BOOK REVIEW: GORILLA MINDSET by Mike Cernovich

I preface this review by stating I despise “self-help” books.  I think the entire section in which you’ll find them is one that preaches lovey-dovey, “You are special,” abject bullshit.  None of them realistically give any reader an action plan that will improve the life of the person who buys that book.  

This is why I am pleased to say that on reading “Gorilla Mindset” by Mike Cernovich, it is not by my definition a “self-help” book.  It is a plan of action to take those who will walk the talk, and commit to Cernovich’s methods, and make their lives less ordinary and more extraordinary. 

Some of the ideas that Mike Cernovich conveys in his book are incredibly scary to the “average man.”  One such concept is taking cold showers or contrast showers.  The moment I read his philosophy on cold or “contrast” showers I actually put Gorilla Mindset down and left it in my reading queue for a couple of months. 

The moment I actually tried a cold shower, a straight up ice cold shower, and conquered the unknown fear I had reflexively of it, then I had a revelation.  I’d conquered a fear Mike had shown me I didn’t know I had.  What other fears do I see that I don’t know about?  If I conquered this one by my own sheer willpower, what can I do from there? 

Tomorrow I will begin my day with another cold shower and the Brain Warmup Mike details. 

I’m also going back to the gym.  Getting my dietary habits in focus.  Regaining my posture. 

When you read “Gorilla Mindset,” you will be put off by some of the concepts Mike throws at you.  You will potentially be scared by some of the things he has to tell you.  Understand that he doesn’t give two shits about what you think, and that he is writing from a place of experience.  You will either love or hate what Mike Cernovich says in “Gorilla Mindset.” 

You take Cernovich’s action plan as you please, but if you try it, if you put his actions and work into your own life, then you will experience new ideas, concepts, and states of mind you haven’t known you could achieve.  You will get new revelations about your own life. 

You will start to “live life on your own terms.” If you ruthlessly follow Mike’s “Gorilla Mindset” action plan, you might even become “extraordinary.” 

And that is the beauty of “Gorilla Mindset.”  It carries the potential to make you extraordinary, if you will let Mike bend your ear for a few hundred pages. 

You can buy Mike's book here.  It's worth the dough. 

WWE doesn't care about you. Wake up.

Full disclosure: I don’t deal with WWE anymore.  I try not to give them as much of my head space as possible, ever since the Survivor Series debacle made me rage quit that company and their $9.99 business model.  Yes, I also know professional wresting is scripted.

It’s an abusive relationship.  If it’s Sheamus getting the belt via a cheap win less than ten seconds after the main event, if it’s the continued push of Roman Reigns despite fans repeatedly telling the company “we don’t care about him.” the message WWE sends the viewers of its near seven to eight hours of “original” non-Network programming alone is as follows:

“We could give two shits less about what you think.” 

“Here’s some cool stuff on the Network to make you feel good…for the low price of $9.99.” 

Every Pay-Per-View “Event” on the Network is now reduced to one simple excuse: “Don’t like what we did on our “Event?” Watch Raw the next night.”

The latest “fuck you” to the consumers of WWE programming came this Monday, with the clearest message possible that WWE is in danger, they are in damage control mode, and they will never, EVER change their ways. 

And they did it with the return of Shane McMahon. 

Watch that video.  Hear that crowd come unglued.  I still can’t listen to Naughty By Nature’s “Here Comes The Money” without getting chills. 

The gist of the story is as follows: Shane McMahon wants control of Raw, because Stephanie McMahon and her husband Hunter “Triple H” Levesque are ruining the product for the fans.  Vince, the patriarch of the family and architect of the current empire that is WWE, says that if Shane wants control he has to earn it.  Through a match at Wrestlemania 32, in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.  In “Hell in a Cell.” With the Undertaker. 

A 46 year old businessman is getting in the ring with a 50 year old wrestler in a match that has been the standard for causing injuries and hurting people. One such match got to the point where a wrestler suffered nearly career-ending injuries. 

Let’s be very clear: The real “Vincent K. McMahon Award For Excellence,” or whatever bullshit Vinnie Mac wants to call it, isn’t an award on a worked angle on Raw.  It’s being placed in a match with the Undertaker at Wrestlemania.  If Taker agrees to work with you on that stage then he believes you deserve a positive rub.  You are worthy of getting respect, because Taker is one of the most respected people in the business of sports entertainment. 

That was the point of the Streak.  That was why when Lesnar beat Taker and became “The 1 in 21-and-1” it was a moment that meant something.  That was why Bray Wyatt felt the chance to wrestle and do the honors to Taker was a special event. 

Now, the annual Wrestlemania match with the Undertaker is self-masturbatory bullshit to appease the McMahon family in a way that could get one man or the other crippled or killed. 

Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon was lightning in a bottle.  It was the working man against his boss.  It made Vince the greatest heel that company’s ever seen.  And it’s a moment that can’t be re-created, no matter how many times the company wants to do it. 

And they’re doing it all the way to Wrestlemania.  The event where they want to sell out the stadium where the Dallas Cowboys play football.  They’re recreating the same angle between the McMahon family in hopes this will put asses in seats to a sellout. 

They’re doing it with Roman Reigns.  They’ve got him in the main against Triple H at Wrestlemania 32, in a match where the person who is supposed to be the bad guy is getting cheered by crowds for beating the good guy to a bloody pulp. 

And somehow, somewhere, people think this is a sustainable business model. 

It is, because the average WWE fan is a lamb in a herd.  They will complain.  They will get upset.  They will pop for Shane-O-Mac without realizing in any sense the “pop” comes at their own expense.  When people get angry at the ending of an “event,” they turn and say “Oooh look at the new shiny shows on the Network!” 

This is why I got out.  This is why I don’t give them any more time than necessary, but to expose that the WWE is in desperation mode and doing things that show their business model is failing. 

They don’t give a damn about the consumer, and that’s not a way to keep a business going. 

That’s how Vince bought WCW. 
That’s why TNA is failing and will fall soon.  
Unless Vince, and the average consumer wakes up, they will remember nothing.