From high school through the pros, he defied the odds with a rigorous program of weight training and a relentless study of technique.
Students rise at 6 for martial arts, and thereafter, wearing full-sleeved, gray-and-black robes, plunge into a day of relentless study that ends just before midnight, when they may sleep.
He discussed his relentless study of baseball rules and told a story of a minor league confrontation with Buddy Kerr, who was managing the Fresno Giants of the California League in 1960.
Major keys to being successful include relentless study, analysis, learning (and relearning), unquenchable curiosity, advanced listening skills, team collaboration, systematic thinking, simplified frameworks and genuine humility.
Much has been written about Gretzky's highly developed hockey instincts, but he once explained that what appeared to be instinct was, in large part, the effect of his relentless study of the game.
An investment manager's big decisions are not a coin toss; they come from years of relentless reading, studying those who have excelled and those who have fallen short, dissecting one's own successes and failures, networking with those who can shed new light on a stock or industry and teasing out contrarian points of view.
Before Mark Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks, he watched Jones, studying his relentless sales pitch.
What's remarkable about the Berkeley bot is that it learned to do this not through careful programming or relentless practice but by studying a large database of virtual objects and grasps.
For this record of achievement, Japanese trade long hours of studying under relentless pressure to succeed at standardized nationwide tests, but some -Miss Kuroyanagi among them - ask whether the system blunts imagination and ignores the special child.
"Warrior" takes place in the world of mixed martial arts, and it is appropriately blunt, powerful and relentless, a study of male bodies in sweaty motion and masculine emotions in teary turmoil.
"The biggest change is just studying film and being more relentless on my rush," Ellis said last Sunday.
