Kobe Bryant is widely known as one of the greatest players in the history of basketball. Everything about his life in the NBA is an inspirational story for all of us. The way he handled the criticisms and failures during the early part of his career, the way he fought at the highest level despite playing with multiple injuries, and the stories that we hear about his incredible work ethic never fail to motivate us. At a very young age of 18 years old, Kobe emerged into the NBA straight from high school. As many people dubbed him as the next ‘Michael Jordan’, Kobe had the weight of the world on his shoulders right from the get-go. Those expectations from the fans and media are the kind of pressure that can crack many, as we have seen a lot of times before. But with Kobe, that was not the case. What I love the most about him is that from a very young age he had the drive and ambition to be one of the best basketball players in the world, and he always had the work ethic to back it up. From being just a teenager who wanted to showcase his talents to the world, he soon became a master craftsman, a genius of his sport. Though he may not be with us in physical form, his legacy will live forever, and by following his footsteps to greatness, his legacy is carried on by all of us.
Here are a few of my favorite life lessons from Kobe Bryant :
- ‘Mamba Mentality’ – The art of getting better every single day
‘The black Mamba’ is one of Kobe’s aliases. The Mamba mentality is his philosophy of life. He believes that his biggest strength in life was the ability to get better at his craft every single day. Marginal improvements consistently have proven to be the best mantra for success by many successful people. It doesn’t matter what you are doing in life, you’ve got wake up every single day and try to be better than who you were yesterday. Getting better every day needs a tremendous amount of focus and concentration, and Kobe had that from a very young age. I remember him sharing an incident from his life in an interview once, and he was talking about how bad he was at basketball at the age of 11. He said that he had played a whole summer of basketball without scoring a single point! And he explained how he got out of that trauma by focusing on every small detail of his game, and improving that area every day, it is quite fascinating how a guy can have such a mentality at that age. Then he went on to set a goal, the goal to work on the basics and improve the fundamentals, and he had set a long-term vision for himself, and the vision drove him forward. As he started focusing more and working more often, he found a tremendous amount of improvement in his life, and he never stopped. From not scoring a single point in a whole summer at 11 years old, he went on to be an NBA superstar at 18. The lesson here is to work on your craft and be better at it every single day.
2. It is extremely important for us to love what we do
One of the key factors that pushed Kobe to work so hard was his never-ending love for the game. He loved the sport of basketball more than anything else in his life. He believes that the reason he had a crystal clear vision at a very early stage of his life is purely because of his love for the game. Even when so many people describe his work ethic as ‘sickening’ or ‘relentless’ or ‘unbelievable’, he just puts it in simple terms, “I loved what I did for a living, and I did it as often as I can and as perfectly as I can”. It’s just that simple. It is the love of the game. When you have such an attraction towards your craft, you will find yourself doing things that not many others will do. I’ve heard Kobe talk about the importance of having curiosity in our lives., and how the love of the game made him more curious about his craft and that in return made him better. Because of his passion to learn, he spent hours reading and analyzing the game, watching great players in action, and learning from them. He spent most of his time studying and practicing what he loved.
My goal was to become one of the best basketball players to ever live, and I didn’t have time for anything outside of that lane
– Kobe Bryant
3. The word ‘Failure’ doesn’t exist
No matter how good a person is, he/she cannot hide from failure for long. We all have to face failure at some point in our lives. And the way we handle them will either make us or break us. Kobe shared great insight on failure and how he handles them. He explains that the word ‘Failure’ doesn’t exist in his world. He believes that a situation becomes a failure only when you don’t learn anything from the hardship that life is putting you through at that time.
What the hell does failure even mean? For me, it doesn’t even exist. Only if you fail to learn the lesson from your mistake does it become a failure. If I fail on Monday, I’m gonna do better on Tuesday, and if I fail again, I’m gonna try better on Wednesday.
– Kobe Bryant
Kobe’s philosophy was very simple. He was never gonna let his failures define him. After he dropped those 5 air-balls early on in his career, he immediately figured out that he didn’t have the physical strength to compete in the NBA. After learning the lesson, he started to work on his body and kept getting better every year. Soon enough, he became one the best clutch shot makers in the league, and by the end of his career, he was considered one the greatest of all time. Those air balls don’t define him anymore because chose to look beyond them.
He was truly an inspiration for all of us and will surely live in our hearts forever. Rest In Peace, legend.
Wordsbykenaniah 