How to Ignite Your Mind | Unlock Kobe's 14 Minute Secrets

Hey, Believe Nation, it's Evan Carmichael. My one word is believe, and I believe in you, and I want to see that thing you've got inside of you come out and have a big impact on the world. I started the Mentor Me series to hang out with people who've done more than us, and hopefully we can learn from them the way they think, their mindsets, their beliefs, to help us be the best version of ourselves. So today we're going to learn from Kobe Bryant and some of his best motivation. Mentor me, Kobe. And as always, guys, as you're watching, if you hear something that really resonates with you, Please leave it down in the comments below, put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well. And when you write it down, it's much more likely to stick with yourself too. Enjoy!

All season I was just waiting and waiting for my opportunity to come. I wanted to prove that I was better than they thought I was, you know, I wanted to prove to myself that I'm better than they think I was. And I was mentally preparing myself and visualizing the moment that would come where, you know, I'm, uh, I lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a victory.

I've been with you for a long way. I, I, the one moment that stands out, out of— we've done, I don't know how many times, we've done what, 800 events?

The one time was 4:00 AM.

We went out to practice at 4:00 AM. And that was your idea to do it. And then all these Nike people are like, no, no, no, no, no, let's not do that. And then you're like, let's do it at 4:00 AM. So you got security, you got brand marketing, sports marketing going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, let's not do it. You're like, let's do it because that's your system, right?

I mean, to me, it just makes complete sense.

Not to us.

Well, I don't—

OK, so see, we—

All right.

What you usually— I'm sleeping at 4 AM. You're working out. So talk about that.

Okay. So if your job is to try to be the best basketball player you can be, right? To do that, you have to practice, you have to train, right? You want to train as much as you can, as often as you can. So if you get up at 10 in the morning, train at 11, right? 12, say 12, train at 12, train for 2 hours, 12 to 2. You have to let your body recover. So you eat, recover, whatever, you get back out, you train, start training again at 6, train from 6 to 8, right? And now you go home, you shower, you eat dinner, you go to bed, you wake up, you do it again, right? Those are 2 sessions, right? Now imagine you wake up at 3, you train at 4, go 4 to 6, come home, breakfast, relax, so-so, blah, blah, blah. Now you're back at it again, 9 to 11, right? Relax, and now all of a sudden you're back at it again, 2 to 4. And now you're back at it again, you know, 7 to 9. Look how much more training I have done by simply starting at 4, right? And so now you do that, and as the years go on, the separation that you have with your competitors and your peers just grows larger and larger and larger and larger and larger. And by year 5 or 6, doesn't matter what kind of work they do in the summer, they're never going to catch up because they're 5 years behind, right? So it makes sense to get up and start your day early because you can get more work in.

Is that genetic or is that something you ingrained and trained yourself?

No, it was just—

Who taught you that?

For me, it was just common sense. Like, I can— if I start earlier, I can train more hours. And I know the other guys aren't doing it because I know what their training schedule is, right? So I know if I do this consistently over time, the gap's just going to widen and widen and widen and widen and widen, and they won't be able to get that back. So to me, it was just common sense and like thinking, how can I get an advantage? Oh, start earlier. Yeah, let's do that.

How do you, how do you develop that, or where do you, where do you learn that from?

Well, I, I think it's just, you know, it's just a matter of what's important to you and what's important to you. For whatever reason, you know, I, I felt like, um, I didn't feel good about myself if I wasn't doing everything I could to be the best version of myself. If I felt like I left anything on the table It would eat away at me. I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror. So the reason why I can retire now and be completely comfortable about it, because I know that I've done everything I could to be the best basketball player I could be. And so that's where it comes from for me. You can't leave any stone unturned. Before he decided to flip somebody. Once you have the passion, the thing that you're passionate about, now you can look at other people or other entities or other things or works of art, and you can draw things from that to help you be better at what you do by looking for those common denominators. Johnny wanted to know, how do I prepare? How do I prepare? How do I study? How do I view the game? How do you build your game? And my response is much like the way he builds products. You think sequentially. Yeah, you look at this, the end result of what you want to create, but in order to create that, there's so many other little things that go into this massive entity or device. It's no different than building my basketball game. You start with what do you want your game to be? What would make your game most unstoppable? Or hard to deal with. And now you work backwards from there and you start building it one piece at a time, one move at a time, one counter at a time. So there's a lot of similarities there.

You were quoted on CNBC as saying that you'd rather be remembered for your role in jump-starting tech companies than your skills on the court. Can you talk to, what's that about?

I think you have to challenge yourself to evolve and to grow, and I think, I couldn't think of a better message for athletes in particular, because it's very easy for us athletes to kind of lose ourselves and our identity by connecting who we are to what we do. And I think that's a very dangerous zone to be in, right? So it's common sense to me to be able to say, okay, the next stage I'm going after with the same intensity, the same attention to detail, the same curiosity. So of course I'd want to be better at that than I was in my previous career.

That's a pretty high bar though. You have enough energy left for that, Orange, I guess?

We're gonna find out, right? I mean, that's the thing. You go for it and you do all you can. You learn as much as you can. You continue to try, you continue to improve, you continue to evolve, and then you see where you are, right? You know, 20 years from now, you can— I can look in the mirror and say I gave it my best shot and we did the best we could, and, uh, see where we end up. Bryant out top against Patterson. Kobe cannot get Patterson in the air. A wild 3! Hit it! And you think the basketball gods can't get any cooler? No, I told you This is not the guy you want to let you— Well, I mean, you know, the passion came from the love for the game. You know, I loved everything about it, like the smell of the ball.

You love the smell of the ball?

Yes, the ball. You know, the smell of like brand new sneakers and like the sound the ball makes when it hits the ground.

Sneakers in the gym.

Yeah, the ball going through the net, like all those things I love. And so the passion comes from that because once you have that love, you just want be a part of this thing all the time.

Is there one moment where you can say it defined your passion for basketball? Is there a story or moment when you said, yeah, that was, that was it, that was like when I felt really passionate?

No, it doesn't. It never leaves. It never leaves. Like, you know, the game is just a part of me, um, so it never leaves. Even now that I'm retired, you know, everything I've learned from the game of basketball, I've carried it over into life. You know, like basketball has helped me be a better person, a better friend, a better father. How so? Well, because there's life lessons that are within the game, like communication, like unselfishness, like attention to detail and empathy and compassion. Like all of those things are in the game. And as an athlete, if we are aware of those things, it helps us become better human beings.

And you can apply that toward your post-basketball days, retirement, into your business world, future ventures?

Sure. I mean, you can apply— you know, I was applying that even while I was playing, just in life outside of the game. And even more so now, you know, in building a business and all these things, you know, the kind of culture you want to have, you know, all those things are directly learned from the game of basketball for me. As a student of the game, how important is it to remain a Laker to keep your, your legendary status intact? Have a statue in front of the Staples Center, all of the great things that they've done for some of their all-time greats. No, it's of utmost importance. Like, I mean, I was such a diehard fan, Laker fan growing up, man. And just my personality, like, for me to ask for a trade or to go play someplace else to try to chase a championship, that's not me, man. That's not being— that's not what my career has been about. That's not who I am, man. You know, I stay with it. You know, stuff that I've been through in my life and been through in my career, if it's taught me anything, it's the fact that you'll have good moments, you'll have bad moments, you'll have great moments, you'll have horrible moments. You just keep going through all of them and then things work themselves out. They'd love to get it into Nash's hands, and they do. Ball knocked away, stolen by Parker! Here it is! Here comes George to Kobe Bryant! Bryant inside, it's good! A 1-point game. Walker could tip it, Bryant with the save. Now you gotta get a shot off. Final seconds. Bryant for the win! Once upon a time, there was a young basketball player who had dreams of becoming one of the greatest basketball players of all time. My name is Kobe Bryant. 17 years old. The hunger, the motivation, and the desire to be the best possible basketball player that I could be. He worked day and night, every day, for years and years and years and years and years. As time went on, 20 years had passed, and he felt that he had accomplished all that he set out to accomplish. But what he come to realize is that the goal that he set out initially of becoming the greatest of all time was a very fickle one. And when you realize that the most important thing in life is how your career moves and touches those around you and how it carries forward to the next generation, when you realize that's what makes true greatness. The story would be about transformation of a kid looking inwardly to then growing up and understanding the importance and the power is looking outward. It's a great feeling to know that you set a goal for yourself, you were able to reach that goal, and to knock it down. If I had the power to turn back time, I would never use it. I don't think about it. Because then every moment that you go through means absolutely nothing, because you can always go back and do it again. So it loses its flavor, it loses its beauty. When things are final, you know, moments won't ever come again. To be able to have the power to go back and re-experience those things is— It's silly to me.

When you take that jersey off for the final time, how do you think you're gonna feel?

Very at peace with it, and I'm very thankful for the 20 years that I've had, and ready to go.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed. I'd love to know what did you take from this video? What was the single most important message that you are going to immediately apply somehow to your life or to your business? Leave it down in the comments below. I look forward to hearing what you have to say. I also want to give a quick shout out to Megan from the Bootstrap Boutique YouTube channel. Megan, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and doing that YouTube video review on it. I really, really, really appreciate your support. and I'm so glad you enjoyed the read. Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

So let me give you the one word secret to happiness. One word. This is all you need to be happy. The most important word ever.

If you had to think of one word that's most important to you or that sums you up or that would be kind of like a little beacon, Hey Believe Nation, if you want to know what the most important one word is for Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Oprah Winfrey, will.i.am, and Howard Schultz, I have a very special secret video for you. Check the description for details.