Listen To This and Change Yourself | Kobe Bryant (Eye Opening Speech)
I think a 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 inspires
another person and that’s how you create
something 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 there’s a
quote from one of my English teachers at
Lower Merion named mr. Fisk and 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 a lot of
answers and I don’t have even questions
and I don’t have but I’m just going to
keep going it’s gonna keep going and
I’ll figure these things out as you go
right and you just continue to build
that way so I try to live by that all
the time and what brings you the most
joy right now being with my family
really that is man that is the most fun
it’s just you know it’s hanging out with
the mall summer being able to might do
things that our nearly couldn’t do yeah
cuz the training because it sure and
stuff like that so being around them and
watching Bianca grow up because a lot of
things that I missed with Nathalie and
Gianna because I was playing so being
there every day with them there’s so
much fun man so it brings me the most
joy
what does love feel like hmm
happiness is such a
think I would describe love as happiness
I think I’d describe it as a beautiful
journey mmm
you know it has its ups and downs right
whether it’s a marriage whether it’s in
the career you know things are never
perfect but through love you continue to
persevere and you move from you move
from and then through that storm
beautiful Sun emerges yeah and
inevitably another storm comes and guess
what you ride that one out too
so I think love is a certain
determination and persistence to go
through the good times and the bad times
with the someone or something that you
truly love my parents we’re great you
know growing up they instilled in me the
importance of imagination of curiosity
understanding that okay if you want to
accomplish something I’m not just gonna
sit here and say yes you can do whatever
you want
yes you can but you have to also put in
the work to get there right so they
taught me at a really early age man and
when you grow up as a kid thinking that
the world is your oyster all things are
possible if you put in the work to do it
if you grow up having a fundamental
belief my mom was there on a daily basis
my father was really influential at a
really critical time where I had a
summer where I play basketball when I
was like 10 or 11 years old and a very
prominent some really good Philadelphia
called the Sunny Hill baby
my father played my uncle played every
like all-time greats yeah stuff and Wilt
Chamberlain played in league you know or
other Perlman role playing leave and
yeah come playing and I don’t score one
point the entire summer really not one
how old were you 11 10 11 and you’re
playing against other 10 11 year-old
sort 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 happened every years
old you were that’s awful I mean I you
know and I had these big knee pads on
relatively fast I have socks all the way
up here and I had like the pod top
Phoebe yeah like skinny as hell and I
scored not a free-throw not a nothing
not a lucky shot not a breakaway layup –
zero points and I remember crying about
it and being upset about it my father’s
gave me a hug and said listen whether
you score zero score 60 I’m gonna love
you no matter what
Wow that is the most important thing
that you can say to a child because from
there I was like okay that gives me all
the confidence in the world to fail I
have the security there but to hell with
that I’m scoring 60 let’s go right by it
from there I just went to work I just
stayed with it I kept practicing kept
practicing confront you know when you’re
in this culture in our society you can
do some phenomenal things individually
but they’ll never reach their full
potential
unless you do them collectively you have
to figure out how to do that the
challenge for me was always compassion
and empathy I think about oh nine things
started changing from glass I started
really making a conscious effort to
better understand and that doesn’t mean
I mean you have compassion and empathy
so you go soft one it’s more like you
put you put yourself to the side and you
put yourself in their shoes and
understand what they’re feeling and then
you have to make certain decisions I’ve
okay what buttons do I need to push with
this barrier to get them to the next
level so it’s never it’s not sit around
and all it’s all happy-go-lucky type of
thing your leader your job is to get the
best out of them even if they may not
like it at that time one of the things I
had to learn is how to get the best out
of my teammates yeah and most people
think it’s a simple thing passing the
ball yeah 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 you got to back the
backs I don’t care for in Miami
great city of Chicago you can’t go out
you got your breasts right back to my
game sack back yes right Monday Tuesday
play Monday and put in Tuesday guys are
gonna listen right you know you’re right
so few times here all right we’ll all go
out go out together really I’ll drink
with you
right but the next morning I’m bigger
than you’re doing at 5:00 in the morning
let’s go they’re not going where 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
here 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
Rises why we’re here this is why you’re
here in the first place well 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 all
right certain weaknesses that were
exposed that you need to shore up right
so it was exciting I mean it’s sucks to
lose right but at the same time there
are answers there if you just look at
them I give an example so Katy loose and
Wilson is one of the best college
basketball players in the country she
plays at UConn she’s gonna be a senior
and they just had a really tough season
last year really lost a Notre Dame in
the final and so I asked I say have you
watched Notre Dame game no well why not
I know you don’t but you’re gonna play
Notre Dame this year yeah yeah what’s
the chances you see them again in the
final probably soon yeah
yeah 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 office and we sat down
we watched that game together right did
you got
got a deal way –then got to deal with
it
face it learn from him when you play for
20 years I play for 20 years you reach a
certain level and like okay wait a
minute I have to start again at the base
of a mountain and try to climb the top
of this mountain first of all what
mountain in my climbing I don’t even
know like what the hell am I gonna be
doing it’s very it’s very scary mm-hmm
this very even for you
oh absolutely absolutely and the thing
that helped me actually was hurting my
Achilles because that forced me to sit
there and say okay the day could be
today that your career is over now what
do you do you have these ideas about
doing something with your life after
basketball but what if today is the day
that you that’s it now what you do so I
had all this time sitting there my
Achilles injury and contemplating and
thinking and I said I better get to work
wow that was that the mentality book is
really about process and craft 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 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 he’s 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 you see how I break
things down like how I’m looking at
thanks 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 where the book is so
how can we teach our children what it
means to work hard well you do it
through training right so when I get up
in the morning my daughter goes with me
for yeah for him my 15 year old goes
with me she goes with him group for
school and it becomes a daddy-daughter
thing that’s cool she just got a permit
right so she drives in the morning it
becomes a cool thing right but through
that process she understands the value
of hard work
and things taking time and the same
thing with my 12 year old like she
practices every day and so it’s through
those behaviors is where I find the
motivation to move
you
