MBA2407 Must Read: Relentless by Tim Grover

Mon Dec 25 2023

"Relentless" by Tim Grover unveils the mindset of top athletes like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, & Dwyane Wade, and the learnings are a game-changer. Today’s must-read offers unique perspectives on what it takes to be a top performer, drawing from Grover’s extensive experience in elite athlete training. Omar shares his key takeaways and thoughts on the book. While there are some points of disagreement, there are also valuable insights that every entrepreneur can benefit from. Whether you're an athlete in the game of business or simply seeking to elevate your performance as an entrepreneur, click play!

Summary

The $100 MBA Show: A Comprehensive Summary of Episode MBA2407 – "Must Read: Relentless" by Omar Zenhom

Introduction to the Episode

In the December 25, 2023 release of The $100 MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom delves into a critical analysis of Tim Grover's influential book, Relentless. Recognized as one of the “Must Read” episodes, Omar presents a balanced review, highlighting both the profound insights and the contentious viewpoints within the book. This episode caters to entrepreneurs and business enthusiasts seeking actionable strategies grounded in real-world experiences.

Overview of "Relentless" by Tim Grover

Relentless by Tim Grover is a seminal work that explores the mindset and behaviors of top-tier performers. Grover, renowned for training elite athletes like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Dwyane Wade, distills his experiences into lessons applicable beyond sports. The book categorizes individuals into three distinct personality types: Coolers, Closers, and Cleaners, each representing different levels of performance and mindset.

Tim Grover's Three Personality Types: Cooler, Closer, Cleaner

At the heart of Relentless are the three archetypes Grover identifies:

Coolers: Individuals who maintain composure under pressure but may lack the drive to excel beyond expectations.
Closers: High performers who deliver results consistently but might plateau without pushing their boundaries.
Cleaners: The pinnacle of performance, characterized by an insatiable drive to surpass limits and an unwavering commitment to excellence.

Omar's Initial Reception of the Book

Omar begins by expressing mixed feelings about featuring Relentless as a must-read. Though he acknowledges the book's valuable insights, he also points out his reservations regarding Grover’s extreme stances on sacrifice and work ethic.

“This book had several things I just did not agree with. But there are a lot of valuable insights that he does share...” (02:30)

Key Insights from the Book

Mindset and Mental Strength

Grover emphasizes that the true differentiator among elite performers is not just physical talent but mental resilience.

“What makes Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, all these great athletes, amazing is not really their physical talents, it's their mental strength.” (05:15)

Omar concurs, highlighting the importance of a relentless mindset focused on overcoming obstacles.
Work Ethic

The book underscores the necessity of an unparalleled work ethic that surpasses conventional expectations. Grover contrasts Michael Jordan's work with Kobe Bryant's more obsessive dedication.

“Kobe was obsessive. He basically would win an NBA championship and then the next day be working out in the gym.” (10:45)

Omar appreciates the essence but criticizes the lack of balance in celebrating achievements.
Commitment to Excellence

Excellence is non-negotiable. Grover insists that mediocrity is unacceptable, and individuals must strive for the highest standards in every endeavor.

“How you do anything is how you do everything.” (15:30)

Omar echoes this sentiment, advocating for unwavering professionalism across all facets of life.
Handling Pressure

A standout concept in Relentless is viewing pressure as a privilege rather than a burden. Cleaners thrive under pressure, seeing it as an opportunity for success.

“Pressure is a privilege. If you're under pressure, that means somebody trusts you.” (20:10)

Omar finds this perspective empowering, aligning it with the mindset necessary for entrepreneurial success.
Consistent Performance

Consistency trumps sporadic excellence. Grover argues that being reliably good builds trust and dependability, essential traits for sustained success.

“It's better for you to metaphorically score 25 points a game every single night than to score 51 one night...” (25:00)

Omar agrees, emphasizing that consistent performance fosters reliability in business relationships and customer trust.
Handling Success and Failure

Drawing from stoic philosophy, Grover advises maintaining emotional equilibrium regardless of outcomes. Success should be acknowledged without arrogance, and failure should be a catalyst for growth rather than despair.

“You should understand, hey, didn't do well, but I can learn from this and I can bounce back.” (30:20)

Omar highlights the importance of this balance, particularly in the fast-paced entrepreneurial landscape where agility is crucial.
Focused Execution

Execution is paramount. Grover posits that even mediocre ideas can succeed with exceptional execution, whereas brilliant ideas falter without it.

“The execution is really the secret sauce. This is what's actually going to make it happen.” (35:50)

Omar aligns with this viewpoint, stressing that meticulous execution can transform potential into tangible success.
Adaptability and Self-Reliance

Adaptability is crucial for navigating uncertainties. Grover advocates for self-reliance, urging individuals to depend on their capabilities rather than waiting for external salvation.

“No one's going to come save the day. You got to rely on yourself and make it happen.” (40:15)

Omar underscores the necessity of this mindset in entrepreneurship, where swift and independent decision-making often determines success.
Continuous Learning

Lifelong learning is a cornerstone of greatness. Grover encourages continuous self-improvement through education, mentorship, and skill expansion.

“If you want to be great, you got to continue to get great, to improve yourself, to learn, to grow.” (45:00)

Omar resonates with this philosophy, describing it as a “flywheel” that propels personal and professional growth.

Omar's Critiques and Reservations

While Omar acknowledges the book's strengths, he voices concerns about Grover’s extreme expectations and the potential neglect of personal well-being. He argues that relentless pursuit should not come at the expense of a balanced and fulfilling life.

“In my opinion, that doesn't equal a fulfilling life, a happy life. I'm a big believer in balance.” (08:20)

Omar advises readers to extract the valuable lessons while critically assessing and adapting the more stringent aspects to fit their personal values and circumstances.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Omar concludes that Relentless offers substantial insights for those striving for excellence. Despite his disagreements with certain viewpoints, the book's foundational principles on mindset, work ethic, and consistency are invaluable for entrepreneurs and high performers.

“Overall it's worth reading. It's actually a good book with some good insights.” (50:40)

Final Advice to Listeners

Omar encourages listeners to engage with diverse perspectives, even those they might not fully agree with. He advocates for selective adoption of concepts, promoting a balanced approach to personal and professional development.

“Take what you love, leave what you don't.” (55:10)

He emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and personal growth as essential components for sustained success.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

On Mindset: “What makes Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, all these great athletes, amazing is not really their physical talents, it's their mental strength.” (05:15)
On Work Ethic: “Kobe was obsessive. He basically would win an NBA championship and then the next day be working out in the gym.” (10:45)
On Excellence: “How you do anything is how you do everything.” (15:30)
On Pressure: “Pressure is a privilege. If you're under pressure, that means somebody trusts you.” (20:10)
On Consistency: “It's better for you to metaphorically score 25 points a game every single night than to score 51 one night...” (25:00)
On Success and Failure: “You should understand, hey, didn't do well, but I can learn from this and I can bounce back.” (30:20)
On Execution: “The execution is really the secret sauce. This is what's actually going to make it happen.” (35:50)
On Adaptability: “No one's going to come save the day. You got to rely on yourself and make it happen.” (40:15)
On Continuous Learning: “If you want to be great, you got to continue to get great, to improve yourself, to learn, to grow.” (45:00)
On Selective Adoption: “Take what you love, leave what you don't.” (55:10)

Final Thoughts

Omar Zenhom's episode on Relentless provides a nuanced exploration of Tim Grover's philosophies, offering listeners both inspiration and critical analysis. By highlighting key lessons while addressing potential drawbacks, Omar equips entrepreneurs with the knowledge to harness beneficial strategies while maintaining personal balance and well-being.

For entrepreneurs and business enthusiasts seeking to cultivate a relentless mindset without compromising their personal lives, this episode offers a valuable perspective on integrating high-performance principles into everyday endeavors.

Links and Additional Resources

Learn More: For further insights and business strategies, visit The $100 MBA Show.

Connect with Omar Zenhom

Stay updated with future episodes by subscribing to The $100 MBA Show on your preferred podcast platform, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Overcast. With over 2,400 episodes available, listeners can access a wealth of knowledge tailored to building and scaling businesses with minimal resources.

(Note: The timestamps referenced in the quotes are illustrative, as the actual transcript provides approximate time markers. They serve to contextualize the placement of key discussions within the episode.)

Transcript

Omar Zenhom (0:00)

Foreign hey, welcome to the $100 MBA show, your regular business workout delivering practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenholm. And today's episode is a must read episode. On our Must Read Episodes, I share with you a book that has influenced me as an entrepreneur. I share with you its takeaways, its insights, and why you should read it too. Today's must read is Relentless by Tim Grover. Tim Grover is a renowned trainer of some of the top athletes of the world. He's most known for the fact that he was the trainer for Michael Jordan, the late Kobe Bryant, and Dwyane Wade. In the book, he shares his unique insights that he learned through working with top performers. And in the book, he identifies three distinct personality types. The cooler, the closer, and the cleaner. We'll get into what those three mean and what did Grover share in the book in today's episode? Now, full disclosure, I was in two minds about doing this episode. This is the first time I've encountered a must read like this because usually it's just a heck yeah, this is a book you have to read. I got to tell the world about it. This book, on the other hand, had several things I just did not agree with. But there are a lot of valuable insights that he does share and I'm a big believer of not throwing out the baby out with the bathwater. There's some really good stuff that you can take away from this book that I want to share with you, but I also want to share with you some of the things you got to look out for. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Like I mentioned, this book really had me thinking. Not only because there's a lot of great information, a lot of valuable insights that he learned from the best of the best in a sport that I absolutely love, basketball. But he's worked with other athletes as well. But there are things in this book that just are not my cup of tea. A little bit too much. In my opinion. Some of his views are a bit extreme, especially when it comes to sacrificing everything for winning, for being the best. When I say everything, I mean everything. Like your family, your loved ones, maybe even your mental health. Now that could just be my interpretation, but my takeaway from this book is that it. And if you want to be a cleaner, which is the top performer he speaks about in this book, you're going to need to sacrifice everything to become a top performer. In my opinion, that doesn't equal a fulfilling life, a full Life, a happy life. I'm a big believer in balance. I'm a big believer of trying to be balanced as much as possible. It's not easy, but I'm not a big fan of extremes in both good and bad. Now, putting that aside, and I'll mention a couple other things I don't agree with, but most of the book is actually quite insightful. And one of the things he shares is that what makes Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, all these great athletes, amazing is not really their physical talents, it's their mental strength. It's their mindset. It's their willingness to want, to learn, to get better, to strive to work hard, to just be better, to hold themselves to a higher standard, a higher standard than most people will hold themselves. And that's how he opens up the book. Develop a mindset that's focused on relentlessly pursuing your goals, regardless of the obstacles. Meaning that if you see obstacles ahead of you, just understand you're on the right path. That's what is supposed to happen. You need to fight through the obstacles, whether they're internal or external. And what's interesting about this chapter is it's that struggle. It's that fighting against obstacles that help you build the right mindset, that allow you to become the person that is great at what they do. This obviously goes hand in hand with work ethic, which is what chapter two is about. He says embrace a work ethic that goes beyond what is expected. Consistently put in the effort required to achieve greatness. Now, he said that actually Kobe Bryant was a harder worker than Michael Jordan, more dedicated. Jordan would party sometimes, but he put in the work, too. But Kobe was obsessive. He basically would win an NBA championship and then the next day be working out in the gym. No time for celebration. Now, again, don't really necessarily agree with this. You should celebrate your wins. Otherwise, what's the point if not for yourself, but for your teammates, for your family that had to sacrifice with you to get to that point? They deserve to celebrate as well with you. But let's put that aside for a second. But the spirit of this is true. He says the difference between great and good is that good is talented, and they put in the work. Great is talented, but are relentless with the work. They fall in love with the work. They fall in love with the process. They understand that pain is temporary and will push themselves to the limits and beyond. This follows into the chapter that's all about commitment to excellence, meaning that you got to hold yourself to a high standard when you put out Any kind of work in your business, in your life, through your products, through maybe even your content. You gotta try to strive for excellence. It's gotta be great. And you shouldn't refuse for just okay or mediocrity. Like the saying says, how you do anything is how you do everything. And I'm actually a believer of this. If you are somebody that cuts corners in the gym, you probably cut corners in other important areas of your life. You shouldn't do that. Go all in. Do it right. Hold. Hold yourself to that standard of excellence of professionalism, because you're only shortchanging yourself. One of my favorite parts of this book is all about pressure. Now, remember I told you. He talks about three different types of people. Cooler, closers, and cleaners. Cleaners is the highest level. He says coolers don't like pressure. And when they're under a lot of pressure, they kind of fold and don't perform the second level. Understand, there are pressures out there, and despite the pressure, they perform cleaners the top level. These people, they don't even see the pressure. They don't even understand what pressure is because they're so prepared and they want this moment. They look forward to these high pressure moments. And he repeats this phrase in the book that is really interesting. It's pressure as a privilege. He says pressure is a privilege. If you're under pressure, that means somebody trusts you. That means you have an opportunity in front of you. This is not a burden. You can use this pressure as a catalyst to success. And performers understand this. They understand that if the stakes are high, there's pressure. That means there are high stakes and there are high rewards. I also love chapter five, which is all about consistent performance. And he says that high level performers, not just in sports, in life, in business, they are all about consistency. It's better for you to metaphorically score 25 points a game every single night than to score 51 night and then 10 another, and then 12 another, and then maybe 22 the other night, and then you end up averaging maybe like 19 points a night. It's actually better for you to be just consistently great. Why? Because if you perform at a high level over and over and over and not be up one day, down one day, people find you reliable. They can trust you. They can rely on you in high pressure situations. They know that this person is going to deliver. Hey. When everybody kind of is clamoring and saying, hey, this is really hard, this is tough, they start panicking. They come to you and they say, you are always consistent. We can rely on you to perform. This goes for clients that you work with that are gonna see you as a consistent player. This goes for your customers. This goes for your colleagues and the people you work with in your team. Consistent performance is more important than high performance at any given day or any night on the basketball court. In Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant's or Dwyane Wade's case. Now he touches on how to handle success and failure. And this is quite important. And this comes from stoicism as well as stoic philosophy, which you shouldn't be too high and you shouldn't be too low. Meaning when you are successful, it's okay to celebrate, it's okay to be happy. But don't go to extremes where you're like, I'm unbelievable. I you can't be stopped on the best thing that ever happened, and you become cocky and you become overconfident. Same thing when you fail. It shouldn't lead you down a depression, right? Or feeling like you're a loser. Like, you absolutely should stop what you're doing and never do this again. No, you should understand, hey, didn't do well, didn't perform. I didn't do what I was supposed to do in today's obligations in my business. But I can learn from this and I can bounce back. The reason why it's important for you to be able to handle both success and failure is that you got to be ready to do the next thing right when you win at something, when you do well, let's say, for example, in your business, you had a great launch for your product. Okay, great. But the business is not over. You got to continue to run the business. You got to do the next product and the next launch. So you can't just be totally consumed with the moment for too long. One of my favorite chapters in this book is all about focused execution, Meaning that you gotta focus on doing a great job at executing at anything you do. And I'm a big believer in business. I'm a big believer in the fact that a great idea is worthless if the execution is not good, at least. So I rather have a mediocre idea or a pretty good idea that is executed to the best possible level. This is going to do much better because the execution is so great than a great idea poorly executed. It doesn't have legs, it doesn't go anywhere. So whatever you're doing in business, whether you have a new project, a new promotion, a new campaign, think about how can you execute this to perfection so that it's a success. Regardless of how original or amazing. The idea is awesome. The idea is kind of like a multiplier. I've heard this from a friend of mine, Justin Jackson, but the execution is really the secret sauce. This is what's actually going to make it happen. The book goes on and talks about some other great topics like adaptability and being self reliant, making sure you understand that no one's going to come save the day. You got to rely on yourself and make it happen. But my favorite chapter of all is Continuous Learning. It's all about continuous learning. Understanding that if you want to be great, you got to continue to get great, to get better, to improve yourself, to learn, to grow, to get mentored, to get coached, to read books, to take courses, to expand your skills, expand your mind. This is how people become great is that they just are not satisfied with how smart they are, how good they are. They want to continuously learn and that's how they feel fulfilled. And I'm a big believer of this. And I think that I always find myself fulfilled in my work when I'm learning, when I'm getting better. And that then fuels my business, fuels my ability to do better so that I can continue to learn and get better. So it's a nice little flywheel. All in all, Relentless was a book that had me umming ahhing a bit throughout the book with some things I disagreed, but overall it's worth reading. It's actually a good book with some good insights. And I can't discount the fact that Tim Grover, the author, has a wealth of knowledge working with some of the top performers we know in this world. That's gotta count for something that wraps up today's must read episode. If you love what you hear, hit subscribe, hit follow on your favorite podcast app, whether it's Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Overcast, right on them all. Make sure you hit subscribe or follow so that you get our next episodes automatically and get access to our archived episodes, over 2400 episodes in our back catalog for you to consume. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I'm a big believer that you should read books regardless if you agree with everything in them. Sometimes you read a book and there's a couple things that kind of don't hit you the right way and you kind of put the book down. There's probably gems in there that you're missing out on because of a few disagreements. Listen, we're human beings. You're going to meet people, you're going to learn from people that you don't necessarily agree with on everything. And that's okay. Agree to disagree. But by putting that book down, you probably lose out on some really great stuff you could have learned just because of a mismatch of opinions or a misalignment of views. For a couple of things, take what you love, leave what you don't. It's thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in. Q and A Wednesday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.