Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness by Tim Grover

This was a really great book by one of the best trainers in history. Just a quick background on Tim:

Trained Michael Jordan one on one for over a decade.
Trained Kobe in the same manner.
Both players attributed much of their success to his training. The guy knows a thing or two about winning. Let’s just say he’s intense.

Most words below are Tim’s. Mine are italicized. Bold and highlight added by me.

The Chase

Winning is everywhere. Every minute, you have the potential to recognize an opportunity, push yourself harder, let go of the insecurity and fear, stop listening to what others tell you, and decide to own that moment. And not just that one single moment, but the next one, and the next. And before long, you’ve owned the hour, and the day, and the month. Again. Again. That’s how you win.

Right off the bat he’s not beating around the buch. Straight talk. I don’t know about you but I’m sick of “this is a marathon, not a sprint” mentality. Let’s F$cking go!

Because if you’re comfortable with sacrifice and pressure and criticism and pain, if you can learn to focus on the result instead of always focusing on the difficulty… you can chase Winning, fight for it, and defend your right to catch it.

The Language of Winning

Winning has its own language, and it doesn’t speak bullshit.

Probably my favorite quote of the whole book. I think we can all tell when someone is full of shit or when they actually back up the thing they’re talking about.

Winning requires you to be different, and
different scares people.
So if you’re worried about what others will say, the long-term effects, the sacrifices you’ll make, the sleep you’ll lose, your family being angry… I can’t help you with that. There’s nothing “typical” about the lifestyle and choices you’ll have to make. Winning is inside all of us, but for most, that’s where it will stay, trapped under a lifetime of fear and worry and doubt.

Are you fist pumping the air like I am yet?

You want to take the vocabulary test I give my clients? It’s short and simple: Describe Winning in one word. That’s it. What does Winning feel like to you? What does it represent? One word. Take a minute and jot down your first response. You can be honest, this is between you and you. I’m not giving out prizes here. I’ve asked this of countless athletes and business professionals and other individuals I work with, and the responses are always revealing.

Here are some of the most common answers: Glorious. Euphoric. Success. Domination. Achievement. Power. Satisfaction. Triumph. Awesome. Amazing. Not bad answers. If your answer was on that list, you fit right in with the majority. If that’s where you want to be. Of course, anyone can fit in. Excellence stands out.

Let me share with you some of the answers I’ve heard from the greats. Not just in sports but from the business world as well:
Uncivilized. Hard. Nasty. Unpolished. Dirty. Rough. Unforgiving. Unapologetic. Uninhibited. Kobe: “Everything.”

Michael Jordan: I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged, and I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didn’t endure all the things that I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game, and I wasn’t gonna take anything less. Now if that meant I had to go in there and get in your ass a little bit, then I did that. You ask all my teammates, “The one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didn’t fucking do.”
When people see this, they’re gonna say, “Well, he wasn’t really a nice guy, he may have been a tyrant.” Well, that’s you. Because you never won anything.
I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well. Look, I don’t have to do this. I’m only doing it because it is who I am. That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t wanna play that way, don’t play that way.

If your image matters more to you than your results, if you need to look and act a certain way to impress others, if “Fake it till you make it” is your strategy for success, if you need approval to be who you really are, you’re going to struggle. If we’re working together, I don’t need you to be civilized and polite. I need you to be hard. Resilient. Focused. Truthful. I want you completely isolated in your mind, trusting your own voice and instincts to protect you from yourself and others. I want to see you flex the most important muscle in your race to greatness, the one no one sees but you: the I Don’t Give A Fuck muscle. We’ll be working on that a lot in these pages.

I want to highlight this whole dang thing

Winning has zero tolerance for soft and weak.

You worry that others will discover your flaws and weaknesses, and you start hiding your true personality, so you can be a good role model and good citizen and a leader that others can respect. There is nothing wrong with that. But if you do it at the expense of being who you really are, making decisions that please others instead of pleasing yourself, you’re not going to be in that position very long. When you start apologizing for who you are, you stop growing and you stop winning. Permanently.

it’s deep inside everyone, if you’re willing to just let go and experience your own uncivilized, unapologetic, uninhibited power.

This last one is a little bit foofy, but it’s something I believe. It’s one of the reasons I named this website “Irreverent”.

THE WINNING 13

WINNING makes you different, and different scares people.
WINNING wages war on the battlefield in your mind.
WINNING is the ultimate gamble on yourself.
WINNING isn’t heartless, but you’ll use your heart less.
WINNING belongs to them, and it’s your job to take it.
WINNING wants all of you; there is no balance.
WINNING is selfish.
WINNING takes you through hell. And if you quit, that’s where you’ll stay.
WINNING is a test with no correct answers.
WINNING knows all your secrets.
WINNING never lies.
WINNING is not a marathon, it’s a sprint with no finish line.
WINNING is everything.

Winning will cost you everything, and reward you with more, if you’re willing to do the work. Don’t bother to roll up your sleeves, just rip the fucking things off—and do what others won’t or can’t. They don’t matter anyway; you are in this alone.

winners all understand one thing: There’s a price to pay, and you must pay it.

1: WINNING makes you different, and different scares people

If you think like everyone else, if you act like everyone else, if you follow the same protocols and traditions and habits like everyone else, guess what: You’ll be like everyone else.

Winning watches to see if you’re confident and bold enough to believe that “different” isn’t wrong.

Very true for what we are doing here at The Irreverent Investor.

Kobe did the same thing with him; he’d call or text Michael in the middle of the night asking how he played against a certain guy, how he handled a situation, what he thought about this or that. And Michael would always answer his questions, and help him learn. That’s a major trait of the greats, by the way: They want to pass along their knowledge, so the next generation can keep learning. That’s the difference between competing and winning.

I’m not going to tell you what to do. I’m not going to tell you what to think. I want you to learn HOW to think, to become involved in the process of learning so you can create your own ideas and thoughts, answer your own questions, and
know how to create solutions
when others don’t even understand the issues.

This is an extremely important aspect with starting your own business or thinking about businesses from an investing standpoint. Solutions, solutions, solutions.

I want them thinking for themselves, working on their own abilities to make decisions and manage issues. I want to see them create ways to win, and execute those ideas without running them by me first. That’s how you learn to think for yourself.

we’re not talking about getting 10 percent better or 5 percent better.
The goal is .0001 percent better,
because these performers are already among the best at what they do.

I think about this often with social media and distractions. Much of the success we all experience in the future will be because of our willingness to do what it takes to remove distraction.

When I was training MJ, the Bulls’ strength coach asked why I had him doing bicep curls. The theory was that biceps were just for show and didn’t really make someone a better basketball player. And that was probably true. But we were going for that .0001 percent, which included the intimidation factor of his bigger, stronger, more dominant physique. What’s the first thing you see on a basketball player when he takes off his warm-ups? Those arms.
Details matter.
It works the same in business.

Winning demands that you look past “the right way” and create your own way.

To me, it isn’t about what’s right or wrong, it’s about deciding what you will or won’t negotiate for yourself, and whether you’re willing to expand your thinking in a way that allows you to move closer to Winning than your competition.

I like this because it orients us against a competitor. It’s not all rainbows and unicorns, but a positive way of using zero-sum thinking.

Your
nonnegotiables
have to be things you—and only you—can control. The food you eat. The effort you commit. The words you speak. The results you deliver.

You worked hard? That’s nice. I need someone who works hard, smart, fast, and a whole mess of other things. Get back in line and figure it out. Figure it out. Put your craziness to work. Innovate, don’t imitate. And above all, stop listening to everyone who tells you what to think. If they knew, they’d all be winners.

Being smart gets a lot of points these days. But it’s not enough.

2: WINNING wages war on the battlefield in your mind

Get the results,
and the brand will build itself.
Play it the other way around, and your career will be dead long before your shoe deal expires. That’s how you sabotage yourself. Are you winning your own war? People find so many ways to derail their own success. Distractions, laziness, ego…

If you’re procrastinating, if you’re constantly apologizing for things you did and didn’t do, if you get to the end of the day and realize you didn’t accomplish a single thing you wanted—or needed—to do, you’re distracted by your own thoughts. We all have some kind of “To Do” list, but for most, it’s a “Things to Do That Will Never Get Done” list. Winners have a “Done” list.

Tip: Have a “priority check” column on your daily tracker so you can see if you’re getting things DONE every day.

To me, routines are freedom, if you use them correctly. They allow you to take action with certainty and purpose; they remove the variables and speed bumps that slow you down. And most important, they bypass the battlefield decisions: Should I? Should I not? This way? That way? Today? Tomorrow? How long? Who should I ask? When you have a well-planned routine, those questions have already been answered. You execute and move on. Done. Next.

If you’re interested in how I lay out my own routines and primers then let me know. The more I share, the more I find people are also interested in productivity and managing their time: focus. Anyway, let me know.

This paragraph on MJ and his routines is pretty powerful. If we are to elevate our winning, then these routines cannot be ignored. MJ had the most disciplined game-day routine I’ve ever seen, from the way he selected his timepiece to the way he laced his shoes. He planned and organized every detail of his day, from the time of his workout to the car he drove to the arena. He put his clothes on in a specific order, organized the game tickets for his family and friends, ate at the same time every day… everything had purpose and discipline. And everyone on his personal team participated in those routines. I knew what time and how long we were working out (5: 00 a.m., 6: 00 a.m., or 7: 00 a.m. every day, even on road trips and travel days). His automobile manager knew which car he’d be driving, and what time to have it washed and ready (MJ would never take a car that hadn’t just been washed). The chef knew exactly what he’d be eating, and what time we needed it served. Everything was planned and coordinated, so there were no bumps in the schedule. Part of his routine was to lace his shoes before every game, fresh out of the box. The ritual had special meaning to him; every time he did it, he could remember that feeling of being a kid getting new shoes, and it took him to a place that prepared him mentally for the game and helped put him in the zone. One day on the road the team bus was delayed coming into the arena, so I went ahead and laced his shoes exactly the way he did, just to save him some time. He refused to wear them:
I’d interfered with his routine.
He had the equipment manager get him a new pair—unlaced—so he could lace them himself.

The greatest player in the world, working on a basic chest pass. Why? Routine. Basics. Fundamentals. The court was his battlefield, and he knew where all the mines were planted.
If you can’t master the fundamentals, you can’t master anything else.

Saw this a lot in the Marine Corps: mastery of the fundamentals were required from everyone. In fact, the fundamentals are what winners focus on the most. We shot pallets of ammunition just to work on the fundamentals, and it was everyone from Privates to Company Commanders. Everyone was always working on the fundamentals.

On military training: From the way you’re taught to make your bed, to the precision and accuracy of jumping out of a plane, there is no room for creative options; the decisions have been made for you.
Don’t think. Execute.

I call this “keeping decisions below the brain stem.”

Why do you have this routine? For fear? Boredom? Strategy? That’s how it’s always been done? You don’t know another way? What are you limiting by clinging to this? How does it help you win?

Important questions

3: WINNING is the ultimate gamble on yourself.

When you’re iconic, you can never be duplicated.

Confidence is the ultimate drug, and Winning is the dealer.

A few years ago I was working with a group of CEOs and corporate leaders, as part of a seminar on competitive excellence. Every individual in the room was successful, affluent, and highly respected among colleagues and peers. We were talking about the personal obstacles and issues they’d faced in their race to the top. “Who here has been told you were worthless?” I asked. A few nervous hands went up. “Stand up and stay standing,” I told them. “Who has been told you’re wasting your time?” A few more stood. “This is going to fail. You’re never going to make it.” More and more standing. And finally: “You’re crazy.” By now everyone was standing. “I’m standing here too,” I said. “That last part was a compliment.
Everyone who has ever accomplished anything has had the confidence to be a little crazy.”

4: WINNING isn’t heartless, but you’ll use your heart less.

MJ: “If you’re going to lollygag through this scrimmage, through this drill, I’m going to beat you, I’m going to let you know I beat you, and I’m going to want you to reconsider your professional life choice. And for the most part, people will say that doesn’t make a great teammate. Well, I’m not here to be a great teammate. I’m here to help you win championships.”

“My mentality was to go out and win at any cost,” he said. “If you don’t want to live that regimented mentality, then you don’t need to be alongside of me because I’m going to ridicule you until you get on the same level with me. And if you don’t get on the same level, then it’s going to be hell for you.” “People were afraid of him,” said MJ’s former teammate Jud Buechler. “We were his teammates, and we were afraid of him. There was just fear.
The fear factor of MJ was so, so thick.
” Their Bulls teammate Will Perdue added this: “Let’s not get it wrong, he was an asshole. He was a jerk. He crossed the line numerous times. But as time goes on, you think back about what he was actually trying to accomplish, and you’re like, ‘Yeah, he was a helluva teammate.’ ” Hard to overlook those six championships.

When you’re giving everything you have, making every sacrifice, and devoting every part of your life to Winning, it’s hard to tolerate anyone in your circle who isn’t doing the same. It doesn’t matter if they can’t or they won’t, your frustration is going to be the same.

Felt this one on a deeper level. I’m drawn to people that are pushing their limits, and can’t stand people who coast through life, living for the weekend or retirement.

You’re creating so much distance between you and everyone else that they finally stop trying to keep up, and they tell themselves and everyone else that you’re just plain difficult. You’re obsessed. You’re crazy.
You’re headed for disaster.

Anyone else here feel like Tim is taking a look at their recent past?

The Zone is about calmness and clarity. Emotions are the complete opposite.

Weakness, laziness, frustration, negativity, anxiety. Every single morning you get to decide whether to give those things a vote. Do you listen to them? Or do you have the self-control to say: No. No discussion.
Put your hand down, you don’t have a vote today.
That’s what self-control is: deciding which part of you gets a vote. Some days, frustration might have something to say. Weakness might overpower you. You might give in to jealousy, or laziness, or fear. It happens. Everyone has lapses, we all lose control at some point. But not every day. The skeletons in your mental closet do not get a vote every day. Put those hands down.

Control your thoughts, and you control your emotions. Control your emotions, and you control your actions. Control your actions, and you control the outcome.

Thoughts become reality. Period.

You can control showing up. You can control pushing yourself harder. You can control not complaining. You can control not giving a fuck. You can control being there.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in trying to control things you can’t control, or to get bogged down thinking about the things you can’t control, but we don’t have time for that. That’s why I ignore politics and most news because it just bogs me down and gets in the way.

5: WINNING belongs to them, and it’s your job to take it.

You compete for something every minute of the day, with every decision you make. At the basic level, you compete with daily obstacles: Should I go to the gym? Should I skip this donut? Can I get out of the house on time? Will I get my work done today? That’s where it starts;
if you can’t win at those things, you’re not going to win at anything else.
If you’re trying to quit drinking, but every weekend you still go out for a drink, you lose every weekend. The right decisions take you to the next level, closer to Winning. The wrong decisions keep you exactly where you are. When you can win those small victories, you can start competing for more: I need to increase the intensity of my workout. I want to lose fifteen pounds. I’m going to get to the office early so I can get more done. I’m going to deliver more than I was asked to. Every day, you need to compete at a higher level than the day before. Small decisions. Little changes. New challenges. Bigger ambitions. You’re not going to make a million bucks or build your empire or win a championship in one day. You’re going to compete for it every day for infinite days. That’s how you become not just a competitor, but a true competitor: You get better every day for a long time. Not accidentally, but intentionally. And you surround yourself with people who do the same. I’m not talking about your “good friends” or the cheerleaders who give everyone a “Woohoo!” and a fist bump on their texts. I’m talking about rock-solid allies you can always count on.
Friends will tell you what you want to hear. Allies tell you what you need to hear.
Allies elevate themselves to elevate everyone else. They don’t have to be your friends—hell, they don’t even have to like you—but they share your vision and your goals and thirst for the same result. These are the “ride or die” partners who never ask why or how much; they already know, and they’ll take a bullet for the cause. You don’t have to ask “How was your weekend?” because you know they spent it the same way you did: figuring out ways to get better.

Who are your allies?

6: WINNING wants all of you; there is no balance.

Instead of feeling focused, you feel panicked, chaotic, out of control, and so overwhelmed you can’t accomplish anything. You’re trying to put energy into everything, and you feel like a total failure because you can’t do it all, at least not successfully. You’re distracted and angry, and you blame everyone else for demanding so much of you and making this all so difficult. It feels like there’s some invisible enemy holding you back and throwing immovable obstacles in your way. There is no invisible enemy. That enemy is you.

Time for everything equals time for nothing. And winning at nothing.

If you’re worried about what’s “normal,” what others will think and whether they’ll approve, you’re done. Keep fitting in. Winners stand out.

You have to master the art of NO.

Make a “NO List” of things they are not going to do, a nonnegotiable reminder of things that aren’t a priority.

This is actually a very good idea. I have the same list titled “shiny objects destroy freedom” and they are things I’ll never do. I have to look at it every week however.

Stop depriving yourself of what you need to perform at the highest level.
You need to be able to focus. You need sleep. You need to eat well. You need to stay healthy. Stop feeling guilty about taking care of yourself.
It’s essential if you’re going to go the distance, and it’s the best way to take care of everyone else who’s relying on you.

If you’re serious about all of this, you’ll be in the gym training your body as well as your mind.

There is no balance here.

7: WINNING is selfish.

In talking about people that try to make their problems your problems. The ones who call you selfish: You can’t help all of those other people until you can first help yourself.

When you’ve earned the ability to move away from average and typical and “normal,” you’ve also earned the right to laugh when someone tells you to “stay in your lane.”
You have no lane.

Winning insists on being your sole priority. And that requires your full attention, your total focus, and the unlimited ability to invest in your results. To me, posting your workouts on social media isn’t the kind of investment that delivers results. It gets attention, but not results. And if I do my job, if my clients do theirs,
the end results speak for themselves
, other people can talk about them, and we never have to post a thing.

If you’re working remotely and conducting all your meetings and conferences online, shouldn’t you consider spending some money on quality equipment that allows you to look and sound professional?

Just bought a better camera, green screen, and mic holder after reading this sentence.

How often have you tried “reinventing” yourself, instead of investing in who you already are?

Regardless of whether you want to work with athletes or design skyscrapers or discover a planet: invest in your education and your skills. There are no shortcuts, there’s no fast track. Michael Jordan hired me because I presented him with a program that intrigued him, and then I backed it up with results. The years I spent investing in myself—learning, experimenting, developing a plan that would someday change the way athletes trained—allowed that to happen.

Love the emphasis on results here. A lot of emphasis on attention these days, which of course is important, but not without the results. Results first.

8: WINNING takes you through hell. And if you quit, that’s where you’ll stay.

He shared with Kobe some of what we’d done together, and why he thought I was the answer Kobe was looking for. “He’s the biggest asshole you’ll ever meet,” said MJ, “but he knows his stuff.” You really cannot ask for a better compliment from Michael Jordan.

Reminds me of a great clip from Rick and Morty:

Resilience isn’t built in your comfort zone; it’s built in hell. And every time you go back you’re a little harder, rougher, less emotional, more scarred. After you’ve made the journey repeatedly for years and decades, you barely feel the heat.

You have to embrace the negativity, the criticism, the cynicism of others, so you can control how that fire burns. Fire can destroy, but it can also forge new creations. The more you can withstand, and the sooner you take action, the greater your chances of getting back in the race.

I had my first real run-in with criticism and it was amazing. I fed on that shit. It was weird. Am I the only one?

There are wins everywhere. It’s on you to keep finding them.

To grow your mind, heart, body, and spirituality, you must first accept all your wounds. Welcome them, embrace them. Now you’re resilient as you continue your chase; you can’t be hurt because whatever your opponents do to you, you’ve already felt it.

Not entirely true, but I get what he’s saying. Toughness must be conjured and embraced.

9: WINNING is a test with no correct answers.

Fear says I can do this. Doubt says I’m fucked.

There are four components of Winning that determine how you’ll manage your fears and doubts and make that leap, or if you’ll make it at all.

Talent.
Intelligence.
Competitiveness.
Resilience.

Great competitors don’t pull back.

When you have nothing to lose, you’re free to do anything.

Watch out for this way of thinking. Nothing to lose means no skin in the game, and no skin in the game means a certain slow death by decay. If you have nothing to lose then go make something.

10: WINNING knows all your secrets.

Everyone thinks they can be alone until it’s time to be alone. Those who can do it have the strongest dark sides imaginable. Their secrets are their companions, their support system. Because no matter how many people will contribute to your wins, in the end it’s all about you. Your preparation. Your confidence. Your commitment. Your grip on your emotions. Your partnership with the voices in your head.

Great paragraph. Pushing past others is a very lonely thing, and not many can do it for long.

11: WINNING never lies.

Tim started training a young man who was so filled with other peoples wants and needs that he had a hard time being himself. He says:
To have what you really want, you first must be who you really are. How can you have any degree of mental clarity with all that chaos in your head?

Winning knows the truth. And it needs you to admit it. You can fake a lot of things. You can fake being happy, you can fake being successful, you can fake having a great relationship, you can fake confidence and knowledge and just about everything else. But you can’t fake Winning.

Who cares if you’re in the gym at 4: 00 a.m. or 4: 00 p.m. or any other time? Did you get results? Are you achieving something? Tell me what you accomplished, and how it’s helping you win. Until then, I just want to tell them to get more sleep.

Hustle porn is too common these days.

Are you honest about your effort and commitment? Are you showing up, not just physically but 100 percent mentally?

I had a wrestling coach a long time ago stop practice halfway through the first day. He sat us all down on the mats, then asked us all if we wanted to be there. “That was the laziest slowest practice I’ve ever seen. All of you go home and tonight I want you to think about whether you want to be here. Whoever shows up tomorrow better be ready to go 100% for the rest of the season. Get out of here.” And practice was over. I’m not sure if it was a tactic, but it really did a number on the mentality and FOCUS of the entire team.

One of the worst “motivational” expressions ever: “Showing up is half the battle.” No. Showing up is none of the battle. If it’s a battle for you to just show up, you’re so far from Winning you won’t find it with GPS and a team of hunting dogs.

Showing up means you’re probably showing up alone, and preferring it that way.

On training younger interns: I wanted to grab some of these kids and shake them, lean in, and say: “Are you here to contribute, or to see what you can take away? You’re telling me what you need, but what are you willing to give? Don’t tell me you want to ‘pick my brain,’ or that you can really learn from me. I know that. What can I learn from you? And how can my clients benefit from the fact that I let you in the door?”

Most excellent. I think this paragraph sums up the entire book.

The more options you add, the less likely you are to get the desired result. You already know what to do, and then you decide to get creative and start “tweaking.” I hate tweaking. Tweaking just means: Let me see how I can cheat a little here or there, make it a little easier, give myself an out. I already had the right answer, but let me see how I can screw this up.

A new question on my daily: “Is this serving my audience, or tweaking?” Because that is winning.

Here’s my suggestion for every team, organization, and business that wants to keep people honest and accountable: create a WTF—“ What the Fuck”—Department. The WTF Department functions as the in-house BS detector, with total authority to override management and HR, and put people in check for whatever they’re faking. An employee is complaining to everyone that he deserves a raise and promotion, but his sales are the lowest on the team? WTF will point that out. Someone is upset because she didn’t get a pat on the back for doing something she was supposed to do? WTF is there to remind her: You’re supposed to do that, it’s your job. The boss spends most of his workday making TikTok videos? WTF will be stopping by. Be your own WTF Department. Hold yourself accountable. If you’re not winning, if you’re going to bed every night and waking up the next day hoping things will be better, if you’re spending more time creating a false image of yourself as a winner than investing in ways to stop being a loser, it’s time to drink up the truth. It will have a very bitter taste, but it will be worth it. Because there’s a long race ahead of you with no end in sight.

12: WINNING is not a marathon, it’s a sprint with no finish line.

Much of the remainder of the book was fluff, but there were a few gems here and there. Here’s my favs:

Most people worry about how long something will take. Winners just keep going until it gets done.

Focus is the ultimate weapon in the war on time.

Firmly believe that focus is part of the last frontier. Be willing to do what it takes to limit observations. Block social media and twitter, make concrete routines, do what it takes to focus.

Time is about others. Focus is all about you.

You can’t enter the Zone until you’ve mastered focus; focus is the training ground.

Consider the ability of extreme focus as step one.

13: WINNING is everything.

If you do it like everyone else, you’ll be like everyone else.

A sense of urgency is the ultimate distinction between those who win and those who watch others win.

One of the themes in the Marines was “Speed and Intensity” and we never heard those words enough. Pay attention to S&I enough to improve overall tempo, then out-pace the competition. It’s not rocket science, and really works.

Uncivilized. Hard. Nasty. Unpolished. Dirty. Rough. Unforgiving. Unapologetic. Uninhibited. These were the descriptors that the best competitors used to describe winning.