On Sunday, the 26th of January 2020, Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles. Together with his 13-year-old daughter, he closed his eyes forever. His sudden death shocked basketball lovers all over the world as the NBA legend was only 41 years old.
Bryant is among the most successful basketball players of all time. He won 5 NBA championships, 2 Olympic Gold Medals, and amassed a net worth of more than $200 million during his career in basketball.
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I am not the biggest basketball fan, yet, I knew Bryant and was aware of his successes. When I heard about the helicopter crash, I instantly started googling about Bryant and learning about his life. While doing so, I came across a few stories that I had previously read about and, of course, a few that I didn’t know yet.
After spending hours reading about his achievements and how he made it to the top of his field, I’ve decided to compile my learnings and share it, so that even more people can learn from these great lessons of Kobe Bryant.
1. Don’t just work hard, work hard with an intention
Just like any other successful sportsperson, Kobe Bryant was among the few people who trained much more than his teammates. If he had done what the whole team did, he would probably not been able to get his incredible results.
When Bryant was selected as a member of Team USA in 2012, a man named Robert was taking care of the athletic training of the team. On Reddit, Robert shared his first experience with Kobe and allowed the world to understand why this man was so much more successful than others.
Robert described how one night his phone rang at 4:15 AM. It was Kobe Bryant asking him to help out with some conditioning work. Robert was shocked, but he packed his stuff and left the hotel. When he arrived at the practice floor at 5:00 AM, Kobe was already soaked with sweat. They did some conditioning work, then, Kobe did weight training for 45 minutes, and Robert left to go back to his room. When Robert came back at 11:00 AM, Kobe was still practicing.
I went over to him, patted him on the back and said, “Good work this morning.”
“Huh?”
“Like, the conditioning. Good work.”
“Oh. Yeah, thanks, Rob. I really appreciate it.”
“So when did you finish?”
“Finish what?”
“Getting your shots up. What time did you leave the facility?”
“Oh, just now. I wanted 800 makes. So yeah, just now.”
In short: Kobe Bryant started his conditioning training at 4:30 AM, ran and sprinted until 6:00 AM, followed by a one-hour weight-training and 800 jump shots between 7:00 AM and 11:00 AM. Once he finished his exercise, the official training of Team USA started.
I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you. — Kobe Bryant
In this article, James Clear describes how Kobe Bryant didn’t only work a lot of hours, but he had an apparent goal in mind. He was after 800 jump shots, and his sole intention was developing the skill of making baskets.
While most people connect working hard to the number of hours they work, it’s actually the purpose and a clear intention that make the difference between the average and the super-successful people.
Putting in a lot of time might make you tired, but simply working a lot (even if it’s 10,000 hours over the course of your career) isn’t enough to make you a top performer. It’s not the same thing as practicing deliberately. Most people who think they are working hard are merely developing the skill of being in the gym, not the skill of making baskets.
2. Practice daily meditation
Bryant admits that at first, he hated meditating. It took him some while to get used to it, yet, later in his career, he shared how it became his most powerful tool.
In an interview with Oprah, Bryant shared that he used to meditate in the mornings for 10 to 15 minutes. He claimed that meditation set him up for the rest of his days and that it was his anchor to stay mentally strong.
“If I don’t do it, I feel as if I am constantly chasing the day. As opposed to being in controll and dictating the day.”
Through meditating, Bryant set himself up for whatever might come his way throughout the day.
3. Learn from people who are better than you
While Bryant was a highly confident person, and always shared how he believed in his abilities, he never shrank back from asking for help.
In an interview, he shared how he always kept asking people for advice.
“I call people all the time. If I want to learn something, I pick up the phone and ask.”
Once, he even called the assistant coach of an opposing team, the Bulls, to get advice for a game. Kobe was a student for life and never recoiled from asking for help to further improve himself.
4. Play to win
“There’s a difference between who you are, and what you are and when I step on the court, I am that killer snake - I’m stone cold.”
Who you are among your loved ones, your family, your friends, is not necessarily who you are on a professional level.
Those who are on the top of the world, no matter if entrepreneurs, sportspeople, musicians, or whatsoever, all had to make sacrifices to get to their level of success.
Every day, millions of people are dreaming of becoming the best in something, yet, only those who accept the sacrifices and commit themselves to 100 percent can win.
If you are serious about becoming the best, you need to play to win. You can’t get to the top by worrying your brain about what other people think about you.
“There are people that say ‘I don’t like Kobe, he’s arrogant.’ When I play, yeah I am arrogant. But that’s just what I do — that’s not who I am. There’s a distinct difference between the two.”
5. Have patience and keep going
I am consuming lots of content from successful people. I read lots of books, listen to podcasts, and get mentored by people whom I admire. And if I had to summarize all the lessons I gathered from hundreds of hours of learning how to succeed, it would probably be the following:
Work hard & have patience.
No one ever achieved great things by accident. The greatest, most successful people of our time are those who worked their asses off for an extended period.
Everyone wants prosperity and accomplishments, yet, those who want it the most, keep going for years.
“I have strategic patience. The time is going to come because I’m going to keep banging on the door.”
If you keep going and doing the right things, if you keep working your ass off, giving your best and learning from the best, you will undoubtedly succeed.
No matter if it’s basketball, singing, writing, freelancing, or whatsoever — perseverance is the holy grail to achievement.
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