What High Performers in Any Field Can Learn from Kobe Bryant
While few of us will ever be a professional athlete — let alone one of the greatest of all time — we can adopt some of Kobe’s qualities to become great at what we do.
It’s been almost two weeks since NBA star Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter accident. Numerous articles in print and online and tributes on TV have focused on his basketball accomplishments during his 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe was a five-time NBA World Champion. He was an 18-time NBA All-Star. He won two Olympic gold medals as a member of the U.S. National Team.
After his playing days were over, Bryant appeared headed for success outside of basketball. He wrote a best-selling book, The Mamba Mentality: How I Play. He won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for his 2017 film Dear Basketball. And he was a devoted father to his four daughters.
While few of us will ever be a professional athlete — let alone one of the greatest of all time — we can adopt some of Kobe’s qualities to be great at what we do. Whether we want to lead a large company to the top of its industry, become an amazing keynote speaker, lead our business in sales, or anything else, we can apply Kobe’s mindset and approach to basketball to help us achieve anything we want.
Kobe Bryant had an unrelenting work ethic.
“If you really want to be great at something, you have to truly care about it. If you want to be great in a particular area, you have to obsess over it. A lot of people say they want to be great, but they’re not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness.”
– Kobe Bryant, five-time NBA World Champion and 18-time NBA All-Star with the Los Angeles Lakers
If you want to become great at what you do, you have to put in the work. It’s as simple as that. Among any trait Kobe Bryant had, being willing to do the hard work necessary to succeed was the one that stands out the most.
Former NFL front office executive and current media analyst Michael Lombardi recently described how hard Kobe worked.
Prior to the 2012 Summer Olympics, Kobe called his trainer at 5 AM to put in extra work. The trainer arrived to find Bryant already dripping in sweat. They put in another two hours before the trainer left to rest and prepare for the team’s official 1 PM workout.
When he returned for practice, he saw Kobe shooting some baskets. He asked Kobe when he finished earlier that morning. “Oh, just now. I wanted 800 makes. So yeah, just now.”
“Greatness isn’t easy to achieve. It requires a lot of time, a lot of sacrifices. It requires a lot of tough choices.”
– Kobe Bryant
If it wasn’t arriving eight hours before a team workout to practice on his own, he stayed later than everyone else. Kobe’s midnight workouts were legendary. Kobe refused to give up time with his family, but he knew that he had to put in more hours than everyone else if he wanted to be the best.
Some days it was working out at 5 AM, resting for a few hours and spending time with his kids, and then hitting the gym for four more hours in the middle of the day. Other days, he would put them to bed and head to the courts to train while his family — and other NBA players — slept.
How and where can you work harder than your competition? Can you make sales calls when everyone else is headed to the local bar for happy hour? Can you show up to the office an hour early to better prepare your presentation to the executive team? You might not want to give up time with your husband or wife or kids, but there are probably ways to put in some extra hours to propel yourself ahead in your job without sacrificing your family time.
Kobe always sought to master new skills and improve.
“You have to enter every activity, every single time, with a want and need to do it to the best of your ability.”
– Kobe Bryant
Even as a young basketball player, long before he exploded in the NBA, Kobe recognized that he would need to be able to do more than just score to win championships and All-Star awards. Keeping his long-term goals in mind, he would see skills that other players had and work to learn them himself. He would watch videos of a shot or move and practice it himself right away. He worked on it the next day, and the day after that, until he had it. And then he would move on to the next skill he wanted to master.
Kobe also hated having a weakness. Even as a kid, he hated that he was only good using his right hand. So he committed to improving his skills with his left hand. He started brushing his teeth with his left hand. He learned to write left-handed. Once he started basketball, he taught himself to dribble, drive the lane, pass and shoot with both hands.
Occasionally concentrating on something you do regularly and trying to do it better isn’t enough. You might have to try a radical new approach.
You might have to go outside your comfort zone.
Later in his NBA career, Kobe struggled with ankle problems. He realized that he needed to better develop his leg muscles and the muscles around his ankles and feet to prevent sprained ankles. But he also recognized that this work could help him improve his foot speed and rhythm, making him even more explosive on the court.
How did he do it? Tap dancing.
That’s right. Kobe started tap dancing.
Bryant hired a top tap dancing instructor and went to her studio all summer. He incorporated that training into his routines for the rest of his career.
Trying something new can be scary, but often it’s critical to your success. Maybe you’re shy, but you know you need to develop better communication skills to ascend within your company. Despite your fears of public speaking, you join a local Toastmasters group.
Look for areas of your work and life where you can improve, even if it’s adding a new skill you don’t currently have rather than improving one you do have.
And it can be hard to push yourself to constantly improve. But Kobe found ways to motivate himself. Often, he would create small competitions with himself and with his teammates and competitors.
For example, he viewed boxing out opponents to get rebounds as a competition. Essentially, putting your body in between your opponent and the basket comes down to desire and doing the work needed to get a rebound. Rather than just half-heartedly reaching for a ball as it came off the rim or backboard, Kobe focused on getting in position, boxing out his opponent, and grabbing the ball. He paid attention to how many rebounds he got compared to his teammates and to players on other teams. He created a competition within a competition to see who wanted it more.
Where can you improve your skills? Are there weakness, that if you improved them, would make you even better at your job? Are there competitions you can create — maybe you push yourself to make more sales calls each day than anyone in your company? Can you try to learn new skills — maybe working with an acting coach to become a more dynamic public speaker? Can you seek to always get better at what you do, like Kobe Bryant always did?
Kobe Bryant never let injuries and setbacks stop him.
“I’ve always said that I wanted to be remembered as a player that didn’t waste a moment … didn’t waste a day.”
– Kobe Bryant
Kobe dealt with numerous injuries during his 20 years in the NBA. He fought problems with his back, ankles, knees and shoulders, but he did his best to fight through them. If one of those body parts bothered him, he would experiment to see if he could play through it. Rather than just taking a night or a week off, he would work out in practice or during the pre-game warmup to see if that injury would force him out of the game.
Most of the time, he felt like he could persevere. To work around the injury, he would adjust his plan for the game. Maybe he would have to drive more to the left to avoid pain in one of his knees. Maybe he would take more outside shots rather than driving the lane.
When he injured the index finger on his right hand, he learned to shoot by pushing the ball mainly with his middle finger. Knowing what he had to do to keep playing — and playing at an elite level — required him to adjust and then work to incorporate his new movements over and over.
“The first thing I always thought about in those situations was, ‘What do I need to do to get back to 100 percent?’ That was my mindset. I never let fear or doubt seep into my psyche. I never whined and I never complained.”
– Kobe Bryant
Bryant ruptured his Achilles tendon during a game in 2013. He walked off the court, shaking his head as he looked at his wife in the stands. He knew it was serious.
The team surgeon told Kobe about a new type of surgery for Achilles ruptures. It appeared promising, but Bryant would need to have the procedure the next day, before scar tissue developed. “Let’s do it,” he responded.
Immediately, the media questioned whether this injury would mark the end of Kobe’s illustrious career.
“When the Achilles injury happened, I treated it as a new challenge,” Bryant explained in his book The Mamba Mentality: How I Play. “People were saying I might not be able to come back, but I knew I was not going to let it beat me. I was not going to let an injury dictate my retirement; I was going to dictate my retirement. That’s when I decided I had to climb that mountain.”
When Kobe did retire from basketball in 2016, he was the first guard to ever play 20 seasons in the NBA.
We might not battle injuries in our work, but we face setbacks every day. Are you going to let them stop you? Are you going to let them define you? If not, then what can you do to accept those setbacks, adjust, and move forward?
Kobe didn’t fear embarrassment as he looked to get better on the court.
“What separates great players from all-time great players is their ability to self-assess, diagnose weaknesses, and turn those flaws into strengths.”
– Kobe Bryant
Sometimes pursuing our big goals doesn’t involve efforts that risk our health and safety. Often, we simply fear what others around us will think. We have to ignore them and try new things anyway.
Bryant entered the NBA straight out of high school. His youth was no match for his determination to be one of the greatest players in the league. To become great, Kobe knew that he had to improve — quickly.
He constantly looked for ways to improve his game. If he saw a shot or move that another player used effectively, he tried to incorporate it into his skill set. He didn’t mind looking dumb if he missed. He didn’t care about being embarrassed in front of other players, or fans. He knew that if he kept at it, working at that skill, he would become a better player.
“When it came to basketball, I had no fear. What I mean by that is: if I wanted to implement something new into my game, I’d see it and try incorporating it immediately. I wasn’t scared of missing, looking bad, or being embarrassed. That’s because I always kept the end result, the long game, in my mind. I always focused on the fact that I had to try something to get it, and once I got it, I’d have another tool in my arsenal. If the price was a lot of work and a few missed shots, I was OK with that.”
– Kobe Bryant
Kobe kept the long-term goal in mind — to become the best basketball player he could be. If becoming the best required years of hard work and missing shots or making mistakes occasionally, he could accept it as the price of greatness.
Sometimes you will have to try things on your own — maybe some that you have never seen or heard of — to improve. Other times, like Kobe, you look to others for ideas that you can incorporate.
Learning new skills is critical to your success. While courses, books and conferences can certainly help you develop those skills, there is often a faster means of acquiring skills.
Ask people who are proficient in those skills for help.
It might be surprising to some, but most people at the top are willing to help you if you are sincere about learning. You simply have to ask. However, many people are afraid to ask others for help.
Early in his career, Kobe talked to Hall of Fame former players, teammates, players on other teams and coaches about everything.
He would ask about plays and game situations. He asked for tips on how they practiced, how they handled adversity, how they dealt with difficult teammates. Kobe wanted to learn and get better, and he knew these guys had already faced similar challenges. So he asked for help.
Occasionally Bryant would find that one of the coaches or former players was unwilling to help him. But most appreciated his passion and curiosity. They generously shared their insight.
Unlike most players, Kobe was never afraid to risk being embarrassed should one of them not want to help him. He wasn’t afraid to ask because he believed it was better to risk embarrassment early in his career than to face it later when he had no NBA championship rings.
Kobe’s willingness to risk embarrassment and ask for advice helped him win five NBA titles.
Meet successful people in your industry, and ask them how they got where they are. Show real curiosity and willingness to learn. Implement their advice. Don’t worry that you will look foolish. It’s only foolish if you don’t make the effort to ask.
Kobe Bryant was willing to do what the team needed to help it succeed.
“I never felt outside pressure. I knew what I wanted to accomplish, and I knew how much work it took to achieve those goals. I then put in the work and trusted in it. Besides, the expectations I placed on myself were higher than what anyone expected from me.”
– Kobe Bryant
One of the aspects that coaching legend Mike Krzyzewski admired most about Kobe was his commitment to do whatever he could to help his team win.
When Coach K took over as head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team, he recruited some of the best NBA players, including LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Before the team’s first training camp, Krzyzewski heard that Kobe arrived in Vegas two days early to start preparing. He asked Bryant to join him and the coaching staff for dinner.
A few minutes into the dinner, Kobe asked the coach to allow him to guard the opponent’s best player during each game. While being a prolific scorer, Bryant was essentially giving up his role as an offensive star to do the dirty work on defense to help the team win.
Kobe showed Coach K he would be a leader for the team. He would set an example for the other players, taking on a different, but equally necessary, role than he had with the Lakers.
No matter how great you are and how important you are to the team, though, you must recognize you cannot do everything alone and expect great success. We have teams for a reason. We must put each team member in position to help the organization succeed.
One of the keys to Kobe’s success, he believes, was that he constantly tried to learn from others who had succeeded themselves. And one of his greatest lessons came from one of the greatest players of the previous generation — Bill Russell.
Russell acknowledged that his critics often pointed out that he couldn’t dribble or shoot very well. But as the Boston Celtics’ center, why should he need to excel at those skills? Why would he shoot outside jump shots with sharpshooter Sam Jones on the team? Why would he lead the Celtics on fast breaks when they had star guard Bob Cousy on the team?
If you want to win championships — Bill Russell won 11 NBA championships with the Celtics — you have to let other team members do what they do best so you can focus on what you do best.
Sure, you could make every sales call, respond to every customer complaint, and require every decision to come through your office. But your business will quickly become stagnant.
Hire the best people for the skills you need in your company. Then let those people do what they do best. Don’t micromanage them either. Encourage them to give their best at those tasks and get out of the way.
Use that time to instead focus on the few skills and tasks you do best.
If everyone on the team — including you as the leader — focuses on what each one is supposed to be doing and then does it to the best of their abilities, the performance of the team as a whole will far surpass anything you can imagine.
How Kobe’s ‘Mamba Mentality’ can help you in business and in life
“The mindset (the ‘Mamba Mentality’) isn’t about seeking a result — it’s more about the process of getting to that result. It’s about the journey and the approach. It’s a way of life. I do think that it’s important, in all endeavors, to have that mentality.
– Kobe Bryant
Most likely, we will never be superstars on the basketball court or in any sport, for that matter. But we can be the best at what we do, in our own way. Success takes work, over a long period of time. It requires resilience and persistence through inevitable setbacks. It requires learning, improving, and doing whatever it takes to work as part of a team and helping the team succeed.
Kobe Bryant exemplified those qualities, which explains his popularity with teammates, competitors and fans. We can all be more like Kobe if we want to be a champion in our work and in our lives.
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