25 Hours a Day

Nick Bare is the founder and president of Bare Performance Nutrition, a performance nutrition and supplement company. After graduating from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science majoring in nutrition, Nick Bare served four years active duty as an infantry officer in the United States Army. He also completed the legendary US Army Ranger School in 141 days, about double the usual time a candidate normally takes. In his spare time while stationed in South Korea, Nick Bare worked on building Bare Performance Nutrition which he had started in college as a passion project. He ran the company from a one-room army barracks while he continued to work full-time in the Army. Today, Bare Performance Nutrition has a multiple seven-figure annual turnover.

Conventional wisdom says you should live as if you have fewer hours in a day. Therefore, you should cram as much into each hour as you possibly can so you maximize your output. That's backwards. Instead of cramming, you should be prepared to work hard 25 hours a day if that's what's required.

Specifically, you've got to over-commit to whatever you're passionate about. The 25 Hours mindset is:

1. Embrace the suck. This is a military term for developing the ability to gut out the tough times (of which there will be many). If you can find happiness and fulfillment during challenging times, that attitude will serve you well.

2. Remember if it were easy ... Whenever you're knee deep in a challenge, remind yourself if it were easy, anyone could do it. Never lose sight of that fact. It will motivate you to keep going and survive the hard times.

3. Survive the tough times. The only way to survive the tough challenges is to clear your head of distractions, and then over-commit and obsess on your goals. It really is a matter of willpower. It also helps to remind yourself tough challenges make everything else look easy.

4. Become a learning machine. Learning will be at the core of everything you do and achieve in the future. Whatever else you try and do, turn yourself into a learning machine. It's absolutely the only way to get ahead and succeed.

5. Deep six entitlement. It's dangerous to feel like you're entitled to something. Forget about that. It's toxic. Instead, have the mindset you're going to work and struggle for everything you ever get. That's far closer to the truth.

6. Go all-in or go home. If you want to succeed at anything, you have to go all-in. The only way to create something special is to utterly, totally, and completely commit 100 percent to what you're doing. Go all-in or go home.

7. Win the day back. Winning the day back means you have the mindset that you figuratively start each day behind on the scorecard. Your immediate challenge is to pack as many achievements into today as you possibly can. Win the day back each and every day and you won't have to worry about what the future holds.

8. Go one more. Going one more means to never be satisfied with what you've done in the past. You should always keep pushing onwards and upwards, no matter what. Go one more in whatever it takes to get one step closer to your goals.

Before reading his book, I'd never heard of Nick Bare or his company Bare Performance Nutrition, but now I totally respect and relate to how hard he has worked to make things happen. I was initially attracted by the title of his book — 25 Hours a Day. That seems like a pretty ambitious idea but after reading this book, I now understand where he's coming from. He's saying to get anywhere in life, you have to be prepared to pay the price, and do whatever it takes. That's a key message every aspiring entrepreneur!

Nick Bare makes the point that he's an average person with no real superpowers. Reading this book, it became clear his superpower is his drive to win, and his willingness to do whatever it takes. He personifies a work and effort ethic. He also succeeds because he is completely authentic and transparent — qualities which play well in the world of social media.

25 Hours a Day. Total respect for the hard work put in. I liked this book because it speaks to the realities of starting and growing a business. Everyone loves the idea of being an overnight success, but in the real world, you generally have to put in 10 or more years of hard work to reach that point. A reality check. Respect.