In this solo episode of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick introduces a framework he heard on HBO’s Hard Knocks, where New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh describes four mindsets that define a person’s competitive level: Survivors, Contenders, Competitors, and Commanders. Gubernick explains each tier – Survivors coast and do the minimum, Contenders are driven by external rewards like money or fame, Competitors are internally motivated with a championship mindset, and Commanders combine the competitor’s drive with the ability to lead and bring others along. He challenges listeners to self‑assess which level they occupy, consider how to move up, and reflect on the composition of their own teams, urging a shift toward more internal motivation and leadership. The episode ends with a call to action: use each day as an opportunity to improve and elevate your competitive mindset.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast. We believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I want to talk about the 4 levels of competitors. I first heard of the 4 levels of competitors on an episode of one of my favorite shows. It's on HBO. It's called Hard Knocks. Many of you are pretty— are probably pretty familiar with it. Hard Knocks, every single year what they do is they showcase an NFL team's preseason and follows them through 4 or 5 weeks of preseason prep and preseason games. And you get to know their players, and it's like a behind-the-scenes look at all that the team is going through. And in this past season of Hard Knocks, HBO focused on the New York Jets. Now, I'm not necessarily a Jets fan, but you can't help but fall in love with the organizations that they highlight because again, you get to know the players and you see them behind the scenes and you see lots of players struggle to make the team. It's just a hell of a show. And in one of the episodes, I think it's episode 3, Hard Knocks is recording a meeting held by the Jets head coach Robert Saleh as he talks with his team in a team meeting about the 4 levels of competitors. Coach Saleh says there's 4 levels that represent a mindset, 4 levels of competitors represent a mindset that we all have complete control over. He says that external factors like your playing ability or external factors like injuries, they have no bearing on which level you stand at. He says the 4 levels, you've got commanders, you've got competitors, you have contenders, and you have survivors. Commanders, competitors, contenders, and survivors. These are the 4 levels of competitors. And he says to his room of players, every single one of you falls into one of these categories. The first category we'll start with is survivors. Coach Salas starts by saying survivors are at the bottom. A survivor is someone who does just enough to get by. A survivor coasts through his day. And does not maximize his mental capabilities. A group of survivors or the survivor group loves taking the easy way out. They love it. And they're so miserable that they'll do everything they can to bring others along with them. Coach says, the sad part is every organization has at least one, at least one survivor and he promises the group, you can't hide. The leader knows, others know who that survivor is. Now the next level up are the contenders. Coach Sella says contenders are those that are motivated by external factors like money or fame the spotlight, or in sports, playing time, or maybe the person they're going or competing against. A contender will only reach his potential if the external motivators are threatened. So if you're going to take away his money or his spotlight or his playing time, if, if he's threatened by that, then he'll reach, potentially reach his potential. That's a contender. Now competitors, next level up. Coach Sellis says a competitor, this is what we seek. These are the, these are the individuals we really seek. Group of competitors. You want to build a team out of competitors. A competitor is someone who's internally motivated to be his or her best. Regardless of the situation. Where this person sits on an org chart or a depth chart does not matter. Money does not matter. Fame does not matter. He or she's always trying to do his or her absolute best. He can't be swayed because he's already maxing out his potential. This is a guy or girl that's trying to set a PR every single day of life. He's got a championship mindset. And when you have a championship mindset, you embarrass the poor performers around you and even make the great ones around you look normal. When you have this sort of championship mindset, these are competitors. And again, this is who you want to really build your team around. The last level though of competitor are commanders. And Coach Saleh describes commanders as basically those individuals that have all the traits of a competitor with one exception. And that one exception is commanders bring people with them. In other words, they're leading or influencing or bringing those alongside them, bringing them with them to that mission or that, that goal or that championship. Coach concludes this, this talk on the 4 levels of competitors by looking at all of his men in the room, all of his players in the room, and he says, which one of these are you? Because guess what? You can't hide who you are. So my focusing question for you today, no surprise, Which one of these are you? Are you a survivor, a contender, a competitor, or are you a commander? How do you feel about where you've landed on this 4 levels of competitors? If you're not at the level you want to be, if you feel like maybe you're a survivor or a contender, or even a competitor that aspires to be a commander, What do you have to do to get to that next level? What do you have to display? What do you have to change internally? What do you have to show externally? Right? Like if you're a contender, meaning you're motivated by external factors, but competitors look far beyond external and look at internal regardless of the situation. What do you have to change? How do you, how do you start thinking differently? So that external matters less than internal motivation. And if you're a competitor, but you want to be a commander because commanders bring people with them, to me, that's a leadership question. How do you become a better leader? How do you become a competitor that leads in such a way that others want to follow? A lot to think about here. I also want to encourage you to think about your teams and the people you lead and And, and, and in what category would you say your people fit? What level of competitors do you have in your world? And how do you get more competitors out of the bunch? That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
