So I just finished Grant Cardone’s latest book Be Obsessed or Be Average. If you need a kick in the pants, it’s a solid read.
Whenever I do book reviews, I try to yank out a few of the most important lessons with the internet millionaire in mind.
In this book, Uncle G talks all things obsession. What it means to him, how it saved his life, and how to harness obsession in all areas of business – from leading, to recruiting, to hiring and firing, to making sales, to creating culture, and more.
But what I’d like to focus on is becoming obsessed with paid advertising.
Because he says something I know most people will overlook – and that is: “Be willing to risk waste to grow.”
GC claims not all investments will have returns that are visible or trackable. He thinks ROI is a lie low-level entrepreneurs tell themselves to justify not spending money to grow their biz.
Cardone, on the other hand, says he’s never once regretted spending money on advertising, regardless of the outcome. Why? He’s obsessed with dominating and being known by everyone on the planet.
Based on my experience, he couldn’t be more right.
I saw the same thing when I scaled my first mega successful internet business from zero to a million dollars a month.
I went all in on paid promotion. I committed to outspending all competitors, no matter how ugly the “numbers” were early on. If not by finesse, I was going to win by brute force. And it worked. Our company blanketed the web. No matter where you looked, there we were. Over time, we wore people down.
I can’t tell you how many clients were like: “Man, I see you guys everywhere. After three months of ignoring your ads, I finally looked at some of your content – and, well, here I am.”
The takeaway is this:
It’s scary. It’s risky. But if you’ve got a great product, what’s it costing you to play it safe? How many millions are you leaving on the table?
For me, I wasn’t just willing to be wasteful with ad dollars; I was. Which seems like a weird thing to brag about. But that mentality was the X factor behind our explosive growth. And the reason nobody could touch us.
To be blunt, no one else had the balls to push that hard or put so much money on the line. My attitude during that time can best be described by this quote from the book:
“I don’t have competition. I have imitators who don’t have the bandwidth, guts, resources, energy, persistence, or leadership to deliver at the levels I do.
To do business with anyone else but me is a mistake of massive proportions.” – Grant Cardone
And that’s the message prospects hear when you’re obsessed with advertising. So if you get nothing else from this book, or even if you don’t read it, I want you to remember this lesson.
Anyone can hustle and make a few sales organically – although it’s getting harder to do with all the noise online. But if you want to reach and impact millions (and pocket millions), at some point you’ll need to slam the accelerator that is paid ads.
When that time comes, be sure to read this if you want an unfair advantage.
