Exploring the One KBTG Culture Ep. 5: Number One
Strive for the best and better at all times
Acquire new knowledge and capabilities
Work with passion, maximize your strengths
Create extraordinary experiences and deliver beyond the market
If our goal is to become number one, it only makes sense to create a culture where everyone strives to be the best. How do I achieve better results? How can I maximize my potential? These are the thoughts that occupy the minds of KBTG people every day. Underlying everything we do is such a relentless pursuit of greatness.
But to reach the very top is not an easy task. And the biggest obstacle to surpassing our limits is not external surroundings, but our own mind. Whether it’s coming up with new innovations, setting clear goals or working in a team, if one succumbs to mental barriers, then the results would only be half-satisfactory at best. A strong mind is crucial to realizing each of One KBTG’s core values. I once read a famous Buddhist quote that said “the mind is like a skilled painter”. It can freely depict anything. Life itself is a great painting created by our minds. In other words, victory or defeat is determined by our own resolve. Therefore, the key to becoming number one is developing an unshakable mentality that can overcome any doubt or lack of self-confidence. In this episode, let’s learn how we can breakthrough our own illusions and unleash our full potential from someone who has truly mastered the mind.
Michael Jordan
Whenever I think of “number one”, immediately I think of Michael Jordan. With six NBA championships, five NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards and numerous other achievements under his belt, he is widely considered to be the greatest basketball player of all time. Since my childhood, I have always looked up to him as the embodiment of winning. And I would often find videos of Jordan sharing his mindset and philosophy as a source of motivation.
Some people argue that Jordan succeeded because of his skills, talent, and genetics. However, the real secret to his accomplishments is not physical. It’s psychological. What sets him far apart from his competitors is his mindset. Jordan is a prime example of a growth mindset, the belief that our abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Our brains, talent and genetics are the starting point. But it is our earnest effort that determines the finish line.
The Power of the Mind
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I watched “The Last Dance”, a 10-part documentary series that chronicles the rise of NBA superstar Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls. Up until then, I only knew Michael Jordan from basketball highlight videos on YouTube. “The Last Dance” provided an in-depth look at Michael Jordan’s career and more specifically gave me a glimpse into how his mind works. For the first time in my life, I can really see what made him such an incredible competitor.
Obsession with Winning
Born in Brooklyn but raised in Wilmington, North Carolina, since his childhood Michael Jordan was driven by an extreme hatred of losing and a desire to show people that they were wrong when told he couldn’t achieve something. One of the primary forces that drove Jordan’s competitive fire was his older brother Larry, who initially was a better basketball player than him. His will to win developed through his daily competition against his brother in any activity one could think of. Larry was also the favorite child of their father, James, which made Michael want to be as good — if not better than his brother, so he could garner the same amount of attention and approval from his dad. In one of the interviews, James Jordan shared that if you want Michael to do something, tell him he couldn’t do it, or tell him his brothers could do a better job. And surely, that would ignite Michael’s determination to pour every ounce of his energy to surpass his siblings. Through countless confrontations with his brothers, Jordan developed a mentality that became his defining characteristic as a person: to win at all costs.
To Michael, life is one big competition. Many legendary NBA basketball players would agree that the one thing you didn’t want to do when playing against Michael Jordan was to trash talk. If anyone gave him even the tiniest suggestion that he wasn’t good enough, he would get extremely fired up and completely crush his opponent for the rest of the game. He would take even the smallest of umbrage personally, and use them as fuel to rise above competition.
“It Became Personal With Me”
An example of this is the Eastern Conference semi-finals of the 1998 NBA playoffs. In that series, the Chicago Bulls were up against the Charlotte Hornets. Having previously won two consecutive championships, the Bulls unsurprisingly defeated the Hornets in the first game. However, former Bulls star B. J. Armstrong who played alongside Jordan for several years is confident of victory with his inside knowledge of how the Bulls played.
To his credit, Armstrong pulled it off. Towards the end of the second game, Armstrong took over and nailed a jumper that gave the Hornets an insurmountable lead and tied the series 1–1. Amidst the celebration, overwhelmed with emotion, Armstrong couldn’t resist rubbing salt in the wounds, high-fiving his teammates, screaming at the Bulls bench and letting them know about it.
Jordan was not impressed. Armstrong’s trash talk woke Michael Jordan up, lighting the fuse for an upcoming ruthless barrage. Rare Air author Mark Vancil said, “these little sleights were deep indignations to Jordan. That’s all he needs. I mean, that’s like throwing meat to a tiger”. From that point on, Jordan relentlessly attacked and dominated Armstrong, finishing the series notching up 27, 31, and 33 points in the final three games.
Get Inside Your Own Head
This is just one of Jordan’s paybacks. But the most interesting story of all happened in 1993, when a young Washington Bullets player, LaBradford Smith scored 37 points against Jordan’s Bulls. He delivered a masterful display of skill and talent, while Jordan for some reason struggled to score that night.
After the game, the story goes that Smith put his arm around Jordan’s shoulder and said “Nice game, Mike”, leaving Jordan fuming. The two teams faced off again the next day in Washington and according to B. J. Armstrong, Jordan claimed he would score more points in the first half than Smith achieved during the previous game. “I’ve never seen a man go after another player the way he did,” Armstrong said. Jordan’s promise almost came true when he scored 36 points in the first half, while Smith scored just 15 points throughout the whole game.
The funny thing is, the entire story was made up. Smith never uttered those three words to Jordan. He fabricated the story in his own mind simply because he needed more motivation to get Smith back for embarrassing him. That’s how determined Jordan was. He would go so far as to construct reasons and make up stories in his head to play harder. In his mind, he would find a game within the game to keep him interested. He would do anything to get himself to the mental space where he’s going to beat you. He’s always finding something, digging deeper inside to find a switch to get him fired up.
Tim S. Grover, Michael Jordan’s personal trainer said in his book Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable that through working with numerous professional athletes, he discovered that many players mature physically but not mentally. Jordan’s game not only became sharper physically but more refined and polished from a mental standpoint. He knew when to use energy, when to conserve it and how to intimidate opponents without having to say a word. Jordan is known as one of the biggest trash talkers out there. However, he didn’t trash talk to get into his opponents’ heads. He did it to get inside his own head because now that he said what he said, he had to go out and back it up. If he told a player “I’m going to drop 50 points on you”, that’s not to put pressure on his opponent but to put pressure on himself. Now that I said this, I have to deliver. His expectations of himself were always greater than anyone else put on him.
Be Present
Another crucial aspect of Jordan’s mentality is his ability to be present. A big downfall of many professional players is thinking about failure in the middle of a decisive game. From my personal experience as a basketball player, I can attest that basketball is such a quick-paced sport where literally every second matters and even the smallest fragment of time can make a fundamental difference to the outcome of the game. There is no time to for spare for regrets of past mistakes or to worry about the results of the game that will unfold in the next few moments. If a player fears defeat, loses focus, or hesitates in the slightest, then that individual, no, the entire team can fall into pieces within a blink of an eye. Michael Jordan did not allow what he could not control to get inside his head. He has a very optimistic approach towards the game. He would think “why would I think about missing a shot I haven’t taken yet?”. In a different interview, he said
“What motivates me is the unknown. No one knows. They can speculate but no one really knows and I myself didn’t know. But I didn’t let that stop me. And I let that motivate me more than anything. Because, as long as the future is unknown, that means I still have a chance. And that’s the way I pursued my whole career”
When you step on the floor it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve done it before. What matters most is you do it now. One of the keys that helped Jordan develop an unmatched record for taking clutch shots was his short memory. In an interview with Sky Sports, B. J. Armstrong shared about his former teammate: “Jordan had this ability to treat the next shot the same no matter the result of the one before. Whether he made the shot or missed the shot he had already moved on to the next play. He had an amazing capacity to just be in the moment”. Armstrong would often jokingly ask Jordan “Do you even remember what you did yesterday?”. And Jordan would respond “B. J. the score is still 0–0”. Jordan stayed neutral in every situation because his only goal was to win. He wasn’t complex. Jordan didn’t play because he wanted to score the most points, be the hero or the greatest player. He didn’t seek glory. He just wanted to win. Everything else didn’t really matter to him.
Number One
Although Michael Jordan has a unique mentality that worked wonderfully for his career, I am not advocating for everyone to copy him and start training for the NBA. As much as I love basketball, playing professionally is not who I am. The funny thing is, I look up to Michael Jordan not as an aspiring NBA basketball player, but as a writer. Winning does not only have to take the form of NBA championships. Accomplishing everyday tasks such as making your bed is a win. Eating three meals promptly is a win. Michael Jordan’s championships are a culmination of completing small tasks such as waking up at 5am every day and practicing harder than anyone. To win in everything we do, that’s exactly the kind of culture KBTG is trying to create:
- Customer-first mindset: KBTG’s ambition to be better than everyone is never for a vain reason. It’s always for the good of our customers. That is why every day, KBTG strives to develop the best solutions that would make people’s lives easier, from K PLUS — Thailand’s number one mobile banking application, KhunThong — the best treasurer for your group chat, to MAKE by KBank —money management applications with unique features, and so much more.
- Knowledge circulation: there are so many assets available at KBTG to help employees prosper. From free workshops, online courses, knowledge sharing sessions to mentorship programs, KBTG Academy has provided assorted knowledge sources for us to tap into. These can be arranged by external speakers to our very own experts.
- KBTG Kampus: other than assisting in our employees’ growth, it’s important to lend our hands to the next generation as well. KBTG Kampus is created to tackle problems related to Thai tech education. With a collaboration between tech company such as KBTG, leading academic institutions, EdTech and tech community platforms, KBTG Kampus ensures talents and university students can access the knowledge base and playground they need to succeed in the next step in their career and ultimately elevate the Thai tech ecosystem altogether.
- Star Awards: every year, we celebrate excellence by hosting the KBTG Star Awards event. Joined by many executives, we congratulate and present awards for both exceptional individual and team performances as a way to express our deepest appreciation towards our people for their hard work, and at the same time inspire many others that they too can achieve such incredible results. If we want to create a culture where everyone strives to be the best, then it is crucial we express our recognition of their efforts and their importance towards the company.
Michael Jordan showed us that the greatest are not born but made. It’s not that Jordan never lost. He just never stopped getting back up. More important than winning is refusing to be defeated. He kept lighting the flame inside him over and over again. What defines becoming number one is not a lack of setbacks. The real key towards self-mastery is simply asking ourselves how many times we can renew our resolve each day. That’s how we can channel our inner Michael Jordan in everything we do. That’s what KBTG is all about.
And with that, we have reached the end of our One KBTG journey. Thank you so much for joining me in exploring our culture. Hopefully, you gained something valuable from our philosophy and saw how your life too is connected to our core values. After all, to reiterate one more time, the whole purpose of this series is to show that our One KBTG culture can be practiced anywhere. I personally believe that Michael Jordan, with the incredible intensity, passion, and wisdom in his arsenal, could have excelled in anything. It’s just that he chose basketball. Therefore, the mentality that Jordan demonstrated is universal. His way of thinking can be used in any endeavor in life, from professional careers to daily mundane activities. The same applies to Leonardo da Vinci’s creativity, the Straw Hat pirates’ sense of purpose, and the unity of the Giant Sequoias. Ours is a humanistic competition to produce people with outstanding humanism for the betterment of society. And we are wholeheartedly open to sharing this great pursuit with anyone. Therefore, if you find yourself aligning with our culture and values, then we are more than ready to welcome you to join us.
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