WHEN YOU’RE A CLEANER . . . . . . When everyone is hitting the “In Case of Emergency” button, they’re all looking for you.
A Cooler waits for you to tell him the plan.
A Closer works on the plan, studies it, memorizes it, and knows exactly what he has to do.
A Cleaner doesn’t want a specific plan; he wants every possible option available to him at all times.
When what you’re doing isn’t working, find someone who can make it work. And then let him do it. That’s the Cleaner’s job.
Not everyone wants that job. It leaves you completely exposed and open to all kinds of criticism and scrutiny.
A Cooler takes no risks.
A Closer takes risks when he can prepare in advance and knows the consequences of failing are minimal.
Nothing feels risky to a Cleaner; whatever happens, he’ll know what to do.
Picture a military operation with a specific tactical strategy: go into that building, make sure it’s empty, go out the red door and into the waiting truck in back before the building blows up. You do exactly as ordered, everything goes according to plan . . . until you get to the red door. Locked. No other exit. Now what? Panic? Those ten seconds you spend panicking might be your last. A Closer will feel fear first, then fumble for an option. But a Cleaner will instantly feel his survival instincts kick in, giving him a rush of options, and he knows one of them will work because he’s already considered thirty variables before going into the building. (A Cooler would never be given that kind of assignment, so we don’t even have to address him here.)
If you’re a Cleaner, you know that feeling, and you’ve likely been in that kind of situation when everyone else is freaking out and you just know what to do. You don’t even know how you know, you just know. I’m not talking about “winging it” or making it up as you go. I’m talking about being so prepared, with so many options and so much experience, that you’re truly ready for anything.
Some people know without a doubt they’ll be okay no matter what happens. Others choke as soon as things go wrong. You see it in sports all the time: a figure skater falls, a quarterback throws a pick, a pitcher gives up a grand slam. Everything that happens after that moment goes one of two ways: the athlete either immediately turns it around and comes back to perform at an insanely high level, or he can’t recover and it gets worse from there. Why? Same talent, same routine they’ve gone through a thousand times. Why can some adapt to an unexpected twist, and others completely fall apart? It’s not just a sports phenomenon; you can look all around you and recognize people who can handle anything, and others who can handle nothing. What makes the difference? Few people have the ability to adapt on the fly and make quick adjustments that work. You can plan and prepare for ten different scenarios, be completely ready for every variable you anticipated . . . and you can be sure there will be an eleventh scenario you never saw coming. Most people are ready for one scenario, they can’t even envision ten; they’re completely paralyzed by all the possible variables, and when one thing goes wrong, they can’t adjust. You can practice the same shot over and over and over, until you can do it blindfolded. Great, now can you do it if I hit you with a sandbag while you shoot? Can you focus if I blast horrible music or scream in your face? When you always go according to plan, you get robotic and lose that innate ability to know what to do when plans suddenly change, when you’re confronted by the unexpected. But a Cleaner can take that same plan, and when something goes off the rails, his instincts immediately take over and he adapts. Doesn’t think about it, doesn’t need to be told, he just knows. That’s the trademark of a dangerous competitor: he doesn’t have to know what’s coming because whatever you show him, he’s ready. No fear of failure.
That’s not about the myth of “positive thinking”; it’s about the hard work and preparation that go into knowing everything there is to know, letting go of your fears and insecurities, and trusting your ability to handle any situation.
I’m not saying you can’t think about what you have to do, but do your thinking and planning in advance, building your reflexes, so you know when your back is against the wall, you’ve got the right move. You don’t accomplish that by obsessing and worrying until you’re an emotional mess, unable to sleep or focus on anything else. You prepare yourself by knowing you’re ready with the next bullet to fire. You don’t ever have to pull the trigger, but you have to know it’s locked and loaded and available if you need it.
How quickly can you make that adjustment if you take the wrong step? Can you recognize the mistake and snap it back? You have to be willing to fail if you’re going to trust yourself to act from the gut, and then adapt as you go. That’s the confidence or swagger that allows you to take risks and know that whatever happens, you’ll figure it out. Adapt, and adapt again.
I don’t think you can really understand relentlessness until you’ve faced your worst fears, and you’ve experienced that internal response telling you what to do. If you think back to the major events in your life, you can probably identify the things that impacted everything else and taught you what you were capable of dealing with.
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 can’t control or anticipate every obstacle that might block your path. You can only control your response, and your ability to navigate the unpredictable. Whatever happens, you have the smarts and skills to figure it out and arrive at the outcome you wanted in the first place. And when I say “figure it out,” I don’t mean thinking about it for a week and asking everyone you know what they think. I mean immediately, instinctively, hearing that voice inside saying, “This way!” And you go.
Of course, it’s not possible to be 100 percent accurate and successful all the time; instinct doesn’t recognize nuance and detail, it just flashes at you and allows your skill to take over, so it’s entirely possible to rely on instinct and still make the wrong decision.
You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.
When a Cooler makes a mistake, he’ll give you a lot of excuses but no solutions. When a Closer makes a mistake, he finds someone else to blame. When a Cleaner makes a mistake, he can look you in the eye and say, “I fucked up.”
That’s it. Confident, simple, factual, no explanation. You made a mistake? Fine. Don’t explain it to me for an hour. The truth is one sentence, I don’t need a long story. You tell me you messed up, take responsibility . . . now you’ve gained my trust. As soon as you start giving me reasons and rationalizations, I know you have something to hide, and you’re not ready to take ownership. Save us both the time. You fucked up. Say it. There is not a faster way to alleviate pressure. “Man, I fucked up.” Okay. There’s no comeback for that, you owned it. Now fix it. You can’t fix something unless you admit it.
The ability to put your hands up and say, “Yep, my fault,” is the greatest way to stop the pressure. Now you only have one objective: resolve the issue. As long as you continue to deny responsibility, you have the added burden of covering your mistake, and you know the truth will eventually come out anyway. Why bother prolonging the drama? You screwed up, admit it.
Cleaners will just get in your face and announce that you fucked up; they’re completely desensitized to criticism and blame, and they expect you to be the same. To you it feels like an attack; to them, it feels like a couple of guys working out a situation. Their confidence level is so high they have no problem admitting when something has gone wrong. They know they can make it right. No problem.
When you can laugh at yourself and not take every setback seriously, that’s confidence. On the other hand, when someone says something to you that you don’t like or you don’t want to hear, and you allow it to put pressure on you, even for a moment, that’s a confidence problem. When you’re confident, you don’t care about what others think; you can take your mistakes seriously but still laugh because you know you can and will do better. Cleaners always have the confidence to know they’ll get it right. Accept the consequences and move on.
if you want to be the best, you never have the luxury of shrugging off a bad performance. You face it, fix it, and prepare to do better next time.
Have the confidence to say when you’ve screwed up, and people will respect you for it. If you did it, own it. If you said it, stand by it. Not just the mistakes, but all your decisions and choices. That’s your reputation. Make it count. If you want your opinions to have value, you have to be willing to put them out there and mean what you say. Two things you can’t let anyone take from you: you can’t let them take away your reputation, and you can’t let them take away your balls. That means accepting the pressure of taking responsibility for everything you say and do.
Maturity, experience, practice . . . the more educated you become, the more you heighten your ability to adapt to situations because experience gives you a better understanding of nuance, the tiny details no one else would think of or recognize as important.
Cleaners ignore the panicking and complaining, they clean up the problem and they make it work. A Closer will adjust himself to the situation; a Cleaner adjusts the situation to himself. A Closer has to know what he’s going to do. A Cleaner doesn’t; he never wants to be locked in to one plan. He’ll know the original plan, and he’ll follow it if it feels right to him, but his skills and intuition are so great that he’ll usually improvise as he goes; he can’t help it. He just goes with the flow of the action, and wherever his instincts take him, that’s what you get.
A Closer works on the plan, studies it, memorizes it, and knows exactly what he has to do.
A Cleaner doesn’t want a specific plan; he wants every possible option available to him at all times.
When what you’re doing isn’t working, find someone who can make it work. And then let him do it. That’s the Cleaner’s job.
Not everyone wants that job. It leaves you completely exposed and open to all kinds of criticism and scrutiny.
A Cooler takes no risks.
A Closer takes risks when he can prepare in advance and knows the consequences of failing are minimal.
Nothing feels risky to a Cleaner; whatever happens, he’ll know what to do.
Picture a military operation with a specific tactical strategy: go into that building, make sure it’s empty, go out the red door and into the waiting truck in back before the building blows up. You do exactly as ordered, everything goes according to plan . . . until you get to the red door. Locked. No other exit. Now what? Panic? Those ten seconds you spend panicking might be your last. A Closer will feel fear first, then fumble for an option. But a Cleaner will instantly feel his survival instincts kick in, giving him a rush of options, and he knows one of them will work because he’s already considered thirty variables before going into the building. (A Cooler would never be given that kind of assignment, so we don’t even have to address him here.)
If you’re a Cleaner, you know that feeling, and you’ve likely been in that kind of situation when everyone else is freaking out and you just know what to do. You don’t even know how you know, you just know. I’m not talking about “winging it” or making it up as you go. I’m talking about being so prepared, with so many options and so much experience, that you’re truly ready for anything.
Some people know without a doubt they’ll be okay no matter what happens. Others choke as soon as things go wrong. You see it in sports all the time: a figure skater falls, a quarterback throws a pick, a pitcher gives up a grand slam. Everything that happens after that moment goes one of two ways: the athlete either immediately turns it around and comes back to perform at an insanely high level, or he can’t recover and it gets worse from there. Why? Same talent, same routine they’ve gone through a thousand times. Why can some adapt to an unexpected twist, and others completely fall apart? It’s not just a sports phenomenon; you can look all around you and recognize people who can handle anything, and others who can handle nothing. What makes the difference? Few people have the ability to adapt on the fly and make quick adjustments that work. You can plan and prepare for ten different scenarios, be completely ready for every variable you anticipated . . . and you can be sure there will be an eleventh scenario you never saw coming. Most people are ready for one scenario, they can’t even envision ten; they’re completely paralyzed by all the possible variables, and when one thing goes wrong, they can’t adjust. You can practice the same shot over and over and over, until you can do it blindfolded. Great, now can you do it if I hit you with a sandbag while you shoot? Can you focus if I blast horrible music or scream in your face? When you always go according to plan, you get robotic and lose that innate ability to know what to do when plans suddenly change, when you’re confronted by the unexpected. But a Cleaner can take that same plan, and when something goes off the rails, his instincts immediately take over and he adapts. Doesn’t think about it, doesn’t need to be told, he just knows. That’s the trademark of a dangerous competitor: he doesn’t have to know what’s coming because whatever you show him, he’s ready. No fear of failure.
That’s not about the myth of “positive thinking”; it’s about the hard work and preparation that go into knowing everything there is to know, letting go of your fears and insecurities, and trusting your ability to handle any situation.
I’m not saying you can’t think about what you have to do, but do your thinking and planning in advance, building your reflexes, so you know when your back is against the wall, you’ve got the right move. You don’t accomplish that by obsessing and worrying until you’re an emotional mess, unable to sleep or focus on anything else. You prepare yourself by knowing you’re ready with the next bullet to fire. You don’t ever have to pull the trigger, but you have to know it’s locked and loaded and available if you need it.
How quickly can you make that adjustment if you take the wrong step? Can you recognize the mistake and snap it back? You have to be willing to fail if you’re going to trust yourself to act from the gut, and then adapt as you go. That’s the confidence or swagger that allows you to take risks and know that whatever happens, you’ll figure it out. Adapt, and adapt again.
I don’t think you can really understand relentlessness until you’ve faced your worst fears, and you’ve experienced that internal response telling you what to do. If you think back to the major events in your life, you can probably identify the things that impacted everything else and taught you what you were capable of dealing with.
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 can’t control or anticipate every obstacle that might block your path. You can only control your response, and your ability to navigate the unpredictable. Whatever happens, you have the smarts and skills to figure it out and arrive at the outcome you wanted in the first place. And when I say “figure it out,” I don’t mean thinking about it for a week and asking everyone you know what they think. I mean immediately, instinctively, hearing that voice inside saying, “This way!” And you go.
Of course, it’s not possible to be 100 percent accurate and successful all the time; instinct doesn’t recognize nuance and detail, it just flashes at you and allows your skill to take over, so it’s entirely possible to rely on instinct and still make the wrong decision.
You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.
When a Cooler makes a mistake, he’ll give you a lot of excuses but no solutions. When a Closer makes a mistake, he finds someone else to blame. When a Cleaner makes a mistake, he can look you in the eye and say, “I fucked up.”
That’s it. Confident, simple, factual, no explanation. You made a mistake? Fine. Don’t explain it to me for an hour. The truth is one sentence, I don’t need a long story. You tell me you messed up, take responsibility . . . now you’ve gained my trust. As soon as you start giving me reasons and rationalizations, I know you have something to hide, and you’re not ready to take ownership. Save us both the time. You fucked up. Say it. There is not a faster way to alleviate pressure. “Man, I fucked up.” Okay. There’s no comeback for that, you owned it. Now fix it. You can’t fix something unless you admit it.
The ability to put your hands up and say, “Yep, my fault,” is the greatest way to stop the pressure. Now you only have one objective: resolve the issue. As long as you continue to deny responsibility, you have the added burden of covering your mistake, and you know the truth will eventually come out anyway. Why bother prolonging the drama? You screwed up, admit it.
Cleaners will just get in your face and announce that you fucked up; they’re completely desensitized to criticism and blame, and they expect you to be the same. To you it feels like an attack; to them, it feels like a couple of guys working out a situation. Their confidence level is so high they have no problem admitting when something has gone wrong. They know they can make it right. No problem.
When you can laugh at yourself and not take every setback seriously, that’s confidence. On the other hand, when someone says something to you that you don’t like or you don’t want to hear, and you allow it to put pressure on you, even for a moment, that’s a confidence problem. When you’re confident, you don’t care about what others think; you can take your mistakes seriously but still laugh because you know you can and will do better. Cleaners always have the confidence to know they’ll get it right. Accept the consequences and move on.
if you want to be the best, you never have the luxury of shrugging off a bad performance. You face it, fix it, and prepare to do better next time.
Have the confidence to say when you’ve screwed up, and people will respect you for it. If you did it, own it. If you said it, stand by it. Not just the mistakes, but all your decisions and choices. That’s your reputation. Make it count. If you want your opinions to have value, you have to be willing to put them out there and mean what you say. Two things you can’t let anyone take from you: you can’t let them take away your reputation, and you can’t let them take away your balls. That means accepting the pressure of taking responsibility for everything you say and do.
Maturity, experience, practice . . . the more educated you become, the more you heighten your ability to adapt to situations because experience gives you a better understanding of nuance, the tiny details no one else would think of or recognize as important.
Cleaners ignore the panicking and complaining, they clean up the problem and they make it work. A Closer will adjust himself to the situation; a Cleaner adjusts the situation to himself. A Closer has to know what he’s going to do. A Cleaner doesn’t; he never wants to be locked in to one plan. He’ll know the original plan, and he’ll follow it if it feels right to him, but his skills and intuition are so great that he’ll usually improvise as he goes; he can’t help it. He just goes with the flow of the action, and wherever his instincts take him, that’s what you get.
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