10. Wake up with a fierce intention to crush it. The leading indicator for your success is the commitment to your morning routine.
11. Pony up. It’s okay to pay for access to a mentoring relationship; it’s a symbol of seriousness.
12. “Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do something you don’t necessarily want to do to get a result you would really like to have.” – Andy Andrews
13. If you can’t do deep work, you are bound to be outworked. Read the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. It will change your life.
14. Luck is real and often you can create it. It is also sometimes just a belief system.
15. Celebrate your wins. It will make you have many more.
16. Good process drives good results. If you know me, you know this is one of my brain tattoos.
17. Focus is more important than intelligence – because your eyes only see and your ears only hear what you are looking for.
18. What you do every day builds culture. With every turn, every decision, every opportunity and every pivot, ask how it’s going to affect your culture. Guard it with your life. It’s the heartbeat of your success.
19. You cannot 10x anything without having insanely amazing health. If i were to go back and do just one thing differently, it would be to prioritise my health and vitality over everything else.
20. Commit to personal growth every single day. Make it a part of your daily non-negotiables. It’s the one silver bullet in your life that is the gateway to creating massive success.
21. What you say really matters. (Ugh, I can’t believe I said that.) Remember: If you don’t script, you don’t care.
22. If you don’t have mentors, you will always live a mediocre life.
23. It’s okay to have your own hashtag: #TelesDomination was ours!
24. If you don’t leverage a worldwide workforce and take advantage of time and payroll arbitrage, you will lose.
25. Focus on building your inner circle. Your life will change instantly when you find your 1,000 true fans.
26. It’s not about what you read. It’s about what you do with what you read. Think about how to transfer ideas and skills from your reading and learning, not just cranking through books and podcasts.
27. It’s okay to use the words ‘I love you’ when you mean it… may it be at work or home. (Clearly HR didn’t approve this list.)
28. We live in the results economy. Take a meritocracy approach if you want to win. I don’t care about FaceTime or office hours. I don’t care if you work from Barcelona or Bombay; it’s all about results. Give your team the flexibility and creativity to enjoy their work, their time off and their contributions.
29. Your personal stability is the foundation for 10x growth. When you have your family, friends and inner circle supporting your obsession, it becomes exponentially easier to focus and thrive.
30. I learned that the number one problem that plagues high achievers is ‘Big Goal/No Plan’. If you want to create lasting transformations for people, help them to align their big goals with an inspiring and thoughtful plan.
31. What is risky to someone else need not be risky to you. Just do the work. The only time you are underprepared is when you are not over-prepared.
32. When you find great partners, you will find great joy that transcends everything.
33. Issy Sharp, the founder of Four Seasons, once told me, “The answer is always yes. Now what is the question?”
34. Greatness is in the granularity. I knew every single thing about how every single thing worked at Teles. It sometimes bothered people, not because I was in their business but because I knew how everything worked and it was just hard to BS me. That gave our key stakeholders confidence because I was always able to help find solutions to problems. If you think about it, this is one of the reasons why many people bounce from coach to consultant; it’s hard to find someone who can think both top-down and bottom-up simultaneously. Very few people out there have done the work in the trenches. Very few people know how to take an idea and make it a reality. I keep my coaches and mentors on their toes because that’s what I need to keep my edge… and they secretly love it. Commit to knowing how everything fits together; nobody expects you to do everything because (news flash) you can’t. However, when you take responsibility for everything, you will realise that greatness is in the granularity.
35. “You cannot do epic sh*t with B players. Upgrade the bench.” -Peter Loewy
36. When in doubt, go work out. Clear your head and refocus.
37. It is impossible to 10x just one part of your life. Every domain in your life has to level up to support the 10x charge. Once you commit to 10x in one part of your life, start to look for its daisy-chain effect in other parts of your life.
Sharran will be speaking at The Business of Real Estate on 3-4 September at the QT Hotel on the Gold Coast. For more information visit thebusinessofrealestate.com.au.
This article first appeared on sharran.com: 37 lessons learned growing Teles 10x
