Notes

• Cooler, Closer, Cleaner
  • Cooler: Show up, Do the work, Go home.
  • Closer: Show up, Crush the work, Go home.
  • Cleaner: Crush the work, Crush the work, Crush the work.

Thoughts & Questions

• The cleaner model seems to align with the highest output people I know of - Jobs, Musk, Gates etc.
  • Infinitely high expectations.
  • Intuitively know a course of action.
  • Single-minded commitment to an outcome.
  • 0 screwing around in their domain of expertise.
  • 1 chance before they tear you up.
    • In the Steve Jobs biography, Isaacson discusses how Jobs would tear your apart, but also developed a respect for those that would stand up to him.
• How do you ‘foster’ cleaner attitude?
• This Cooler, Closer, Cleaner model of thought seems to be surprisingly effective.
  • While in any field there can be a moderately large body of effective people (closers), almost undoubtedly there will be a select few that stand out as “next level” and make the choices required to be the best in their field.
    • Of all the memorable people in history, do the majority align with this Cleaner ideal?
    • Again in Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs, there is a discussion with early Apple employees on how despite the gruelling conditions and demands, they still consider it one of the best times of their life.
      • There seems to be a similarity between this and the Bulls basketball team when Michael Jordan was playing with them, where despite Jordan pushing them to their breaking points they were able to achieve phenomenal results that many couldn’t replicate.
      • How is it that Cleaners can foster this sort of commitment and output?
• How do Cleaners balance their passion (sport/business etc.) with other aspects of their life?
  • To some extent, it’s unavoidable that some aspects of your life will be neglected to tend to your passion. How do you effectively manage this?
• Eminem also stands out as an A grade cleaner - Not Afraid seems to provide a good insight into his outlook and circumstances.

Closing

• After reading this book, what was once only a vague impression for me has coalesced into something much more tangible. This mental model of Cooler, Closer, Cleaner doesn’t line up totally with my own experiences, however, so far it seems to be the best way of describing and discussing these 3 broad performance tiers. While Relentless focusses on the game of basketball (Grover’s speciality), the information within is broadly applicable to almost all areas of human endeavour, where a minuscule majority of people dominate with their skills, hard-work and dedication.