Tim Grover, Michael Jordan's longtime trainer, breaks down his rules for winning: master your craft so well you stop thinking, separate passion from drive, sweat the small stuff, and use anger and fear as fuel. He calls the best performers "cleaners" because they deliver results through sharp instincts and disciplined processes.
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He's the owner of Attack Athletics, a 60,000-square-foot training facility. He started as Michael Jordan's personal trainer in 1989 and continued to do so for the rest of his career. He's built an impressive resume of injury prevention and rehabilitation for professional athletes. He's Tim Grover, and here are his top 10 rules for success.
Well, you know what, we in the book Relentless, we talk about the don't think concept. Your skills are so finely good at what you do, whether it's trading, making business decisions, playing basketball, that you know that if you do fail at something, it's just a little stumbling block. The next time you're gonna succeed because you've done it over and over, over again, not only physically but your mental preparation.
The thing that makes individuals really, really special who are that great is they're always looking for that competitive edge. So it's interesting to see how a champion in sports How it relates to a champion in business, it's the same mindset. It's about winning the battles, continuing to improve, learning new ways to stay ahead of the game. Clarity is what gives you the idea of success, being able to close those deals. When you can see and you can think and you can react with a clear mind. And you take your emotions out of it, you're in that zone. Getting the deal is just a byproduct, and the minute you get the deal, you're already thinking about what's next.
When you want to excel at something, what must you have? Did I just hear somebody say passion in the audience? You know what passion is? Passion is an emotion. It's an emotion without an action. Passion will get you nowhere. Inner drive will get you nowhere unless you act on it. You have to act on your passion. You have to act on your inner drive. Don't let those feelings stay inside of you. You gotta know what to do with them. You gotta know how to make them work in order to get what you want. Don't keep it inside. Knowing that you're the best at what you do and you've done all your homework to get to that point. Relentless is about trusting your instincts, but the only way you can trust your instincts is if you've done your homework and your skill is so finely tuned at whatever you do.
You have people in sports, you have the role players, and they're trying to step out and be superstars. And I just, I always tell them, I said, you gotta think about winning first. Alright, if the team wins, you'll get paid. If the team doesn't win, you will not get paid. The bottom line is the end result. Just like when you guys close a deal, not only do you win, everybody underneath you who helps you close the deal, the company, it all ties in together.
Decide, commit, act, succeed, repeat. The one thing that all the greats have in common is they sweat the small stuff. They pay very, very close attention to to every detail. Michael used to sweat the details so much in his basketball game that it carried on into his personal life. The suit had to match the car he was driving that particular day. But what those details allowed him to do was to put him in the zone to be the best basketball player on that given night. The dark side is something that's in everybody, but it's a situation that you have to control the dark side. If it controls you, that's when things start to go real, real bad. That's when you have a tendency to go to what I call the other side. But if you harness the fuel that's from that dark side, whether it's anger, whether it's fear, and turn that into positive fuel, it'll help you really succeed at whatever you're trying to do.
A great leader knows how to push buttons, how to push the buttons of different people. I totally disagree with that philosophy 100%. All right, I don't want to have somebody to have that much control over me where they're pushing my buttons. As a great leader, okay, what I do with my clients is I pull their buttons, and then I teach them in certain situations to know when to push their own buttons.
Well, you have to keep yourself focused on whatever your ultimate goal is. There's stumbling blocks all the way. People get laid off, you have a bad game, you get traded from a team that you don't want to be with. But if your goal and your focus remains the same, that hey, this is going to happen and I know I have the skills and I have the knowledge and I have the instincts to dig myself out of this hole, you will dig yourself out of the hole. You have to control the situation. Don't let the situation control you. We talk about coolers, we talk about closers, and we talk about cleaners. Cleaners are going to get you that end result over and over again. They are so well prepared. And their instincts are so sharp, they already know what to do. If there's a person that's producing exceptionally, there's a reason behind it. It's the process, the constant challenge to get there again and again and again is what drives these individuals. Everyone talks about, we want to be legendary, we want to be iconic, Don't settle for legendary.
Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because Jake Barcelona asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of Tim Grover's top 10 rules had the biggest impact for you. Leave it in the comments and I will join in the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.
