How Having a Relentless Mentality Can Lead You to Success

The following is adapted from Infinite Income. Get the Book Infinite Income here

In Relentless, a book written by Michael Jordan’s ex-trainer Tim S. Grover, the author explains why Michael Jordan was the best basketball player in the NBA. In short, it was because Michael Jordan was “relentless.” Every time he hit a new goal (Most Valuable Player, world title, scoring champion, etc.), he made a new goal and continued to push himself to the limit in order to achieve it.

I, in no way, have the same athletic ability as Michael Jordan, but as I read that book, I couldn’t help but think, “I think just like this guy, and that’s why I have become so successful so quickly.”

A relentless mentality means you are never satisfied. People with a relentless mentality have the mindset and the drive to be the best and to maintain that level of success. And when they reach their goal, it’s not enough and they look for the next goal. If you want to be successful in anything—whether it’s business, basketball, or life in general, you need a relentless mentality. It’s the secret to weathering hardships and discovering new ways to fulfill your dreams. 

Do you have what it takes to be relentless and pave your own way to success? Let’s find out. 

People with a Relentless Mentality Open All Ten Doors

Pretend you have ten doors in front of you and you don’t know what’s on the other side of the doors. The only way to find out is to open a door and walk through it. 

Approximately 70 percent of people look at the doors and don’t open any. They’re too scared because they don’t know what’s on the other side. They never find success. They’d rather sit in their misery knowing what to expect than dare to risk it all for something better. Twenty percent open a door and when something bad happens, they give up, never opening another door. They never find success either. One bad day and they completely fall apart. 

The remaining ten percent, those with a relentless mentality, open the doors until they find success. They understand that some doors may lead to negative results and they’re willing to feel the pain. 

For example, when they walk through door number one and lose their money on a clueless business coach, they walk through door number two. When they walk through door number two and waste a bunch of money running Facebook ads improperly, they walk through door number three. When they walk through door number three and their girlfriends leave them because they are unsuccessful, they walk through door number four and get their first charge-back from a customer they gave tons of attention to. Each time they make a choice and walk through the wrong door, something bad happens.

But they learn from their mistakes (they don’t go through the same door twice), and they don’t give up, knowing that each time they open a door, it brings them closer to success. That’s a relentless mentality. 

I have a relentless mentality—I opened all ten doors—which is why my online business has become a success. I experienced failure after failure after failure. But I knew that if I kept trying, if I kept opening doors, working hard, and learning from my mistakes, that my business would succeed eventually. 

Learn from Your Failures and Redirect

Here’s why being relentless matters: success comes through failure. The more mistakes you make, the faster you become successful, but only if you learn from those mistakes and redirect. Think of a jigsaw puzzle: if you keep trying to fit different puzzle pieces into a specific spot, eventually one will fit. That’s how success works—you make a mistake, try something new, and eventually find what works, unless you don’t learn from your mistakes (putting the same jigsaw puzzle piece into the same spot over and over again trying to make it fit).

My failures used to feel like a waste of time. I’d think I was an idiot because I couldn’t figure out how to do something right the first time. I’d tell myself I was dumb. Looking back, I now know that was wrong. I needed to live with the discomfort and pain, maybe even depression, learn from my failures, and redirect my efforts toward what worked.

Greatness means you’re doing something that most people can’t. If you’re doing something most people can’t, that means most people fail or don’t try. In reality, everyone fails at some point. Everyone makes mistakes. If you think you won’t, you’re wrong. It’s impossible to try to achieve something great and not mess up along the way. 

I didn’t become a millionaire simply because I wanted to. I made a lot of mistakes along the way because I didn’t know how to avoid them. When mistakes occurred, I’d feel depressed and wonder if I’d ever figure things out. I’d ask myself: Am I doing the wrong thing? Am I following the wrong path? Am I executing things properly? Or am I just stupid?

It’s important to accept that you will fail when you try new things. You will question your judgment. You will feel frustrated and upset, especially when you’ve done your best. But that doesn’t mean you should give up. When something doesn’t work out, it leads you to another path of success—if you redefine success, learn from your failures, redirect, and have a relentless mentality. 

Become a Somebody

Michael Jordan was a skilled basketball player, but his greatest skill didn’t have anything to do with dribbling or scoring points. The key to his success as a basketball player came down to his mentality. He was relentless. He pushed forward, even when the people around him gave up. He was willing to try, make mistakes, and learn from them. He was willing to do whatever it took to achieve greatness. 

You have two options in life: You can become a nobody or a somebody. You can be the person who walks through life, scrapes by, never goes on vacation, and barely pays the bills, or you can learn from your failures and redirect. 

Be like Michael Jordan. Be willing to handle failure and redirect. Be relentless. That’s the only way to succeed. 

For more advice on having a relentless mentality, you can find Infinite Income on Amazon.

Tanner Chidester is the CEO and Founder of EliteCEOs.com, a company empowering business leaders to take the next step and start their own online company. Building his company with few resources of his own, Tanner created an empire from scratch by teaching himself the elements every business needs to succeed. He has been featured in Forbes and Business Insider and on CBS and CNBC. For more information, visit eliteceos.com and www.infiniteincomebook.com/info.