Kobe Bryant remembered a teammate's nickname "Volume" after one brief gym encounter. He explains that remembering names takes deliberate effort because for most people, that moment is their only direct contact with him. A small gesture like that creates a memory they'll share with thousands of others.
You gotta tell me a Kobe Bryant story. Like, what you got? He goes, we're at the gym, this first time I ever met Kobe. He's like, we're playing pickup. I jumped in, I missed like 6 or 7 shots, and Kobe just doesn't say anything to me. He's like, after the game, he goes, damn, man, you come make a shot or what? And the guy goes, I'm a volume shooter, bro. Like, you should know that. Whatever. They have that one interaction, takes 5 seconds, they just laugh, move on with life. 3 weeks later, he comes back to the gym. The guy walks into the gym and Kobe goes, what up, Volume? And just like remembered who he was, remembered his nickname. I asked him, is that easy for you? He's like, no, it's not that easy. I just make an effort. Why do you care? Like, to learn all these people's Why names? He goes, because for most people, this is the only time they're ever going to interact with me. If I remember their name with something so simple, and they— not only will they remember it forever, they'll tell everybody they know about this. I'm not just like making an impression on them, I'm making an impression on 1,000 people throughout their lifetime that they're going to tell this Kobe Bryant story to.
