905: Learning Is Not A One-Time Event It's An Everyday Thing. feat. Kobe Bryant's "Mamba Mentality."

"When it came to basketball, I had no fear." ~ Kobe Bryant.

Ain't that the truth. Today I'm rocking out of Kobe Bryant's book "Mamba Mentality. How I Play." I will show you why he had no fear, how he could adapt so quickly to the NBA, and most importantly, how you can take the Mama Mentality into your personal and professional life. 

PS. Buy this book. It's relevant to any area in your life. (and the chapters are short too:) 

Text me for a free worksheet to accompany this episode. 

Transcript

1:31

All right, let's get it. Welcome back to the show, and today we're rocking out of Kobe Bryant's book. Those of you who are watching on video. Uh, it's Kobe Bryant, the Mamba Mentality, how I play. And initially when this book first came out, I really thought that it was just a, actually, I just didn't read it, didn't even get it. As much as I liked Kobe Bryant. I was like, well, I thought it was just for, you know, basketball folks, for athletes. And I was like, nah. But I was at the public library recently. I checked out this book. Uh, quick pro tip for you. Obviously you can't underline, uh, things in the public library book or when you check it out from the public library, but you can dog ear 'em, and sometimes I'll put a little decimal point by a word and then that way I go back to it. That way you get the best of both worlds, man. You're able to remember what you read and then you can come back to it, uh, as time allows and kind of unpack it. And this is one of those this morning that I did, this is part of my random reading, and I was reading another section of the book, but when I closed it, I just opened it back up, back up. And I guess because this spot was dogeared or maybe the universe said, this is what you need to write about today. This is what I'm going with. And he says early on. Well, before I get into that, what I really like about this book, those of you who don't really like to read a lot, they're short little quips. So each page, I'm holding this up on the camera, so check it out on YouTube. Um, so on the page you can see. That's, that's his mindset and they're not sequential. So in other words, this book is not one that just kind of builds up to some end point, or you gotta get three quarters into the book to get the real meat of the book, like, which so many books do. Just go to that, go to that section. This is why I say random reading is, is killer. Just go ride to it like Seth Godin says, I read to get the joke. And so once you get the joke, meaning that you get the meaning of it, you can go onto another book or whatever fills your bucket that day, but each page kind of stands up upon its own. So if you just want to kind of thumb through as a reference guide. I would definitely, I am going to, I, I check out a lot of books from the library, but the ones that really sting my soul, these are the ones that I'm, that I buy, and this is one that I'm actually going to buy and I'll probably buy it used since it's been out a while. So I would definitely, I think thrift books is where I go, and so you can, uh, you can, you can buy those or Goodwill or something like that, but you don't really know where. You know, a Kobe book. I have a Goodwill store here in town. I know I go once a week, so I know they don't have it. So if you go to some big site like thrift books, something like that, or if you wanna buy it new. I like to buy used books. And the reason being is, is because I like to see where somebody else went. I like the inscriptions on the front. I like what they underlined.'cause I'm just imagine, I don't know who the, who the person was. And I just imagine like I. Why it was gifted to 'em or what was going on in their life when they underlined a certain passage. So that's what's super cool about this. So, alright, let's get to the, to the meat of this, because what I wanna do is, I just really wanna riff off of this section. I think it's, I think it's super, super key when it comes to adapting and learning. Uh, and continuing to evolve your game. And your game is both professionally and personally. So you don't have to be an athlete. We're a life athlete, we're a sales athlete. If you're in sales, I talk a lot about sales because that's, that's my bag, that's what I do. I've been doing this going on 27 years. But you can swap out the metaphor of sales, swap it out to any profession, um, and apply it to your life. So. This is what he says early on in the book. He said, when it came to basketball, I had no fear. And he said, what I mean by that is, is if I wanted to implement something into my new game, into my game, I'd see it and try incorporating it immediately. So in other words, he would see something and immediately he wouldn't be like one of, he's not one of those guys, and he trained himself this way. Okay. He wasn't one of those guys that says, man, that'd be nice to do. How many times have you said that? Daily. Like, yeah, I need to get around it, man, that's interesting. And you then you don't do nothing, uh, don't do anything with it. My mom would slap me with the grammar there. So, uh, so he says immediately, as soon as he saw something that he wanted to put into his game, he put it in there immediately and he said, I'd see it and try incorporating it. And he said, I wasn't scared of missing, looking bad or being embarrassed. He said that's because I always kept the result, the long game in mind. See, what he was willing to do is, is he would see something, he would implement it, knowing he's not gonna get it right away, but he would work that thing over and over again. And so he wasn't a, uh, afraid of looking foolish, being embarrassed, any of that. He put it in, he put it in, he put it in, and he worked. It worked. It worked. It kind of like, you know, when you're, when you're shaping clay on a potter's wheel or you, you got that bread, my dad likes to make bread. So when he, when he puts that, that dough and he works it, he needs that bread. That's what, that's what you have to do. Well, that's what Kobe did, and that's my message to you today. So. It's about, and so what he was willing to do is, is he was willing to look foolish in the temporary because he wasn't interested. He wasn't really focused on the temporary situation. He understood that as he incorporated this and got better at it. This would be another set in his bag. This would be another part of his arsenal. So he was willing to forego the temporary foolishness, looking inadequate, and that's a lot of times why we don't do anything different. A lot of times with the initiative in life, we get a new job and the initiation is learn this. Position. And so we learn to position enough to hold our own. And then once somebody kind of wanders off, then what we do is, is we just kind of keep that same skillset and we don't do anything else until we're forced to. So some sort of new technology, we dodge, we delay, we procrastinate, we dance around, we delegate it out until we're finally forced to have to do something. And so what is different between Kobe and somebody like you and me? Is he is willing to. As soon as he sees something, he adopts that and he puts it into place. Early on in sales, and this is what I tell salespeople, this is something, when I read this, I really smile because this is what I do. As soon as I see something and it resonates with me, I'm like, I'm running with that. I'm going with that. And so I've done that early on in my sales career because it is impossible. I tell new salespeople this, it is impossible for me to teach you everything about sales. I. There's so many nuances that come across. There's so many things that flash up. I can't teach you all of that. So much of this is, has to be experienced. You gotta put it in, you gotta weather it, you gotta figure it out. You gotta make it make sense for you. And you just gotta keep working that thing over and over again. Repetition, repetition, repetition, and then adjusting these things along the way. But as you do that, then you get more skillful. And so it wasn't that I ever set out that I could run the whole front end of the store. I never said that. I just am curious. This is why curiosity is something I coach off of and stress to you about creativity, communication. Confrontation. This is a form of confrontation because what he does is he doesn't delay. Kobe saw something and he immediately put it into his game, and then he understood that this is a long game. See, what you have to understand is this is a long, infinite game, infinite game that you're playing, and so you gotta play this thing. And be willing to look foolish, be willing to look, um, uh, inadequate at times. But if you'll do that, it's just a suspension from your old experience. You learn that, then you attach it to your experience that you've had before. And now, bro, you are lethal. Back to the book, he said, um, if the price was a lot of work and a few missed shots, I was okay with that. I wanna stress this if the price was a lot of work. And a few missed shots. I'm cool with that. So he was willing to miss the shots. He was willing to, he didn't look at the price necessarily of how is it gonna, how is it gonna play out? See, a lot of times that's what we do. Well, I mean, what's in it for me? There's a lot in it for you. If you'll look at the price that you pay, a lot of hard work. The time that you put into it, if you look at it, is just an investment. Into yourself, into your skillset, into continuously staying flexible. We gotta stay fluid and flexible in our lives. You know, as you age, then you start getting stiff in the same way. Professionally and personally. As we age, we get stiff if we don't break outside these. E enough is enough. We don't break outside of what we've already learned. You gotta stretch a little bit, man. And these are micro doses. These are little things you just pick up along the way, and so he was willing to. Pay the price because look, the results are gonna be what the results are. But I can tell you this, if you're aligned and you're putting in good quality effort and work, and you're not worried about the result, it's going to come back in your favor. It will always come back in your favor, not maybe how you expected it to, but there will be some sort of residual effect and you use that and then life may take a sudden direction, but because you were willing to just. Put that thing out there and continuously learn, then all of a sudden you're off to the races. From there, back to the book, he said, as a kid, I would work tirelessly on adding elements to my game. He was tirelessly, uh, about this. Now here's the thing, if you're young listening to this, then adopt this mentality right now. If you are old, you are not. Excluded from this. You can, you can adopt this right now. There are so many opportunities that you're gonna face today, okay? And if you will just put your little big lips aside and you're feeling flush and your hives break out and you, you know, you, you choke up a little bit, if you will, push that aside and say, fuck it, man. I'm gonna do it. I, you're, you're gonna realize it wasn't so bad and you're gonna feel better, you're gonna feel more empowered. You're like, ah, this is how you earn your freedom. This is how you earn your confidence. This is how you do more things. And so look as a, if you're young or if you're older, if you're seasoned. Start putting things into your game. He said, I would see something I liked on a person or a film, and then I would go practice it immediately. I would practice it more the next day and I would go out and use it. This is key. And so what he said is, is I would see something now. Later on in the book he said, he said, I would see something and then he would practice it. Here's what's interesting. Later on in the book, hopefully I dogeared it. I did. Let's see if I can get to it real quick. Film study is all about detail. This is, uh, on page 28, just a few pages over, and he said, not only did I study what was on the film, he said, but I studied what was missing on the film. And I was like, oh, the gaps as genius. So he said, I looked at the nuances, I looked at how the play was supposed to be. Or the tendencies, but also was aware of what was missing and what should have happened or shouldn't have happened. And so he looked at the spaces between the lines. That's what the unseen. And so when you're looking at something, don't just be head faked on what you see. What's the space, what's the opportunity, what should be there or shouldn't be there. I. And this is how he adopted his game. And I, I, I found that was super interesting. So he said, I would see something, I liked it on film, and I would go practice it immediately and do it over and over again. It wasn't, he wasn't a one pump jump. He wasn't just, well, didn't work. Just because something doesn't work right now doesn't mean it, it won't work and doesn't mean it's not working. It takes reps, it takes, just stop putting some sort of timetable on it. If you believe in what you see and it makes sense to you, man, put it into your game. And I'm saying pro professionally and, uh, personally as well. He said I would, and he said, oh, this is Keith. He said, by the time I reached the league, I, I had a short learning curve. He said, I would see something, download it. And then I, I had it down pat. So meaning that because he had trained himself so much that when he got into the league he could snap something really quick and implement it. So see, this is, he's telling you this is a skill that if you work this tirelessly all the time and just put it in. And you'll do this. Then what you're gonna be able to do is the learning curve is gonna start like way wide, and then it's gonna continuously get tighter and tighter and tighter. Case in point, last night I was talking to my daughter when I came home and she was doing some sort of dance move. She's like, I got it down pat no time. And I'm like, man, uh, V my wife, I'm like. Man, she's still trying to learn that. And she's like, well, that's the benefit that I get from, from years of cheer, because she had to learn things on the fly, the choreography. So they would put something in there real quick and they had to, they had to do it, uh, perform it flawlessly. And so it's that skillset. That she's able to now use and she can use this in any area of her, of her life. Same thing with Kobe. In his aspect, it was basketball. So he would do these moves, but it would shorten the timeframe. So even if something was new and he liked it, he could, he could get real proficient at it real quick. You know, it's kind of like. I was thinking about this this morning. It's kinda like I had a buddy I used to play golf with. When I play golf, I don't play golf anymore, but when I play golf and I, I told him one day, I said, bro, you need two clubs in your bag. That's all you need. You need a three wood and a putter.'cause that's the only damn thing you use. See, he had all these other. Irons in his bag, but because he, he, he, he would hit, he would duff shots. He would look foolish, and because he couldn't hit 'em straight or know how to really work 'em, then he just wouldn't use 'em at all. He did the thing that was comfortable for him, which was the putter in the three wood. That's the only thing that he actually, literally, that's the only, it didn't matter where he was off the tee box in the fairway, in the sand track. It didn't matter. He used the three wood. And I'm like, and he, you know, he was okay. But I'm like, you know, as I was thinking about this, this morning, that's what we do in our lives. We, we use two clubs. We use two clubs and, and that is it. And we have all these irons in our bag, yet we don't use them because we don't wanna look foolish because it means we have to learn. So, because it's uncomfortable, because we're gonna look inadequate because the way I am doing it is working. It's working, man, but what else could work for you too? How much more powerful will your life be if you could amp this up? Uh, let's see. Continuing on to the book. He said from the beginning, I wanted to be the best. And you know what? I looked up the word best. When you're reading stuff like this. Don't just take best at face value. Like, look it up. I say I, I asked Siri. I'm like, what does best mean? And, you know, best means it means most effective. It means advantageous. It means effective. That's what it means. And so when, when it, it wasn't a ranking the best, that's just whatever it's gonna be. And it depends on the error too.'cause everybody argue argued down about that. But when you, when you work to be the best. It means that you're effective in what you do. It means that you're finding your edges and, and your advantages. It means that you're effective in everything that you do. Okay, I think I said that twice, but that's okay. Alright. So he said from the beginning, I wanted to be the best he had. I, I had a constant craving and yearning to improve, to be the best. I never needed external. Forces to motivate me. Are you waiting for something from the outside to force you? Whether it be something you get kicked in the nuts and you're forced to change, or whether you're waiting to be inspired. See, he had an internal drum and it was like, man, what? What can I learn today? So much so that his life outside of basketball was super, super colorful. Uh, as well. I think he won like a Emmy or some shit like that. So back to the book, he said During my rookie year, at first. Some of the scouting reports said I wasn't tough, and then, oh, actually I'm gonna skip all that. Uh, okay, so here's what he said. He said, I didn't need the extra push to be great. He said, from day one I wanted to dominate. My mindset was I'm gonna figure you out and I'm gonna figure it out. I think that's interesting. He said, not only am I gonna figure out. Like what I want to add to my tool set here, my arsenal, but I'm gonna figure you out too. And so he studied what was missing, what was not missing. He was looking at the tendencies and then working on his game too. I love that. He said, I'm gonna figure it out and I'm gonna figure you out. And he said, my mindset was, I, I don't care who you are. And he names these different players. Ai, uh, Tracy, Vince, um, he said. Who, whoever it was LeBron, he said, didn't matter. He said, my goal was to figure you out. He said, and to do that, to figure out those puzzles. I love that puzzles. That's how he looked at players. They're just puzzles. They're just chess pieces. So those puzzles, I was willing to do way more than anyone else. And here's, here's what's cool, like there's a big gap here. And then at the end he said, that's, that's the fun part for me. Oh my God. So he said, not only am I gonna figure it out, I'm gonna figure you out. And he said, the way that I'm gonna do that is I'm gonna do more than anyone else. And that was the fun part for me. See, he made this super, super fun. He said that was the fun part for me. See, this is learning can be fun. Why look at learning as an event? Why look at it as an initiation and why not? This is why I love random reading every single day. This is why I like sharing something with you every single day. The reason being is it's fun. It primes my mind. It gets me conditioned. I'm ready to go. And bro, when I walk outside these doors. Fuck, bro. I'm ready. And that's the fun part. You gotta make this thing fun. Life is too damn short. I think Val Kilmore died yesterday. 65 fucking years old. How young is that man? And I just wonder like God rest his soul, man. It's like what was left on the table for man? What else could he done? Like beautiful movies he made, Iceman was from Top Gun. He was my dude. Right. He was just the, the anti-hero. But it's just, you know, that was the fun part. I. I digress, but it's just like, man, life is so short. There are so many fun things to do, man. But you gotta prime your mind. You gotta constantly learn and you gotta fucking get out there and put the reps in. You gotta have fun with it. Look foolish, laugh at yourself. Stop acting like you got it all together 'cause you don't. We're a work in progress. Just don't be a work in regress. Alright, let's get outta here. Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Peace.