Becoming relentless in everything you do

Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable

By Tim S. Grover

Tim S. Grover gives 13 rules for becoming unstoppable. The pathway is that of the book title, Relentless. The difference between Grover and most authors is every one of his rules begins with the number one. The reason? Grover says numbering things 1 through 13, allows people to rank their level of importance, but to go from good to great to unstoppable, no rule is more important than another. 

Some might argue as to whether or not Grover’s teachings will hold water. It did for Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Dwyane Wade. Tim Grover trained each of them and hundreds more. The founder of ATTACK Athletics, Grover shows how being relentless is not about how to become a great athlete. Instead, Grover channels the lessons of greatness from the winners he has worked with over the years and delivers a book that is obsessed with becoming relentless in your approach towards excellence. 

The five-step process Grover leads people to is, “Decide. Commit. Act. Succeed. Repeat.” According to Grover, the key is understanding. He says, “in order to have what you really want, you must first be who you really are.” With the understanding of who you are and the end result you desire, Grover describes three types of people in his book. 

• Coolers: Good. “A Cooler is careful; he waits to be told what to do, watches to see what everyone else is doing, and then follows the leader.”

• Closers: Great. “A Closer can handle a lot of pressure; he’ll get the job done if you put him in the right situation and tell him exactly what you need him to do. He seeks attention and credit, and he’s very aware of what everyone else is doing and what others think of him. He loves the rewards and perks associated with his fame and would choose financial security over winning or success.”

• Cleaners: Unstoppable. “Gets the end result over and over and over. No explanations. Just results. Done. Next.” A Cleaner has all of the Relentless 13 qualities about them. 

This is a no-frills book about approaching your life and achieving excellence again and again. It’s about completing the grueling work in front of you only to say, “Done. Next.” While I might not agree with every idea in the book, it certainly has ideas that have changed how I approach life and business. I like to approach reading any book with the mindset of “eat the fish; leave the bones.” Take what is helpful, and leave behind what doesn’t serve your life well. If a person simply reads the bullet points of a review of the book though, they wouldn’t understand the mindset Grover is offering. This quote from Grover describes a lot of his approach throughout Relentless: 

“Do. The. Work. Every day, you have to do something you don’t want to do. Every day. Challenge yourself to be uncomfortable, push past the apathy and laziness and fear.”

For the person who wants to continue to live their life exactly as they have, this book will be something they quickly set aside. For the person who is longing to be challenged by one who has trained and challenged some of the greatest winners in the history of the world, this book will be a welcome addition to your library. So to those who desire the friction and pain of growth, I leave you with this quote from Tim Grover. “I’m not telling you to love it. I’m telling you to crave the result so intensely that the work is irrelevant.” 

Done. Next.