[Music] I wonder somewhere Whispering Kobe when he got in the car the day six more days how would that week maybe have been different for him what would he have said who would he have loved who would he have reached out to what would have mattered to her about the Saturday before Colby one more day he was getting on that helicopter call me more hour see it hits us when I say that and there's a whisper happening that you can't hear [Music] whisper we forget we're gonna die Napoleon Hill says begin with the end in
mind what if you did that with your life good evening we start tonight with some breaking news so much of the world is just in shock retired Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant has been killed in a helicopter crash what I've learned is to to always keep going always you know there's been times particularly early in my career where he just feels like this is the end but what I've come to find out is that no matter what happens the storm eventually ends when the storm does and you want to make sure that you're
ready and so I've really learned to put one foot in front of the other a good battery and different because eventually that storm passes well every time I step on a basketball court I'm going to put a strong effort out there on the floor I'm not going to leave anything on the floor everything was done to try to learn how to become a better basketball player everything everything and so when you have that point of view then literally the world becomes your library to help you to become better at your craft and as I'm walking
onto the court who do I see I see Kobe Bryant already working out right okay it's kind of cool it's Kobe so I worked out for a good hour hour and a half and when I came off after I was done I sat down and of course I still hear the ball bouncing I'm like I'm like these guys this guy's still working out he was working out like it looks like he was in a dead sweat when I got here and he's still going and it's not like his moves are nonchalant or lazy he's doing
like game moves you know um I sit there and I unleash my shoes I'm like I want to see how long this goes I sit out there and watch another 25 minutes and he got done I said okay I think I've seen enough go play you know come back get in the sauna get ready for the game that game he drops 40 on us okay and after the game is over I'm like I have to ask this guy I have to understand like why why he works like that right so after damage I'm like hey
cob like why why were you in the gym for so long he's like because I saw you come in and I wanted you to know that it doesn't matter how hard you work that I'm willing to work harder than you wow and he's like it's there's nothing wrong with that like I'm not saying I dislike you as a person you just you inspire me to be better right and it was the first time I started to see this level of competitiveness where I said I need to start doing more wow well I mean here's the
thing it's like you know it's competitiveness yes but it's A Simple Theory or idea to live life but if you're going to do something do it to the best of your ability no matter what it is if you're gonna do it do it to the best of your ability if you love what you do and it's making you happy all the hard work and perseverance will pay off I once had a guidance Council tell me that I shouldn't play basketball that it would never amount to anything for me his negativity towards made me strong you
can't stop people from trying to limit your dreams but you can stop it from becoming a reality your dreams are up to you I encourage you to always be curious always seek out things you love and always work hard what you find [Music] [Applause] the day could be today that your career is over now what do you do I said I better get to work rest at the end not in the middle and that's something I always live by not going to rest and I'm going to keep on pushing now a lot of answers that
I don't have even questions that I don't have I'm just going to keep going I'm just going to keep going and I'll figure these things out as you go right and you just continue to build that way so I try to live by that all the time have a dream sacrifice for it and never ever rest in the middle and I came into the NBA I was like man don't look that hard one of the things I would do is everybody would be at the cafeteria we're you know eating and doing that sort of stuff
I just go back to the job how can I show you that no I have the edge well you do it for training right so when I get up in the morning my daughter goes with me 4 AM 4 AM my 15 year old goes with me she goes with me before school and it becomes a daddy daughter thing that's cool through that process she understands the value of hard work and so it's through those behaviors is where I find the motivation I think the definition of greatness is to inspire the people next to you
you know I think that's what greatness is or should be it's not something that's that that lives and dies with one person is how can you inspire a person to then in turn Inspire another person that inspires another person that's how you create something I think lasts forever it's not sit around and all it's all happy go lucky time if your leader your job is to get the best out of it got to deal with it face it learn from it it's exciting when you win it's exciting when you lose because the process should be
exactly the same but the hardest thing is to face that stuff but what if today is the day that you that's it now what do you do what can I say Mamba out [Applause] my parents were great you know growing up you know they instilled in me the importance of imagination of curiosity and understanding that okay you want to accomplish something I'm not just going to sit here and say yes you can do whatever you want yes you can but you have to also put in the work to get there right so they taught me
at a really early age man and when you grow up as a kid thinking that the world is your oyster all things are possible if you put in the work to do it you grew up having that fundamental beliefs who was more influential for you your father and mother that both were influential at different points yeah yeah right my mom was there on a daily basis my father was really excellent she had a really critical time where I I had a summer where I played basketball when I was like 10 or 11 years old and
here I come playing and I don't score one point the entire summer not one you're gonna score once not one were you in the game I was in the game how did you not score because that was terrible not a free throw not a nothing not a lucky shot not a breakaway layup zero points and I remember crying about it being upset about it my father's giving me a hug and say listen whether you score zero or score 60 I'm gonna love you no matter what wow that is the most important thing that you can
say to your child because from there I was like okay it gives me all the confidence in the world to feel I have the security there but the hell with that I'm scoring 60s let's go right right and from there I just went to work I just stayed with it I kept practicing kept practicing [Music] I think that's when the idea of understanding a long-term view became important because I wasn't going to catch these kids in a week I wasn't going to catch them a year right so that's when I sat down and said okay
this is going to take some falling right what I want to work on first all right shooting all right let's knock this out let's focus on this half a year six months nothing to shoot right after that all right creating your own shot you focusing so you start I started creating a menu of things when I came back the next summer I was a little bit better and then 14 came around back half of 13-14 years old and then I was just killing everyone and it happened in two years and I wasn't expecting to happen
in two years but it did because what I had to do was work on the basics and the fundamentals but they relied on athleticism and their natural ability and because I stick to the fundamentals it just caught up to me and then my body you know my knees stopped hurting I grew into my frame then your athleticism once you have the fundamentals the hard work the mindset and you tack on the electricity wow the Love of the Game the challenge like I would watch Magic play I'd watch Michael play and I would see them do
these unbelievable things and I say you know can I get to that level I don't know but let's find out let's find out and so that Curiosity to see where I could push this thing led me down that path I think there was a stretch um in oh three where Shaq was out with an injury Phil call me up to his office and said okay we need you to really turn on the afterburns and start scoring the ball free afternoon so I did and I wound up scoring I think it was nine straight games 40
plus points nine straight nine straight games and then Shaq comes back second it's second to last game of that and then Phil Collins his office is cold okay I need you to dial it back I'm like why like we're winning I don't understand is because our goal is to win a championship but if you continue to do this we'll lose Shaq we'll lose his motivation his excitement what triggers him right so I need you to pull back so we can pull Shaq forward for June wow I mean that was the big challenge as you moved
from you know being the single dominant player to understanding okay I have to help these other guys how do I lift everyone else up it's tough [Music] more like you put you put yourself to the side and you put yourself in their shoes and understand what they're feeling and then you have to make certain decisions of okay what buttons do I need to push this player to get them to the next level so it's never it's not sit around and all it's all happy for the lucky time the leader your job is to get the
best out of it um even if they may not like it at their job it was very demanding because he expected everyone to put in the same effort as he was and that was unrealistic you're not behind me you're not in front of me you're right right there parallel with me practice was very competitive right away you know what Kobe is he was drawing we had it going sometimes he didn't let me slip a lot times where uh get ejected or I'm about to get a technical foul or going up the deep end he would
be there to you know set me straight A Lot which helped me out a lot so we're getting the timeout he's like hey hey uh hey I'm open like okay and so if we go out and same thing coming hey I'm open okay there you go come back in hey dude you gotta throw me the ball I said man [ __ ] that get it off the rebound if I miss bro I listen I don't I don't deal with people that don't commit at that level but then act as if they do the running joke
doesn't pass and also crap that's okay you know but I'll take those five minutes I'll Take Five [Music] [Music] those times when you get up early and you work hard those times do you stay up late and you work hard those times when you don't feel like working you're too tired you don't want to push yourself but you do it anyway um that is actually the dream that's the dream it's not the destination it's the journey [Music] you guys if you guys can understand that then what you'll see happen is that you won't accomplish your
dreams your dreams won't come true something greater will it's amazing thing about passion if you love something if you have a strong passion for something you would go to the extreme to try to understand or try to get it whatever you have a love for you if you have to walk you will go get it if you have to beg someone you'll go get it I don't think you guys understand how present you guys are with me you know you guys were there with me at 5 30 in the morning when I was running the
track and I was midway through my workout I didn't know if I could make it through and I thought about the expectations you guys had for me and you had for our team pushed me through they got me through those 800s and 400s and one at 5 30 in the morning so I thank you we're not on the stage just because of Talent OR ability we're up here because of 4 AM we're up here because of two a days or five a days we're up here because we had a dream and let nothing stand in
our way if anything tried to bring us down we used it to make us stronger we were never satisfied never finished we'll never be retired my high school English teacher Mr Fisk he had this beautiful quote and it read rest at the end not in the middle and I took that to heart I believe there's time for resting at the end but for me that time is not now thank you for this tremendous honor and acknowledging my basketball career but I'm far from done my next dream is to be honored one day for inspiring the
next generation of athletes to have a dream sacrifice for it and never ever rest in the middle rest at the end not in the middle be yourself gimmick there's no who are you where are you today what is your story where does that come from and uh if you guys can understand that and I'm doing my job as a father thank you guys so much I love you [Applause] foreign you really want me on the team what's your approach to recruiting you want first place come play with me you want second place go somewhere else
like I would watch Magic play I'd watch Michael play and I would see them do these unbelievable things and I say you know can I get to that level I don't know but let's find out foreign [Applause] everything was done to try to learn how to become a better basketball player everything everything and so when you have that point of view then literally the world becomes your library to help you to become better at your craft so because you know what you want the world's giving you exactly the information 100 better at it because you
know what you're looking for so many guys tell stories about your work ethic what was really your work ethic like and for how long did you stay disciplined um well I mean I mean every day I mean since you know 20 years it was an everyday process and trying to figure out strengths and weaknesses for example jumping ability now my vertical was a 40 wasn't a 46 or 40 45. my hands are big but they're not massive right so you got to figure out ways to strengthen them so your hands are strong enough to be
able to Palm a ball and do the things that you need to do uh quickness I was quick but not insanely quick I was fast but not ridiculously fast right so I had to rely on skill a lot more I had to rely on angles a lot more I had to study the game a lot more and uh but I enjoyed it though so like from the time I was I can't remember when I started watching the game I studied the game and it just never changed it's a good separation for me you know emotionally
to be able to put myself in a place where at practice or when I'm training or doing games I switched my mind to something else I switched my mode into something else right for me it's the equivalent of Maximus Desmos Meridius and Gladiator picking up the dirt smelling the dirt it's go time right so that was my mental switch it was like an actor getting ready for a film you got to put yourself in that cage when you're in that cage you are that character and then when you leave there is something completely different but
when I'm in that cage bro don't touch me don't talk to me [Applause] [Music] how did you get mentally and emotionally so strong where it doesn't bother you well you know it's you got to look at the reality of the situation you know like for me it's not you know you kind of got to get over yourself it's not about you man like okay you feel embarrassed you're not that important like Get over yourself that's where you go get over yourself right like you're worried about how people may perceive you and like you're walking around
and it's embarrassing because you shot five air balls get over yourself right and then after that it's okay well why did those air balls happen got it high school year before we played 35 games Max right week in between spaced out plenty of time to rest in the NBA it's back to back to back to back to back to back to back I didn't have the legs so you look at the shot every shot was online every shot was online but every shot was short right I gotta get stronger I gotta train differently the weight
training program that I'm doing I gotta tailor it for an 82 Game season so that when the playoffs come around my legs are stronger and that ball gets there so I look at it with rationale and say okay well the reason why I shot airball is because my legs aren't there I gotta make sure they'll be there that was it done done were there some names that you looked at and says these three guys are as crazy as I am I do at the time I deal with what I've referred to as Goat Mountain I
went to Goat Mountain and I talked to Magic Michael bird Kim Olajuwon Jerry West Oscar Robinson Bill Russell you know so I would talk to them what did you do what were your experiences Michael in particular he's become my big brother it's been my big brother since I first came in the league and what was that process like so I went to them and started understanding the ins and outs of the game and you know how they approach things and their level of detail and obsessiveness and that's what I did the players that had that
passion but weren't willing to commit their entire lives to doing that right it's a choice right you have other things you have family you have all these other things that you have to do the game can't really be your number one priority and so I just looking at that like man I'm this is going to be fun if if I'm buddies with you from high school if I'm a cousin of yours what happened to our relationship how did that gravitate when you went into the league and you're you're determined to become the greatest so you're
determined to become one of the greatest what happens to our relationship well It suffers it does suffer oh yeah okay yeah and you understood that you were on okay well yeah and the people that love you like friends and family right they know that about you got it so they let you be you and when you reconvene you know you pick back up where you left off but make no mistake about it everything in between is lost right so those long-term relationships the commitment of time of uh you know taking big like I see a
lot of players take vacations with other players that are close friends and we'll just take vacations just to take vacations or just hang out just to hang out like I I'm not I never did that why why didn't you do that well because when I retire I didn't want to have to say I wish I would have done more I don't want that you know oh my God [Music] you know we got a lot of people playing their hard-earned money to come watch you perform it's your job to be in shape it's your job to
be strong enough to perform at that level every single night and as a competitor I'm not I'm not ducking like it's not oh my God my back hurts I'm sore we got to play Vince Carter and Toronto Raptors tonight we actually had this happen we had a game against Toronto in 2 000. [Music] um and Vince was tearing the league up my back was jacked jacked but like the perception of that like what Kobe's missing the game against Toronto and Vince Carter because my back was really spazzing me but people will be like what oh
he's ducking Vince excuse me no I don't think so so I would be in the layup line like okay there's a lot of days where you know you can rest and recover today ain't one of them your back can bother you any other day that ain't bothering me today we're gonna he gonna have to see me today yeah oh man yeah [Applause] if you're looking at a big Investments you got to make what is the decision-making process there do you call is there first you do your own research you take this much time you call
on advisor is there is there a system yeah it's pretty pretty simple for me it's it's do you understand the business the business that you can help in some form or fashion whether the barriers entry to that business and then the entrepreneurs themselves the company that itself right do they have a culture that you believe is sustainable are these leaders people that you believe in are they people that are obsessives and in turn have they created a culture of obsessiveness so I tend to look at those four factors and that's it that's that's big right
there by the way I don't know if you guys caught that right that's pretty massive right there [Applause] um same determination what's your current work schedule look like today so it's different because I personally am not writing every word of the novels I am not animating films what I have to do now is make sure that the people that we bring in these obsessives that we bring in are challenging themselves to do the best job that they think they can do that's what I'm there for is for them to constantly look in the mirror and
self-assess and challenge themselves if we have a project and you're saying okay I can do that that's not the project we want the projects that say I don't know if I can animate that I don't know how to write that story I don't know how to do that those are the things we want because through that Curiosity you'll reach a level that you didn't think was possible and so running the studio that's what I'm doing [Music] you're playing against the Golden State Warriors score is 107 109. you guys are close to getting into the playoffs
you know exactly what happens in the game you go up you're about to take your shot and then all of a sudden boom Achilles happens right he went and hit the free throws and then you walked off the stage yeah you got the surgery done I went in the trainer's room my kids are in there and you know they're looking at you and stuff and I'm looking at them and I'm like you know it's all right dad's gonna be all right it'll be fine it'll be all right it'll be all right it'll be all right
as a parent you got to set the example you got to set the example this this is another obstacle this obstacle cannot Define me it's not going to [ __ ] me it's not going to be responsible for me stepping away for the game that I love I'm gonna step away on my own terms and that's when the decision was made that you know what I'm doing it doing it all right [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]
