The Secret to 10x Growth Isn't Hard Work. It's This

10x is a real strategy — used by the most successful people in the world. And it works when you stop doing more and start doing things differently.

Take Apple. Back in 1997, the company was on the verge of collapse. Then Steve Jobs returned. What did he do? He didn’t launch more products — he slashed the catalog to just four main lines. He simplified everything. He focused on design, quality, and emotion. Within a decade, Apple’s value skyrocketed over 100 times. But the first leap? That was 10x.

Or look at Canva. In 2015, they had a few hundred thousand users. Now? Over 100 million. They didn’t try to win over pro designers. They built for everyday people. Made things simple, accessible. That single product decision? It multiplied their growth — fast.

Here’s a closer-to-home example: an online course creator who stopped selling one-off trainings and launched a subscription model instead. Same audience. Same knowledge. New packaging. Within a year, their monthly revenue grew tenfold.
This isn’t magic. It’s a mindset shift that triggers a strategy shift — and delivers a completely different result.

10x isn’t just for tech giants or Silicon Valley legends. It shows up in education, science, health, money, relationships — anywhere you change your lens, make a new decision, and build a better system. And suddenly, you’re playing on a different level.

Take science and technology. In 1961, JFK made a bold statement: “We choose to go to the Moon before the decade is out.” At the time, the tech didn’t exist. The plan didn’t exist. But the U.S. went all in. NASA’s budget jumped from $1 billion to over $10 billion a year. Four hundred thousand people worked on the Apollo program. In 1969, humans really did walk on the Moon. It all started with a decision to go big — not because it was easy.

When Europe invested in the Large Hadron Collider, there were no guarantees. But they put in €9 billion to build something the world had never seen. The outcome? The discovery of the Higgs boson. Thousands of PhDs. A 10x increase in high-level physics research. One move — exponential impact.

The internet? Same thing. ARPANET connected four computers in 1969. But the real breakthrough came in 1983 with the creation of TCP/IP. The rest is history. Every decade since then, the user base has grown by an order of magnitude. By 2005, over a billion people were online. Why? Because someone decided it didn’t have to be a military tool. It could belong to everyone.

AI is an even more current example. GPT-2 had 1.5 billion parameters. GPT-3 had 175 billion. GPT-4? Over a trillion. ChatGPT hit 100 million users in two months — the fastest growth ever recorded for any app. What triggered that explosion? OpenAI decided to give the public access. Not just scientists.

In education, the same pattern holds. Someone learning a language “because they should” barely retains anything. But give them a real reason — like a job abroad or a client call — and their speed and retention go through the roof. Not because they study more. They study with purpose.

The Feynman technique takes it even further. Instead of memorizing, you explain the concept to someone else. You shift from asking, “How do I remember this?” to “How can I teach this to someone who knows nothing?” That shift rewires how deeply you understand — and retain — what you’re learning.

People buy online courses all the time. Most never finish. But those who commit to implementing even 15 minutes a day? They see results. It’s not about how much you know. It’s about what you do with it.

Let’s talk about relationships. Parents who spend just ten focused, judgment-free minutes a day listening to their child build a connection ten times stronger than those who are always “around” but mentally somewhere else. Quality of attention matters more than quantity.

Same in marriage. Couples who talk through a conflict within 24 hours are ten times more likely to stay together. Not because they avoid problems — but because they face them.

And in networking? The people who build powerful networks aren’t the ones shaking the most hands. They’re the ones creating value — making intros, offering help, sharing opportunities. They ask, “How can I contribute?” instead of “What’s in it for me?” That shift alone accelerates trust — and growth.

Sports? No surprise. Someone who signs up for a marathon and follows a structured plan makes ten times more progress than someone who “just runs when they can.” Having a goal changes everything — training, recovery, consistency.

Same with health. Diets come and go. But when someone changes their lifestyle — say, eating two meals a day or cutting sugar long-term — the weight doesn’t just drop. It stays off. It’s not a quick fix. It’s a system that’s part of their life.

Let’s zoom out to a national scale. In 1965, Singapore’s GDP per capita was around $500. Today? Over $60,000. They focused on education, zero corruption, and long-term vision. The result? A 50x jump in prosperity.

Estonia rebuilt from scratch after the fall of the Soviet Union. But instead of copying the West, they leapfrogged it. They built a digital-first society: e-government, e-citizenship, online voting. A small country with outsized results — because they played a different game.

Poland, post-1989, transformed its economy fast. In just over a decade, exports jumped from $9 billion to over $100 billion. That didn’t happen because people worked harder. It happened because they changed the system.

Personal finance? Same rule. Someone who saves and invests 10% of their income consistently, even at a modest 8% annual return, will end up with 10x more wealth in ten years than someone who spends everything they make. Not because they earn more — but because they follow a plan.

Even switching from employee to business owner changes the game. Freelancers and entrepreneurs often earn 5 to 10 times more within a few years — not by working more hours, but by changing what they offer, who they serve, and how they charge.

And here’s a shift you might relate to: coaches or consultants who stop selling hourly sessions and start offering 3-month premium packages. The same knowledge. A new format. And suddenly, they’re earning 10x without more time.

All these stories point to one thing:

The 10x effect isn’t about hustle. It’s about changing your mental map. A shift in mindset leads to different decisions. Those decisions lead to better systems. And systems deliver bigger results — consistently.

You don’t need to grind harder. You need to think smarter.

Your 10x Challenge:

Open a blank doc or grab a notebook. Title it: “10x My Business.”

Then answer these three questions:

1. What’s working best right now — and what would happen if I scaled that up 10x?

2. What’s slowing me down — and what could I cut, automate, or replace to free myself up?

3. If I had to build my business from scratch — with everything I know today — what would I do differently?

Be honest. Think boldly. This isn’t about tweaking. It’s about redesigning your model to unlock a totally new level.

You might not have all the answers today. But if you take this exercise seriously, you’ll start seeing what’s been hiding in plain sight.

And once you see it — take the first step.

10x starts with one question, one shift in perspective — and the courage to act on it.

Andrzej Manka