"You already know what you have to do, and you know how to do it. What's stopping you?"
"Being relentless means demanding more of yourself than anyone else could ever demand of you,
knowing that every time you stop, you can still do more. You must do more."
"From this point, your strategy is to make everyone else get on your level; you're not going down
to theirs. You're not competing with anyone else, ever again."
While training Michael Jordan: "we never saw obstacles or problems, we only saw situations in need
of solutions."
Become feared for your mental toughness, not just your skill.
Cleaner: someone who takes responsibility for everything. They clean up the situation, and the job
gets done.
"Calm and unflappable."
Pushing yourself harder when everyone else has had enough (chap 1)
Mental conditioning: be eager rather than fearful of the next painful stage of development.
Choose the tougher path.
For athletes, mental conditioning should come first, and the physical training will follow.
"My goal is to make it so challenging in the gym that everything that happens outside the gym
seems easy. The work is about testing yourself and preparing all your options, so when you're
performing, there's nothing to think about. Do the work before you need it, so you know what
you're capable of when everyone else hits that panic button and looks at you."
You get into the Zone, shut out everything else, and control the uncontrollable (chap 2)
About concentration: "Others around you feel scared or jealous or excited… but you feel only
readiness. No emotion, because in the Zone the only sensation is anger, a quiet, icy anger
simmering under your skin… never rage, never out of control."
"Anyone who has experienced the awesome power of the Zone will tell you it's deeply calm. It's not
peaceful… but intensely focused. And once you're there, you have no fear, no worry, no emotion.
You do what you came to do, and nothing can touch you."
Everyone seems to have a different trigger that puts them in the zone, like seeing the
competition, or being criticized.
Avoid pregame hype and emotional highs, because they take you out of the zone. "Before a game, I
don't want to see guys screaming each other into a frenzy… What happens right after that moment
of insanity? It's over. Back to the sideline. Total letdown. Out of Zone."
MJ is the only person he's ever seen who is always in the Zone. Before and during every game. "If
one thing separated Michael from every other player, it was his stunning ability to block out
everything and everyone else."
You know exactly who you are (chap 3)
Toddlers are born relentless.
"What a waste. All that natural energy, drive, intuition, action… reduced to a time-out in the
corner. From the time you're a toddler to the time you're an adult, you've been taught to be
'good'. What's wrong with the way you were?"
"Most people are like lions in cages": natural instincts and ambition suppressed, waiting for
something to happen.
What is it like to rely on one's instinct? "No thinking. Just the gut reaction that comes from
being so ready, so prepared, so confident, that there's nothing to think about. If you're driving,
and suddenly the car ahead of you slams on its brakes, do you pause to consider all your options
or stop to ask for advice? No, you slam on the brakes."
"In business, make more decisions with instincts."
People who are good in practice but not in games: "they can't find the Zone, they're distracted by
their own thought process, and they don't trust themselves. They're thinking about everything that
can go wrong, thinking about what everyone else is doing, thinking instead of knowing, without a
doubt, I got this."
Instinct, not impulse: "Real learning doesn't mean clinging to the lessons. It means absorbing
everything you can and then trusting yourself to use what you know instantaneously, without
thinking. Instinctive, not impulsive… quick, not hurried. Knowing without a doubt that all the
hours of work have created an unstoppable internal resource you can draw on in any situation.
Having the maturity and experience to know who you are and how you got to the top, and the mental
toughness to stay there."
You have a dark side that refuses to be taught to be good (chap 4)
"The dark side is your fuel… it excites you, keeps you on the edge, recharges you, fills your
tank. It's your one escape, the only thing that takes your mind somewhere else and allows you to
blow off steam for a brief time… it's anything that creates a private challenge and tests you to
control it before it controls you."
Athletes get only one chance per year to demonstrate that they are the best, and it's hard to wind
down in the off-season. "If you're so intensely wired to attack and win, you can't just turn that
on and off, it's who you are, it defines you."
"Really, is there that big a difference between the instincts of a powerful businessman, crime
boss, and athlete? They're all 'killers' in their field, driven to be the best, diabolical in
their strategy. Attack, control, win."
"Be honest: would you be as successful if you followed all the rules and always behaved and never
took chances? No, you'd be just like everyone else, scared about failing and worried about being
liked."
You're not intimidated by pressure, you thrive on it (chap 5)
"If you're a true competitor, you always feel that pressure to attack and conquer, you thrive on
it. You intentionally create situations to jack up the pressure even higher, challenging yourself
to prove what you're capable of."
"I tell my guys, 'Pressure, pressure, pressure.' Most people run from stress. I run to it. Stress
keeps you sharp, it challenges you in ways you never imagined and forces you to solve issues and
manage situations that send weaker people running for cover."
Cleaners never feel external pressure; they only accept internal pressure.
When everyone is hitting the "in case of emergency" button, they're all looking for you (chap 6)
Do your thinking and planning in advance, so you can deploy reflexes at decision time, not
original thought.
You want to feel like you've prepped enough such that you know everything there is to know, so you
can trust your ability to handle any situation.
"Being relentless means having the courage to say, 'I'm going for this, and if I'm wrong, I'll
make a change and I'll still be fine.'"
You don't compete with anyone, you find your opponent's weakness and you attack (chap 7)
MJ was never angry at his teammates if they underperformed — he wouldn't be a victim. He would
close the gap himself. "You're not playing tonight? That's fine, I'll play for all five of us. You
keep it close into the fourth quarter, and I'll do the rest."
MJ in relation to his Bulls teammates: "But don't be fooled: a true Cleaner isn't thinking about
making you better for your benefit. He's happy for you if you get something out of it, but
whatever he's doing, it's for his sake, not yours. His only objective is putting you where he
needs you to be so he can get the result he desires."
Portland rejected MJ as a draft pick because he couldn't serve as their center. "People who
evaluate talent will always take the negative: 'He can't do this or that.' OK, what can he do? He
got this far for a reason, how did he get here? Let's find out what he can do and put him in the
system where he can succeed."
You make decisions, not suggestions. (chap 8)
"You'll never hear me say, 'we have a problem.' We might have a situation that needs to be
addressed… but never a problem. Why automatically cast something as a negative? Instincts don't
recognize positive or negative. There's only a situation, your response, and an outcome. If you're
ready for anything, you're not thinking about whether it's a good situation or a bad situation."
Don't sleep on situations, or put them on the back burner. That's not being decisive.
When you do deep analysis over a decision, don't you most often end up back at your first
reaction? So stop delaying. Trust yourself.
"Meanwhile, as you sit back doing nothing because you're afraid to make a mistake, someone else
is out there making all kinds of mistakes, learning from them, and getting to where you wanted
to be. And probably laughing at your weakness."
Be great at one thing: the very best at it. Be average or good at the other things. But know which
thing should dominate your schedule.
You don't have to love the work, but you're addicted to the results. (chap 9)
It takes hard work all the time. Showing up every day, like a professional.
When you reduce your competition to whining that you "got lucky," you know you're doing something
right.
"Anyone can start something. Few can finish."
"When you're going through a world of pain, you never hide. You show up to work ready to go, you
face adversity, and your critics and those who judge you, you step into the Zone and perform at
that top level when everyone is expecting you to falter. That's being a professional."
E.g. Dwayne Wade during his divorce and custody battle.
You trust very few people and those you trust better never let you down (chap 11)
"Most of the time when we ask for advice, we don't want the truth. We want the answer we're
seeking. Be open to advice that goes against what you want."
Cleaners trust few people; they'd almost always rather follow their instincts and fix the
situation later if they're wrong, than trust someone else and kick themselves for not listening to
that voice inside. If a Cleaner screws up, he wants it to be because he did what he thought was
right, not because he did what someone else told him to do."
You don't recognize failure; you know there's more than one way to get what you want (chap 12)
MJ's return: "as usual, they were wrong. A Cleaner is done when he says he's done, not when you
say he's done."
Reframing reality: "Success and failure are 100 percent mental. One person's idea of success might
seem like a complete failure to someone else. You must establish your own vision of what it means
to be unstoppable; you can't let anyone else define that for you."
"A Cleaner never sees failure because to him, it's never over. If something doesn't go as planned,
he instinctively looks for options to make things work a different way. He doesn't feel
embarrassed or ashamed, he doesn't blame anyone else, and he doesn't care what anyone else says
about his situation. It's never the end, it's never over. And he knows, without a doubt, that
whatever happens, he'll find a way to come out on top. If you ever find me and a bear wrestling in
the woods, help the bear."
Don't try; act. And keep acting, with different tactics and from different directions, until
you've mastered the situation.
Being able to sensibly change directions is a great strength for the tenacious. Being inflexible
is weak.
You don't celebrate your achievements because you always want more (chap 13)
After a win, get back to work: "there's always more work to do. And more to prove. Always more to
prove."