"FOLLOW Your PASSION First!" | Kobe Bryant

follow your passion first first first first first first I had a summer - I play basketball when I was like 10 or 11 years old and yeah come playing and I don't score one point the entire summer really not one chance just cuz the ship sink and all of a sudden we jump off to swim to another like that you don't do that right if you can win championships in front of everybody then you could miss the playoffs in front of everybody need motivation peas Kobe Bryant and here's my take on his top 50 rules for success [Music] okay let's kick it off with rule number one make sacrifices there's a choice we have to make as people as individuals so if you want to be great at something you have to make the inherent sacrifices that come along with that family time hanging out with your friends said the age of 18 I knew that I was not going to be stopped this was my life we've all can be masters at our craft but you have to make sacrifices that come along with medinet decision rule number two one move at a time once you have the passionate thing that you're passionate about now you can look at other people or other entities or other things or works of art and you can draw things from that to help you be better at what you buy looking for those common denominators which I don't even know how do I prepare how do I prepare how do I study how do i Ryu the game how do you build your game and my response is much like the way he builds products and you think sequentially oh yeah you look at this the end result of what you want to create but in order to create that there's so many other little things that go into this massive entity that or device it's no different than building my basketball game you start with what do you want your game to be will we make your game most unstoppable or hard to deal with and now you work backwards from there and you start building it one piece at a time one move at a time one counter so there's a lot of similarities there rule number three trust your skills well you just kind of have the the fearlessness to really take those shots you know because you missed those shots then you have to deal with the the criticism you have to deal with us right right so you know a lot of times a lot of people kind of get a little apprehensive about taking their shots because of that while we missing but you start smiling away just thinking it out the word well it's it's it's always it's always been a myth to me as to why certain people don't really like those situations because of the the pressure at you know because we've all lost games before so it's not like by you missing that shot you about to face something that you will never face again or having faced in the past you know I mean we've all come up short it's you know one time or another so just gonna kind of let it all hang out and you don't trust your skills and trust the work that you put in rule number four use your scars as weapons so that means taking things using things in your life that are scars using those moments as a weapon right using those as using basketball is kind of like a vehicle through which to express yourself right so it doesn't so at that moment for us to face the Celtics again it's not about the Celtics it's not about your opponent it's about you it's about you taking it and it struggles and channeling that through the game right as it as a way to to unleash right so now I became a matter of how do i express that to them how do I get them to that point where they figure this out for themselves cuz I can't say hey listen I need you to play harder so when she - well I had to share my story I had to open up to them and let them know I've dealt with things this is the things that I use this is how I go about focus this is how I deal with adversity this is how I deal with you know arguing with my wife the day of the game is showing up to the game and still having that focus to be able to play like I used those things to open up with them and then in turn they were able to to take those stories and make them their own also if you want to learn to build confidence like hoping other entrepreneurs check out my 254 series the links are in the description below if you wake up in the morning and you're dreading going to work dude do something else do something else and those are hard decisions to make but when you make those decisions it's a very liberating experience Weehawken the Masters at our craft but you have to make sacrifices that come along with mending a decision there's certain things that we want to get to but we have to pace those out because we have to have absolute focus rule number five focus on each day well you just got to put one foot in front of the other and you know sometimes I think you for myself it's easy to become distracted a little bit and start trying to look at the Bible but the final picture is gonna look like and you know when you do that you can you can easily become frustrated with where you are at the moment so you know my advice is just to focus on each day and you know you have a plan in place of how you want to improve and how you want to get better and you stick to that plan and then trust the fact that you know every day that you you know stick to the plan I'll get you to your end result rule number six don't be afraid of confrontation I'm not gonna be afraid of confrontation to get us to where we need to go I think it's there's a big misconception where people think winning or success comes from everybody putting their arms around each other and singing Kumbaya and patting them on the back when they mess up and that's just not reality if you're gonna be a leader you can't you're not gonna please everybody and you gotta hold people accountable even if it's even if you have that moment of being uncomfortable always compared to sitting across from somebody at the dinner table for sitting across from each other and would you rather sit with a person that's gonna be afraid to tell you have some in between your teeth and let you walk around the restaurant smile and stuff like that when you guys dump in between your teeth what would you rather sit with somebody that's not afraid to have that moment of being uncomfortable to tell you you have something in routines so you can get it out and don't look like an idiot run everybody else all right I'm gonna tell you you have something your team no matter what even if it hurts my feelings I'm gonna tell you guys something I'm gonna tell you and then it's your choice if you want to get it out they just want to leave it download like an idiot rule number seven be competitive when it's hard is everybody wants to compete it's knowing how to compete and also you know I you know true competitive instinct really kicks in when you're down you know like I said a lot of people were competitive as things that are rolling their way you know things that they were naturally good at nobody takes a true competitive person when things are down like this to really step up to the playground glass roof rule number eight just keep going up most importance like I was such a die-hard fan Laker fan growing up man and just my personality like it was for me to ask for trade or to go play someplace else to try to chase the championship That's not me man that's not being that's not what my career has been about that's not who I am and I stay with it and stuff that I've been through in my life and in my career and just taught me anything is the fact that you'll have good moments you have bad moments have great moments you have horrible moments you just keep going through all of them and then things work themselves out rule number nine thrive on being an outsider and I've always had someone best performances [Music] fans actually we love it problem they don't understand who I am not only am i comfortable being outside that has become a source of motivation so when I go to these places and you rule number 10 compete with yourself and he gets to the gym at 4:30 in the morning to see Kobe just drenched in sweat like he jumped in a pool and then Kobe wants to make him do conditioning and weights for a couple hours so then when the trainer goes to sleep after for a few hours he comes back to the gym at like 11 a.m. and he sees that Kobe never left the gym at all because he had to make sure that he made 800 shots before he left after he's been working out for hours and hours like you think this is new to me this is an excerpt from Shaq's book talking about Kobe well they had a few so he says he was so young and so immature in some ways but I can tell you this everything Kobe is doing now he told me all the way back then he was going to do it we were sitting on the bus once and he told me I'm going to be the number one scorer for the Lakers I'm gonna win five or six championships and I'm going to be the best player in the game and I was like okay whatever then he looked me right in the eye and said I'm going to be the Will Smith of the NBA Shaq used to say he would catch Kobe Bryant on the gym and the court without a ball practicing place this is who he is it's just ingrained in him to do whatever he can first light as your Shack said this this is funny love the inputs you know what it probably helped them see a lot of people want to they say that they're gonna do something Kobe Bryant does it right talk is cheap but Kobe did it because he competes with himself every single day he wants more out of himself every single day it's that competitive drive to be the best that carries him carries him through practices it carries him through the weight training sessions conditioning making sure that he gets eight hundred shots every day carries him to work on his craft when no one is watching rule number eleven follow your passion follow your passion first first first first first first when I retired from the game I said they're asking kind of all the wrong questions it was the biggest industry I can get into and it's all the wrong stuff and you got to sit there and ask yourself okay what am I truly passionate about what do I enjoy doing and when you feel that way honestly I mean you feel like you have never worked a day in your life it's the most fun thing in the world you get up in the morning excited about what you're doing and you got to be really honest with yourself about it if you wake up in the morning and you're dreading going to work dude do something else do something else and those are hard decisions to make but when you make those decisions it's a very liberating experience and you'll find out that the rewards will come rule number 12 find mentors you've mentioned that you you've been lucky enough to have mentors in your life such as Anna Wintour the editor of Vogue Arianna Huffington Johnny I've of Apple I'm notorious for just cold calling people in I just pick up the phone call them up and let's just talk you know there's nothing in particular I just want to talk and just you know explain to me how you see your business you know how do you operate the business you know Johnny Ives in particular he's just fascinating his process of creating design and when I was playing I used what I did that I used to try to connect the dots between how John Williams will compose the score for a film or Johnny eyes would design new at Apple product and how does that connect to how I play the game the basketball is there's something there that I can learn that can be used when I step out here on the court there's lessons that surround us I mean it life is basically a library just it you know all we need to do is just open our eyes and look and and ask and read accordingly so is that something you were doing you were building those relationships even but outside of your interest as a businessman really even as an affiliate and a basketball player yeah I miss the curiosity I think the curiosity is the most important thing I mean it's it's you know it's sounds really weird to say but you mean like leadership lessons yeah I learn leadership lessons just from walking in the park is just observing nature and the sons relationship with nature and relationship with the moon and the Sun understanding when to be present and when they go away right because as a teammate it was like dude the sun's out all damn long you're gonna sunburn a hell of a lot of people right so if I'm playing this game and I'm on top of my guys for 48 minutes dude you're gonna sunburn every single team made there right so the certain times was important for the sudden of you president sometimes it needs to go away right and but their life less is that's around us at all times and I've always been extremely extremely curious about those things rule number 13 outwork everyone I've been with you for a long way at the one moment that stands out out of we've done I don't know how many done we've done no play 800 events the one time was 4:00 a.m. we went out to practice at 4:00 a.m. and that was your idea to do it well then you know all these Nike people are like no no no no no let's not let's not do that and then you're like let's do it at 4:00 a.m. so you got security you got brand marketing a sports marketing going no no no no no no that's not good you're like let's do it because that's your sustenance right I mean to me it just makes complete sense not to us see we all right what you usually I'm sleeping at 4:00 a.m. you're you're working out I like about that okay so if if your job is to try to be the best basketball player you can be all right to do that you have to practice you have to Train you want to train as much as you can as often as you can so if you get up at 10:00 in the morning train at 1112 say 12:00 train at 12:00 train for two hours 12:00 to 2:00 you have to let your body recover so you eat recover whatever you get back out you train start training again at 6:00 train from 6:00 to 8:00 right and now you go home and shower you dinner you go to bed you wake up you do it again right those are two sessions all right now imagine you wake up at 3:00 you train at 4:00 you go 4 to 6 come home breakfast relax so so now you're back at it again 9 to 11 right relax and now I'm just on you're back at it again to the 4 and have you're back at it again you know 7 to 9 look how much more training I have done by simply starting at 4 all right so now you do that and as the years go on the separation that you have with your competitors and your peers just grows larger and larger and larger and larger and larger and by year five or six doesn't matter what kind of work they're doing a summer they're never going to catch up because they're 5 years behind so it makes sense to get up and start your day early because you can get more working is that genetic or is that something you you engrained and trained yourself no it was just you that for me it was it was just common sense like I can okay if I start earlier I can train more hours and I know the other guys aren't doing it because I know what their training schedule is right so I know if I do this consistently over time it's the gaps just gonna widen and why no why no why no why and they won't be able to get that back mm-hmm so it's me it was just common sense I'm like thinking how can I get an advantage oh start earlier yeah let's do that how do you how do you develop that or where do you what do you learn that from well I I think it's just no it's just a matter of what's important to you mm-hmm what's important to you for whatever reason you know I I felt like I didn't feel good about myself if I wasn't doing everything I could to be the best version of myself if I felt like I left anything on the table it would eat away at me I want to be able to look myself in the mirror okay so the reason why I can retire it now and be completely comfortable about it because I know that I've done everything I could to be the best basketball player I could be and so that's where it comes from for me you can't leave any stone unturned rule number 14 don't fear failure when you think about your risk tolerance for failure how far are you willing to fail well I mean unfortunately unfortunately I felt quite a bit okay you know but I understand that's actually part of the process of succeeding I'm not one that really believe in failure I believe you have setbacks and you know you have to learn from those you have to learn what are those landlines that can be avoided the next time what are those pitfalls you have to learn from that stuff so you know welcome those things it's a part of life but are you prepared to like really fail it's something totally new like what if you're just a VC do not my VC yeah you know and then I work at it and then I'm not as you see the next yeah you know whenever it happened yeah listen aya my first year in league on national TV 18 years old I got shot five straight air balls in the playoffs in front of millions of people yeah I think my time is pretty high yeah yeah I think I'm all right right rule number 15 have patience when you play a game or you train you see immediate results right you see that right there you know I worked on pull up jump shot going left I could see the results that night right and the business world is different you know you have to have the patience you have to find beauty in the process of building something to find beauty in the journey and understand that the end result it's not really the most beautiful part of it so it's having that patience rule number 16 loves the game the passion came from the love for the game you know I loved everything about it like the smell of the ball you love the smell of the ball yes the ball you know the smell of like brand-new sneakers and like the sound the ball mace when it hits the ground sneakers and the Jinja - yeah the ball going through the net like all those things I love and so the passion comes from that because once you have that love you just want to be a part of this thing all the time is there one moment where you can say it defined your passion for basketball is their story or moment when you said yeah that wasn't it that was it that was like when I felt really passionate no it doesn't never leave never leaves like that you know the game was just a part of me so it never leaves even now that I'm retired you know everything I've learned from the game of basketball carried it over into life mm-hmm you know like basketballs helped me be a better person a better friend but I'll say oh well because there's life lessons that are within the game like communications like unselfishness my attention to detail and empathy and compassion like all those things are in the game and as an athlete if we are aware of those things it helps us become better human human beings and you can apply that toward your post post basketball game retirement into your business world surely true ventures sure I mean you can play you know I was applying that even while I was playing just in life outside of the game and even more so now you know in building a business and all these things you kind of culture you when I have and all those things are or directly learn from the game of basketball to me rule number 17 find new challenges and your mind Killian it became something words okay this is this is immediate the end of my career could be now so since I was 21 years old and thinking okay I have to figure out what comes next you kind of brainstorm your ID aide but you never really executed and when the injury happened is I okay no I needed to start building now right and that's when the turning point was for me but I'm sitting there and I have you kilise injury it's one thing to sit there and try to black out the frustrations of being injured because that's you're constantly tugging but that right as opposed to simply replacing that with a new challenge that's something that gets you excited so now you're not focused on not being depressed you're focused on the excitement of building something and so it's extremely exciting man having to figure something out and build it rule number eighteen focus Kobi Inc in this venture capital from her a lot to take on are there other other things it seems like kind of each of your vehicles maybe has a specific purpose are there other areas and things that you're looking at and want to pursue it spacing right because you know we have there are certain things that we want to get to but we have to pace those out because we have to have absolute focus on a few of those things right Brian stipple fun and the stories that we are creating right those are two lenses right now there are other things that are going to come but that's way down the road you know we have to have a very very sharp winds because we can't do so many things May that's the hardest part when we first started it is you have so many people coming from different different angles different points of view and you can do this you can do that and you know it's a lot of them are very lucrative offers but their small window my opportunities and the hardest parts been pushing those to the side and going for things that have a much much longer tail which is risky but you know what are you gonna do nice think that's the best way to go about it rule number 19 creates something timeless you want to be known long-term as Kobe Bryant the storyteller and business person who happened to be a basketball player or the basketball player who had a successful career thereafter no it depends who you talk to talking to you oh I'm saying if you asked a question to a writer who's never seen a basketball game before I would love to be known as the kick-ass storyteller all right if you talk to an athlete that doesn't like reading a book for anything and I'd like to be known as a phenomenal basketball player right personally I would love to be both because I am both alright you can't shelf one for the other I mean the game has brought me to where I am today you know the investment platform the Bryant's I will platform the storytelling that we're doing is going to put me where I will be 20 years from now we really want to create something that is epic and the patient's making sure every detail is cared for making sure you're hitting the proper beats from a plot perspective all right you know the patient's the detail rule number 20 be a legend I have decided to skip college and take my talents to the NBA oh it means it's a team what about individually he's got one more check [Music] so you could take that to the bank [Music] [Music] no you promise me one thing so I made 50 that night no what you guys learned from about your team from this series and how's it going to help you improve moving on in this place holder in a part-time job you guys were awful you suck whatever you think you think you guys deserve all the beating that's took in the media a lot of times writers when they write stuff like that means they care they're Laker fans anyway we have to get better you have to get better at playing together you have to get better that's basically our get better at ball and Jesus Christ can't believe I'm saying to you at all that you just being there to deploy the best player on T table know for Lord another bunch of idiots remember when Kobe Bryant used to dunk and it wasn't a surprise every time he dunks it's a big deal season but here's some vintage kober and even I thought he's gonna pull up here but he rips through barns and goes to the [Applause] [Music] thirteen [Applause] don't the Nagas when the technical [Applause] because the technical because the bids of the Lakers [Applause] to the floor you take a look Chris Rock sitting right next to Kobe Bryant shooting the breeze funniest man in the world telling jokes and take a look at Kobe Bryant I don't even hear you [Music] [Applause] mom Wow rule number 21 have a champions mentality I played one of the things that had to learn is how to get the best out of my teammates yeah and most people think it's a simple thing you know passing the ball yeah but that's not how you make guys better you have to really affect their behavior how do you do that so yeah like I would tell guys we got two back to backs you know I don't care for in Miami I don't care if we're in a great city of Chicago you can't go out you got your rest right back to my game sacked back at ya Fri Monday Tuesday play Monday and play again Tuesday guys I don't listen right you don't you're right so few times here all right we'll all go out we'll go out together really I'll drink with you right but the next morning I'm banging on your door at 5:00 in the morning let's go they're not going where are we going I'll hung out with you now you come hang out with me this is what we do all right let's go you're at the gym we're working out right we hit the bus we go to practice we play that night and they're dead and they're dead they're like lesson learned lesson learned take them out once listen if you're gonna do that do that but don't let that compromise we're here to do right this is why we're here this is why you're here in the first place Yeah right and if we're gonna win a championship we have to have that championship mentality it's it work ethic that's it so you got to show them low Cole can do that and still has the energy to get up and do this so either I got to meet that same energy or I got to keep my but I'm gonna matter early yeah rule number 22 outwork your potential I think the best way to prove your value is to work is to learn is to absorb to be a sponge you always want to outwork your potential as hard as you believe you can work you can work harder than that and that's what I try to do when I first came and lead but you know basketball is such a direct competition sport that me coming in at 17 I needed when like my teammates would say you know I did hit with an elbow right Shaq with hit me with an elbow in practice and like you know it big man actor will come up and say are you okay what Mao are you okay hello how would you know it's so like I always had that extra chip on my shoulder so like every day I practice for me it was really trying to annihilate everybody that was that I was playing against cuz I wanted to prove you don't need to babysit me like I'm fine you know and and so as always that competitive nature the work ethic and curiosity because I asked a lot of questions you know playing with Barnes god I asked him a lot of questions Eddie Jones who was great at chasing cars off the screens and I didn't understand how to do that I would sit with him before practice after practice magic James Worthy her Rambis Kareem Abdul all the Laker grades I would always sit down and just asking questions about certain games that I've studied growing up what actually happened there what did you feel there and why you know bird tough to defend why cuz you look slow to me I'm up like I'm missing something so like tell me what I'm missing you know anything and so I would always ask questions and try to learn as much as I could rule number 23 learn from failures we talk about this often and we always talk about the fact that you can learn a lot more from the failures and you can from the successes and you have to figure out where those landmines are and then how to best avoid those or put or help entrepreneurs and ourselves included figure out the clues of where those landlines are not that you're going to avoid all of them right but it's also when you do step on one figuring out okay how do you recuperate how do you balance back and you know pick yourself up rule number 24 be a long-term thinker I had a summer I played basketball I was like 10 or 11 years old and a very prominent some really good Philadelphia called the Sun you'll be my father played my uncle played they were like all-time greats yeah some stuff and Wilt Chamberlain played in league or other Perlman role-playing lead and how come playing and I don't score one point the entire summer really not one how old were you 11 10 11 you're playing against other 10 11 year-old start and you didn't score once not one were you in the game I was in a game how'd you not score because I was terrible really yeah that had 11 years old you were that awful I mean I you know and I had these big knee pads on because I'm wrong we fast I have socks all we up here and I had like the pod top TV like skinny as hell and I squirt not a free-throw not a nothing not a lucky shot not a breakaway layup zero points is that when you think the mentality of hard work started to come in for you at that age when you failed so miserably I guess that's somewhere I think that's when the idea of understanding a long-term view became important because I wasn't going to catch these kids in a week I wasn't gonna catch him in a year right so that's when I sat down and said okay this is when it takes him father all right we'd all want to work on first all right shooting all right let's knock this out let's focus on this half a year six months do nothing but shoot right after that all right creating your own shot and you focused so you start I started creating a menu of things when I came back the next summer I was a little bit better right men you'd be like I've got my jump shot from 15 I've got yeah I got my job in 15 I got my three-point shot like just open shots not miss open shots right and be able to shoot it with speed because those kids are so much more athletic yeah and then the next time I came back as a little better the summer came back was a little bit I scored yeah it wasn't much but I scored this all 12 13 12 13 then 14 came around back half of 13 14 years old and then I was just killing everyone and it happened in two years and I wasn't expecting to happen in two years but it did because what I had to do was work on the basics and the fundamentals while they relied on an athletics ISM and their natural ability and because I stick to the fundamentals it just caught up to him and then my body you know my knees stopped hurting I grew into my frame and and then your athleticism once you have the fundamental exactly the hard work the mindset and you tack on the 11 and then it was game Wow so from 13 your good average still that was good that was good about about like the end of my like right when I was turning 14 I became best clear in the state at 14 or 14 so I'm from 12 to 14 you went from scoring 0 to being the best in the state of all ages yep rule number 25 find your passion I hope you talk about hard work all the time this night you know man if you got to get up every single morning remind yourself how hard you need to work your I need to choose a different profession you know because that shouldn't be there is that I wake up in the morning excited to get to it you know if I'm not training I'm missing it I'm not watching the game a bass I miss it you know there's no place I'd rather be and if you have that feeling then you're truly doing with God has put you on this earth to do rule number 26 challenge yourself to grow you were quoted in on CNBC as saying that you'd rather be remembered for your role in jump-starting tech companies then your skills on the court can you talk to them but what's that about it I think you have to challenge yourself to evolve and to grow and I think I couldn't think of a better message for your athletes in particular because it's it's very easy for us athletes to kind of lose ourselves in our identity by connecting who we are to what we do and I think that's a very dangerous zone to be in right so it's it's common sense to me to be able to say okay the next stage I'm going after with the same intensity same attention to detail the same curiosity so of course I'd want to be better at that than I was in my previous career there's a pretty high bar though you have you have enough energy left for that orange I guess we're gonna find out right I mean that that's the thing you know you go for it and you do all you can you learn as much as you can't you continue to try to continue to improve you continue to evolve the agency where you are right 20 years from now you can have to look at the mirror and say I gave it my best shot and we did the best we could and see where we end up rule number 27 keep going there's a quote from my English teachers at Lower Merion named mr. Fisk I had a great quote that said rest at the end not in the middle and that's something I always live by you know I'm not gonna rest I'm gonna keep on pushing now there are a lot of answers and I don't have even questions that I don't have but I'm just going to keep going it's going to keep going and I'll figure these things out as you go alright and you just continue to build that way so I try to live by that all the time rest at the end rest at the end rule number 28 protect your dreams dreams is a they should be pure I think a lot of times we're born into this world we actually wound up going backwards and it seems like the more we mature the more responsible our dreams become and the more governors we put on ourselves and our ability to dream and to reimagine and it's always a fight for his parents and for you guys to make sure that your dreams always stay pure and so it's not a matter of pushing beyond the limitations of expectations it's really a matter of protecting your dreams protecting your imagination that's really the key and when you do that then the world just seems limitless rule number 29 be driven on journey began in Philadelphia Pennsylvania the age of three years old my father putting a basketball my hands and me taking it from there basketball was in Kobe's blood his dad is Joe jellybean Brian he played eight years in the NBA before uprooting his family to take his career overseas as a grow older we moved to Italy while Joe was getting used to playing in Europe his son was also making an adjustment in Italy not many kids were perfecting a jump shot but Kobe Bryant was soccer was a big sport so he had goalposts underneath the baskets on concrete courts were kids used to play soccer all day and I would be one of them and then after soccer I'd stay there for another three four or five hours is playing basketball it was a different country with a different language even though he had his family he was essentially alone so Kobe looked inland and developed the relentless drive to work on his game [Applause] when his family moved back to Philadelphia that time spent alone on the court paid off as Kobe announced his arrival to the basketball world he was the top high school player in the country breaking Wilt Chamberlain scoring records becoming a celebrity at 16 Kobe's next step may have seen Dan Vicious but with his basketball pedigree and work ethic it was an easy decision [Music] yeah rule number 30 achieve greatness [Music] right now right yeah I remember season 1 do you say who is this kid it's 20th season all have no make various careers in basketball I will not allow them to be what do you want water any longer no one understand what it takes to be great the force that drives you to do what others don't the sacrifice is made all with one purpose in mind push yourself and become better the extra seconds minutes hours of work put into perfecting one's game lifting yourself above the rest to make sure your name will forever be synonymous with one word greatness what does it take to be great work at the combination drive takes ability it takes it desire moves on muscle again turns it I think it takes years of players relying on you to take the big shot make the great play you know do the things that bring success to the team that's that's what it's all about is getting out and measure yourself against others and I think that when you have an attitude like that that's what I think that's part of greatness the first time met Kobe Kobe was just out of high school he's out here poor work up and I've never seen anyone work out this hard this is Kovac I've never seen anybody that prepared he was 17 years old and was ready to play and be a basketball that's pretty amazing and I think Jerry West was the one who said this he said I want this kid because this kid had more talent than anybody I have plan for me right now and he had a great team just kidding would never take a night off even if it wasn't going well it was always going to be trying to slay the dragon if you don't have that type of work ethic you don't get to enjoy the benefits [Applause] rule number 31 get better every single day my philosophy was a very simple one I am and this is where I think film plays a big part of my life I Rudy was one of my favorite films growing up after watching that film I come to understand if I could work that hard every day with being blessed with the physical tools that I have with my career being and I made a promise to myself from that day that I was going to work that hard every single day so that when I do retire I have no regrets and that was the most important thing for me is to leave no stone unturned get better every single day and if I live that way then over time you know I'd have something that was beautiful but that was my philosophy it seems like a pretty simple one but you know if you live your life to just get better every single day and do that for 20 years I mean what do you have rule number 32 prove them wrong where'd you get your killer interesting from well yeah I think a lot of it had to do with isolation growing up over there and being the only african-american kid not being able to speak the language I gravitated towards the game and in that game you find a lot of you find solace every day and then when you play with kids that it might not accept you because you're an outsider but you know when we come to play the game that's my chance to forgive vengeance on the for not accept Amanda and that's where it kind of started developing and then throughout the course of my life it's always been that it's always been the outsider and I'm gonna come in and prove you know or to seek some sort of vengeance when apart rule number 33 work on your weaknesses you were so dominant your whole career one of the greatest of all time was there a weakness that you had the challenge for me was always compassion and empathy because you're like guys let's go get results shut up don't complain right I want to hear your whining I don't know excuses don't tell me how rough the water is just bring the boat in you know I don't I don't want here you know and it's funny it's understanding like okay these guys have lives rights out of here they have other things have other things happening to them that may be affecting the way that they're practicing or the way that they're performing and it was hard for me to understand that because nothing nothing bothered me you know anything personally you know never fazed me when I'm compartmentalised it very well but so I couldn't understand how my teammates couldn't do that either until I you know I had to really work on that aspect of it that's hard rule number 34 execute what you practiced in 2006 against the Toronto Raptors you scored 81 points which is second only to Wilt Chamberlain's hundred points you know I always dreamed as a kid that you know it was possible to score at 80 or 90 100 oh it's just like you know had a dream you know like sometimes we lay down in bed and you visualize things you just kind of you know just that's how that's at least how I would go to sleep I lay down and I'd imagine playing for the Lakers and I'll imagine with the uniforms look like I'd imagine we would be playing and you know the smell of the arena and all sort of stuff and I would see myself you know getting hot you know score ten straight points and then but in the dream like why would you ever interrupt that like you're not going to have a dream and be like okay Nene misses his next six but it's not going to happen so you just keep dreaming a dream in a dream and then before I go to sleep I'm like at a hundred and twenty points No so who's out when you grow up loading that into your brain over and over and over and then you know that summer I made a thousand shot today a thousand right that's on top of weight training and my conditioning I made a thousand shots and it weren't just shots it was shots that you saw in that game there were specific shots I mean it's coming out of the corner going to the pinch post footwork in the post coming off the screen it was very specific so when you download that into your system and you go out in the court and you're just executing things that you've done thousands of times before and you have that dream then that becomes possible yeah everything's been not choreographed but it's been practiced so many times that is second nature there's why we invented like I don't understand that you go out and play the game and you're just trying to create something news no no this is what I do this is what I do extremely well you don't have to stop me from doing that and if you do stop me from doing that I have a counter to that done rule number 35 learn from greatness another thing you told me as a 18 year old I'm gonna be better than Mike so I knew it definitely drove you and you know it's always gonna be there those comparisons when somebody's come before you and you do it so I'm Alan love you pattern began about him and I don't know if you watched in high school but it was a lot of similarity but I know I know that day you passed up Michael Jordan I know you probably ride in your car like you know what man I thought I would be just like what happened is when I came in the league and I wanted to take more right ready now all I heard was nobody called the Black Panther to call black Jesus awesome stuff I said I want to see this is about and but what happened does everyone know he wanted to becoming a big brother too gah get up quick if you knew why'd you go over to faith Mike after you faithful ball we all salute off your feet everywhere else you go homie game I go for you explore these real great he saw something me that reminded him a lot of himself and he was coming up and took me under his wing a lot they showed me a lot of things taught me a lot of things I leadership things [Music] [Applause] so when I pass him up member talking to Matthew with him saying you know this is kind of good since he's still here information and the stuff that he's passed on to me I'm breathing that spirit back into the game all over yet which is a lot of reason why I try to be bad out the next generation because you did that for me Bill Russell two different jerry west you guys but michael in particular rule number 36 learned from wins and losses what is losing feel like to you it's exciting why is it exciting because it means you have different ways to get better there are certain things that you can figure out that you can take advantage of right certain weaknesses that were exposed that you need to shore up right so it was exciting I mean it's sucks to lose and ran but at the same time their answers there if you just look at them because you get the information from losing more than from winning probably yeah yeah I mean the answers are there when you win to you you just have to look at them yeah right so it's a constant process it's exciting when you wait it's exciting when you lose because the process should be exactly the same whether you win or you lose is you go back and you look and you find things that you could have done better you find things that you've done well that worked figure out how did they work why did they work how can you make them work again yeah and but the hardest thing is to face that stuff that's a really tough challenge you may face a mean look yourself in the mirror and say okay this is how I showed up or this is what happened and I give an example so katie lou sanderson is one of the best college basketball players in the country she plays at uconn she's gonna be a senior right now right now yeah and she's from Huntington Beach out here by us and so she comes down and she works with some my girls on the team and she helps coach and yeah and they just had a really tough season last year but he lost a Notre Dame in a final that's right really to first loss on her slopes years right and so I asked I say have you watched a Notre Dame game it's just a hole so well why not I know you don't but you're gonna play Notre Dame this year yeah yeah it was the chances you see him again and probably Mia said well you can't show up and play them without knowing why you lost that one right so you know the mistakes that you've made in that game you have to do the hard stuff and watch that game and study that game to not make those mistakes over and over again just because you weren't brave enough to face it so she came down to the office I brought down the officer we sat down we watched that game together all right did you got a got a deal with it got a deal with it face it learn from it Wow there must have been cringing for her and she's like oh you playing like we could have won all the things that's exactly it is I just did that one thing is that if I didn't get that foul for a squad a layup it's exactly right you're looking I said oh there's the mismatch oh there's the gap uh you know and all those little things and it sucks but but you don't want to have that feeling again do you right so you got to really study it face it and not to say you'll win the next time you fade but your least you give yourself a better better chance yeah rule number 37 practice mindfulness you have a mindfulness or meditative practice that you use while you play yeah well Phil introduced meditation to us when he came to our team in 99 mm and it was something that I instantly gravitated to because I could see the effects and you I used to watch you know studying the games the Bulls teams and you know watching their demeanor watching their composure and playing in a tough place like Utah doing the finals and being down 17 but everybody was like this you couldn't tell if they were down 17 or up 20 or tie game and never changed and I was wondering why the hell that is and that's why I started doing more research and when till came I immediately gravitated to it then found myself accepted the challenge of finding what that space is and for the 81 point game and to be honest I was wasn't even thinking about the game my knee was hurting so much I didn't know then but you know how to flap a joint cartilage stuck in my joint mine and so my mom was really trying to go to a place where I don't feel that pain and game started and because of that I was just in a different space I wasn't worried about what was the calm I was worried about which is happening I was just here and when you're just there in the moment playing plays right in front of you your focus is heightened because nothing else matters and that's the space I've tried to get to rule number 38 be ambitious you remember what you told me one day before when I first met you you said you were going to be the finish it for me like the greatest player of all time yes you can be torn up now that sounds that sounds something no it sounds like something I would say no she said that and then you actually said it will be the will sniff of the in beer yeah now you know I've always had ambition rule number 39 believe in your team what are you most proud of from your 20 seasons honestly whose sounds may sound a little shallow but I got to say beating the Celtics in Game seven that's what I'm most proud of because we want it was the hardest you know you're playing with rajon rondo Paul Pierce mm-hmm Kevin Garnett hmm I'll stop Ray Allen and you know there's myself pow and players that other teams didn't won and you know how do we figure out as a group what to do and the reason why I loved that series so much is that we went down three games to two against Boston and now you got two games coming home I remember sitting in the locker room and they beat the crap out it was to that game so we're sitting in a locker room and it's really really quiet I'm sitting there looking around and we just lost the Celtics in know eight so this is like revenge right now kicking our butt again right so I sit around I just started laughing I started laughing and I remember Derek Fisher looked at me like and Lamar I looked at me goes but what is funny said do they beat the crap just beat the crap up and say I'm missing the part where that's funny I said man listen if we start this season and they say you know all you have to do is win two games at home and your NBA champ would you take that yeah right that's all we got to do yeah go home b2 into four NBA champions oh yeah Jews would to get two games a row that's it we'll take care of the first game and I promise you they're not winning Game seven on our home floor it's not happening so we all just laughed about it and then we went out and we figured it out but that Game seven was we're down 15 points in the fourth quarter right and that's when you have to collectively look at each other and say you know the spirit of your team must be good because at that moment is when teams fracture if the energy amongst each other isn't there that trust isn't there you're done mmm and we were able to collectively dig deep together and say all right we're gonna figure this thing out Wow and I wasn't playing well I always shooting the ball well at all and so my teammates picked you up and they delivered yes yeah rule number 40 learned storytelling storytelling for me is the number one thing it's write its outline is creating narratives that inspire the next generation of athletes what are those things and you know not from merely a documentary perspective but from a fantasy perspective from the mythology perspective right what are those stories that we can use to teach the next generation of athletes not just about the sport but teach them about life through sport how do we make those connections and so that's why I obsess over every single day rule number 41 elevate others here's where practice was important to me not only just the standpoint that I enjoy playing like I enjoyed being there I enjoy getting better but as a leader of a team it's also your responsibility to elevate the rest of the guys and what people will tend to get stuck on a lot as saying okay the way to make players better it's the past of the ball when they're open that's a very trivial way to look at things but you have to do is you have to get them emotionally to want to be better you want you have to get them to an emotional space where they wake up every morning driven to be the best version of themselves right how do you do that and in practice for me it was a chance to drive them to challenge them right if they're and this is where you have to know your teammates because if it's late just had two back-to-back and we had practice the next day you show up guys don't feel like going through the motions don't feel like practicing it's important to know each and every one of them individually personally because then you know what nerve to touch some guys it's like okay come on let's know we can do this that'll get them going are the guys you know you got to figure out what button to push you know Powell was always Spain if I tell them how they lost in a gold medal to us and how they're gonna lose again I'm gonna beat your ass in practice just like I beat you in a gold medal game all that all you Tate that you hate that but that's what practice what you have to drive them you absolutely have to and if practice is more intense and harder than a game seven will be in a game seven will be easy but if it's not then that's when teams start folding and capitulating rule number 42 wanted the most one thing what I love the budget eighty notice as he wanted it a lot of guys on our team didn't want it but you wanted it had a 18 on it and that's why the Utah game everybody talks about this airballs I wasn't mad at you that's why I was the first one to come grab me and say hey I know everybody's laughing and giggling that but one day people will fear you at the end of the game so I knew that about just 1830 older you know was it was fun rule number 43 expect excellence have you noticed a moment where you're like I can't maybe I can't be as intense as I was during sports I can't demand people to be here till midnight or practice without a ball for three hours or no listen my thing is really simple here is that you know I expect excellent work we all do so I don't care if you're here in the office at 6 a.m. and you leave at midnight if the work that you do is average this is not the home for you conversely you cannot be in office at all and have excellent work this is the place for you so I don't really care if you're here there's a lot of guys that get in the gym and work hard work hard work hard work hard but then they can't transition that to 7:30 Yeah right rule number 44 be a champion what it was like for you with all of the grit and all of the makeup that you had to be such a great competitor what was it like for you to play with people that that weren't as gritty as you were how did you deal with that how did you set your expectations knowing that that you were so far out there and and how did you deal with the players that you played with you know when knowing that they they were still kind of somewhere on the spectrum but but you're on the top of it good question it's a great question um my response might sound a little tough but I just I kill him I bury him you know this is you know tolerance for that and the kind of culture that the Laker organization stood for when in Championships is not tolerated you're gonna show up to play and you're gonna allow the gags through the scrimmage through this drill I'm going to beat you I'm going to let you know I beat you I'm gonna want you to reconsider your professional life choice for the most part people will say okay that doesn't make a great teammate well I'm not gonna be a great teammate I'm here to help you win championships so here's a difference and you know fortunately for us for me you know we had an organization that it was Championships or nothing and they were really good about identifying that and bringing players in here that had that competitive streak and getting rid of the ones that denied if I got a fight to get you in the gym that's a problem that's a problem you want players that are gym rats players at wannabe in the gym that want to work and then from there you build on top of that but if you're lazy man I don't want to talk to you I want to deal with you you don't make me feel Dumber you know you know you're gonna lower my level I don't think so you can go over there there's plenty of teams in here where you'll fit right in that's not ha ha you mentioned at the time they were right down the hall from us that's no easy hunt they were rule number 45 focus on winning 96 through 99 was a frustrating point I don't know about well maybe a little bit for you but for me being one of the best babes in the league and having that title of not winning one I remember one day reading it reading and the paper Oh Shaq so average in 20 or 30 of doing this and the great Kareem abdul-jabbar said well he didn't win then yet parent so is he great and I just kind of I just kind of yeah no I I want to know I understood where's your necessity to have to win one there was a lot of pressure and I think there's a lot of frustration because you kept seeing this kid and everybody kept saying could be patient with this kid be patient with this kid and you're saying listen I don't have patience I have to win now and this kid needs a develop now I think I could remember the first time we had our first fight and you look this el kid is crazy at this yeah it was we're playing a pickup games or a lockout season Southwest college playing a pickup game we're on opposite teams run and trash talking yes and you kept saying yeah it take to hello take that oh I'm looking around oh yes right and I say Oh hold on I ain't gonna be too many more than would you say what what you gonna do about it what you gonna do about it and then that's the next thing I knew I saw a big hand coming this way and I remember going this way I remember throwing some lollipop olden Polynice came and then they all just kind of broke his part broke this up I'm looking at this and I'm saying but he wants this thing is it's it affects him I mean he's it consumes him and then from that moment on I knew we spoke the same language don't matter if we had disagreements and saying the other our drive to win like we have to win there's there's no other option we're gonna figure this out we won't get this done and you did it Electro's have to Brian rule number 46 love what you do don't you explain that mindset of just trying to continuously improve I enjoy what I do you know this is fun for me you know III truly love what I do and that's where the passion comes from that's where the will to get better comes from it's just because I truly enjoy I enjoy the preparation the high school coach Greg Donner it says that you might actually be a little embarrassed by how much you love basketball yeah is that true probably yeah I mean well it's like well I mean it's like anything you know I I just so happened to be playing basketball like if I was a computer kid you know in high school people would have probably been in front of me you know what I mean it just so happened to be basketball what I'm passionate about my passion knows no bounds but it embarrasses you well I mean just a little little weird a little strange I mean when you're around like in the Olympics I'm around all the athletes who kind of share that same shame my same mindset it's it's fun to be around though because you can have conversations about those things three-member 47 don't jump the ship I know it's good to say to you want to win the championship everywhere but it probably wasn't really a realistic one so how do you would adjust or how do you adjust as a team leader and then how what conversations does ownership have with the coaches well rebuild the teenie geenie so sweet she saw me worked so hard for so many years and the last few years her and Rob who was at the time my agent called me and said listen we are so sorry for what happened to this team we're sorry that we don't have seriously it's like we don't we're sorry we don't have a team around you that can contend for a championship I mean it village it's so we could make a few calls and get you on a contending team that's all because we just feel horrible about seeing you going out there in Chicago remember this and I said they're not listed I said you know we don't each other for a very long time up now I'm questioning myself because I'm wondering what about me unless you think I would jump ship we don't do that like the Lakers I've been a Laker fan since five years old man I know the Laker history all way from Minneapolis always worthless today and so it's in my blood and this family her father believing in me and standing by me and also stuff like I'm number I don't go anywhere like this is home to me you know we work through this stuff together and like as a leader I'll be able to take the good with the bad man you can't just because of ship sinking all of a sudden I might jump off a swim to another like that you don't do that right you can win championships in front of everybody then you could miss the playoffs in front of everybody you gotta be able to take both sides rule number 48 learn from the best remember the first practice we had Travis Knight on the team and I mean you proceeded to just annihilate this kid and you know just from everything from talking trash to him to you know he was afraid to get on the bus and one thing that I noticed about you from the jump was that you didn't respect people that you could bully and respect them and you test them and you'd see would they let you get away with and you'd see if they would fold to that and that was the first thing I observed about you and that competitive fire that you had and then it all started making sense that's how I see him play with that rage when it comes out that's how I see guys when he played they back away from it afraid afraid of that a confrontation that's physicality and and then I remember you taking me down to Jerry's deli back in the day we had the big big flip phones you know I mean I don't know you have one point I said man get one of those man pretty damn cool yeah you know the big joint and just hanging out with you men and uh you show me the ropes from day one number 49 pork yosity first what are the characteristics that you're looking forward to bring in to your team is it much like you want a teammate for the Lakers those type of cores or what are you what are you looking for supportin thing is curiosity first I want curious people people that ask questions that want to figure things out figure out new ways to do things you know that's the most important thing and then from that curiosity having a determination to see that curiosity through all right to figure out those steps and if you figure out okay this is a particular course of action that we feel like we should be taking has it been done before no but that's exciting to me let's figure it out those are the characteristics that I look for first and foremost and rule number 50 the last one before a very special bonus clip is inspire people next to you the final question is what's your definition of greatness I think the definition of greatness is to inspire the people next to you yeah I think that's what greatness is or should be it's not something that's that that lives and dies with one person it's how can you inspire a person to then in turn inspire another person that then inspires another person and that's how you create something that I think lasts forever and I think that's our challenge as people is to is to figure out how our story can impact others and motivate them in a way to create their own greatness now I've got a special bonus tip on how to have the Mamba mentality with Kobe Bryant that I think you're really gonna enjoy but before that it's time for the three-point landing questions time to move from just watching a video to taking action in your life for business here we go question number one who are three people who are the best at what they do that you need to learn from number two who can you elevate in your life today and number three where do you need to challenge yourself to grow I've broken a book up into two sections and process is really about the process of preparing you know through injury recovery studying of the game and then the craft is the actual performance and the tactics and so a lot of things that I learned through the game were through photos you can look at a photo and see like a player making a movie look at the angle of his feet look how I was using his hands on defense and I can really break down things to the smallest detail through that and that's what you'll see in this book I mean it's really a basketball Bible yeah mama meant it but it's also your mindset Bible right yeah yeah I might would you see how I break things down like how I'm looking at things to the smallest of detail yeah and that's the best way to understand how to have that kind of mentality is to ask questions then find answers and then lead to more questions and you find more answers and that's what a book is if you want to have an incredible work ethic like Kobe Bryant check the video right there next to me I think you'll enjoy it and you need to believe and I'll see you there just kidding you'll never take a night off even if it wasn't calling well it was always going to be trying to slay the dragon

Channel: Evan Carmichael

Views: 123,263

Rating: 4.9173899 out of 5

Keywords: entrepreneur, kobe bryant, kobe bryant top 10 rules for success, kobe bryant advice, kobe bryant motivation, motivation for success, success advice, famous basketball player, best nba player of all time, goat, kobe bryant interview, kobe bryant speech, how to make it in business, entrepreneur advice, do not be outworked, outwork your potential - kobe bryant, mamba mentality, follow your passion first

Id: HoHSiL0P-rw

Length: 68min 41sec (4121 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2019