The School of Greatness - Kobe Bryant’s LAST GREAT INTERVIEW On MAMBA MENTALITY & What REALLY Matters In Life

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

Today we pay tribute to the late, great Kobe Bryant, a legendary figure whose impact transcended the basketball court. Lewis  takes us on a heartfelt journey through Kobe's remarkable life, celebrating not just his athletic achievements but his extraordinary character. Known for his 'Mamba Mentality,' Kobe inspired millions with his dedication, resilience, and relentless pursuit of greatness.In this episode you will learnThe essence of Kobe Bryant's Mamba Mentality and how it can be applied to your own life.Strategies for transforming failures into stepping stones for success.The importance of dedication and daily effort in achieving greatness.How to stay focused on your goals, regardless of obstacles.Insights into Kobe's journey beyond basketball, and the legacy he left behind.For more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1566For more Greatness text PODCAST to [phone]More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Inky Johnson – https://link.chtbl.com/1483-podStephen A. Smith – https://link.chtbl.com/1380-podMikaela Shiffrin – https://link.chtbl.com/1470-pod

I think that's what greatness is or should be. It's not something that lives and dies with one person. It's how can you inspire a person to then in turn inspire another person that then inspires another person. And that's how you create something that I think lasts forever. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. I'm so excited for you to experience one of Kobe Bryant's last interviews. For me, it was so inspiring to connect with him

and hear about his stories about love, life, basketball, relationships, and what it means to leave a legacy and his definition of greatness. Also, we have five minutes of exclusive bonus footage that has never been released that I'm going to share with you at the end of this interview and also share with you my whole experience of meeting Kobe and the lessons I learned. I'm so excited for you to watch this interview and to see the bonus content at the end. It's content that we found recently that we are now releasing with this interview. Again, stay tuned to the end and I hope you enjoy one of the great interviews of Kobe Bryant. Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. We have the incredible legendary Kobe Bryant, my man. It's good to

meet you. Pleasure, man. Congrats on everything. You're an icon, a legend. And the thing I love the most about you is that you really care about other human beings. Your heart is so big, even though you've been known for this focus mentality that is just almost psycho in some ways, but you care deeply about human beings. And I think that's why so many people love you as well. So I want to acknowledge you for your kindness and generosity towards humanity. My first question for you is I'm curious about who was your greatest teacher growing up? Because you had an interesting childhood being in Italy for a while,

coming back to Philadelphia, I think it was. Who was the greatest teacher for you in those early days? That's funny, I had a lot of them. My parents were great. Growing up, they instilled in me the importance of imagination, of curiosity, and understanding that, okay, if 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.

So they taught me that 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 know you grew up having that fundamental belief yeah who was more influential for you your father or mother it both were influential at different points yeah right my mom was there on a daily basis my father was really influential at a really critical time where I had a summer where I played basketball when I was like 10 or 11 years old in a very prominent summer league in Philadelphia called the Sunny Hill League.

My father played, my uncle played, and they were like all-time greats and stuff. Bo Chamberlain played in the league, Earl LaPromerot played in the league, and here I come playing and i don't score one point the entire summer really not one how old were you 11 10 11. you're playing against other 10 11 year olds right and you didn't score once not one were you in the game i was in the game how did you not score because i was terrible really yeah that happened 11 years old you were that awful i mean you know and i had these big knee pads on because I was growing really fast. I had socks all the way up here and I had like the high top face.

Skinny. Like skinny as hell. And I scored not a free throw, not a nothing, not a lucky shot, not a breakaway layup, zero points. And I remember crying about it and being upset about it. My father just gave me a hug and said, listen, whether you score zero or score 60, I'm going to love you no matter what. Wow. Now, that is the most important thing that you can say to a child.

Because from there, I was like, okay, that gives me all the confidence in the world to fail. I have the security there. But to hell with that, I'm scoring 60. Let's go. Right, right. And from there, I just went to work. I stayed with it. I kept go. Right, right. Right and from there I just went to work. I just stayed with it. I kept practicing, kept practicing, kept practicing. Is that when you think the

mentality of hard work started to come in for you at that age when you failed so miserably I guess that summer? 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 in a year. Right. So that's when I sat down and said, OK, this is going to take some thought. All 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. Do nothing but shoot.

All right. After that, all right. Creating your own shot. And then you focus. So you start I started creating a menu of things. When I came back the next summer, I was a little bit better. Right. And then you'd be like, I've got my jump shot from 15. I came back the next summer, I was a little bit better. I mean, you mean like I've got my jump shot from 15, I've got my fadeaway. Yeah, I got my jump shot from 15,

I got my three point shot, like just open shots, not miss open shots. Be able to shoot it with speed, because those kids are so much more athletic. And then the next summer I came back, I was a little better. And the summer came back, the next summer I was a little better.

I scored. It wasn't much, but I scored. And this is 12, 13. 12, 13. And then 14 came back, next summer I was a little better. I scored. It wasn't much, but I scored. This is 12, 13. 12, 13. 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 it to happen in two years, but it did.

Because what I had to do was work on the basics and the fundamentals. Well, they relied on their athleticism and their natural ability. And because I stick to the fundamentals, it just caught up to them. And then my body, you know, my knees stopped hurting. I grew into my frame. And then your athleticism, once you have the fundamentals, the hard work, the mindset, and you tack on the athleticism, it's game over. Then it was game over. Wow.

So from 13, you're good average still? I was good. I was good. And then about, about like the end of my third, like right when I was turning 14, I became the best player in the state. At 14? At 14. So from 12 to 14, you went from scoring zero to being the best in the state of all ages. Yep. But it's simple. Like if you do the math on this, right? Like if you, if you're thinking about how often kids are playing. Right. I tell this to my to my daughter and my daughter's team as well that I coach. It's a simple thing of math. If you want to be a great player, if you play every single day, two, three hours, every single day or a course of a year. How much better are you getting? Most kids will play maybe, you know, an hour and a half, two days a week.

Right. Put a math on that. For the season. It's not going to get it done. It's not going to get it done. Right? So if you're obsessively training two, three hours every single day over a year, over two years.

You're going to accelerate. You make quantum leaps, man. Just doing a summer camp for two weeks, you see a difference. I remember playing basketball. You see it. You get a lot get a lot better you come back more confident playing on the playground with guys who used to beat you yeah and i and like i tell the parents on my team i said it's it's when i say your kids are going to become great basketball players and like really like yeah it's not there's no math that's it show up every single day up every single day do the work but you have this mamba mentality your book's coming out soon.

And how did you develop this? There's a beautiful story that I love from Jay Williams. I don't know if you remember Jason Williams. Where he did an interview a while back and he talked about how when he played you, I think the first time, or one of the first times he played against you, he was like, I'm going to show up so early to the court to warm up and practice before anyone. And he shows up at the court. I don't know if it was in L.A. or where I was. And you were the only one there already shooting free throws, already doing your fundamentals. He goes, I'm going to stay here until Kobe leaves. And then he was like, gosh, an hour and a half, two hours later, I got to go. I'm tired. And Kobe's still shooting free throws, scoring, like just going over the fundamentals. And Kobe's still shooting free throws, scoring,

like just going over the fundamentals. And he goes, and then we played that game, and you were lights out. And he came up to you afterwards and said, like, dude, why were you in there for so long, and how'd you do it? And he said, this is what he said you said. He said, I knew you were watching, and I wanted to show you that I was willing to outwork you.

Right. Something along those lines. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you remember this. I remember it. You remember, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I thought that was so powerful that you have this mindset, but how did you develop that?

I don't know if that's what you call the Mamba mindset, but how did you develop that? And when did it start? It started in middle school and high school. Because a lot of the kids that I was playing against were inner city kids. And so you're looking at me as if, okay, this kid's soft. He's from the suburbs of Philadelphia. His father played in the NBA, played professionally. He's got it easy. Got it easy. Born on second, but you know, all this other stuff, right? And so it felt like

they could try to be physical or try to intimidate me and do all this other stuff, which they couldn't, right? But now I'm saying, okay, well, you're trying to attack me. How am I going to attack you? How can I mentally figure out ways to break you down? How can I show you that, no, I have the edge? And so that's when it first started for me, is figuring out how to get the upper hand on an opponent that way. And what would you do to mentally break people down then? Well, I mean, we used to have an All-American camp that I used to go to.

At the time, I first showed up, I was a sophomore. And one of the things I would do is, everybody would be at the cafeteria, you know, eating and doing all sorts of stuff. I'd just go back to the gym. I'd just go back to the gym. They'd be resting, eating. And they'd see me leave, right? But now you're in a tough position because you're like,

okay, I want to be like, I'm following the kid to go work out. But I know he's working, he's up early and he's doing all this other stuff. And so that was my way of showing them. Yeah, I may be from the suburbs, but you're not going to outwork me. Wow. And I'm mentally going to be much tougher.

Did someone teach you that? Was that just a thing that you decided like, I'm going to get in people's minds? I think it's just figuring out ways to be better and to win the game. And it started as a defense mechanism because, you know, they were the ones talking trash to me and, you know, kid from Italy, blah, blah, blah, and all this other stuff. It was like, okay, I can't let them.

I got to defend myself here, right? And then it became, okay, you know, I'm pretty witty. I can say some pretty witty things. And in Italian. And in Italian. It's interesting. I never was physically gifted to an extreme level. I was always really good, but I was never the fastest or biggest or strongest.

But I remember my edge was, I'm not going to go party and I'm not going to drink alcohol. So I've never been drunk still because I was like, I need every edge when guys were out partying late at night who were better than me and drinking and showing up hungover. I was like, I'm going to be more focused and have a clearer vision. But I wasn't waking up at 4 a.m. like you.

Well, that's interesting because when I played, one of the things I had to learn is how to get the best out of my teammates. Yeah. And most people think it's a simple thing, passing the ball. But that's not how you make guys better. You have to really affect their behavior.

How do you do that? So I would tell guys, you've got to back the backs. I don't care if we're in Miami. I don't care if we're in a great city like Chicago. You can't go out. We've got to get rest. Back-to-back games. Back-to- in the great city of Chicago, we can't go out, we gotta get rest. Back to back games. Back to back games, right?

Monday, Tuesday. You play Monday, you play again Tuesday. The guys aren't gonna listen, right? You're gonna, you know. Right. So, a few times, I said, alright, we'll all go out. We'll go out together. Really?

I'll drink with you. Right? But the next morning, I'm banging on your door at five in the morning. Let's go! They're not getting that. Where are we going? I hung out with you. Now you come hang out with me.

This is what we do. All right, let's go. And we're at the gym. We're working out, right? We hit the bus. We go to practice. We play that night. And they're dead.

And they're dead. And they're like, lesson learned. Really? Lesson learned. So you take them out once. Listen, if you're going to do that, do that. But don't let that compromise what we're here to do. This is why we're here.

This is why you're here in the first place. Yeah. Right? And if we're going to win a championship, we have to have that championship mentality and work ethic. That's it. So you got to show them, no, Kobe can do that and still has the energy to get up and do this.

So either I got to meet that same energy or I got to keep my butt in my room. Go to bed early. Yeah. Wow. What are some other things you did to rise the level of your teammates? What are some other ways that you can? And what do you think people can do in general with a business team or any sports team? I think you have to listen and you have to pay attention to what your colleagues or teammates are saying

and what are certain things that drive them, certain things that motivate them, that trigger them. And one of my favorite ones pal hates it every time I tell this story but we lost to the Celtics in 08 and it was a physical series I mean they beat the crap yeah and so we go into the Olympic year that year we want to play in Spain for the gold medal match and we beat them and so now we come back to start training camp and Powell shows up first day of training camp. I have my gold medal hanging in his locker. Oh no.

And he, I mean, like the one thing that he truly, truly loves is his country. Of course. That is like everything to him. So it just drove him crazy. I said, Powell, listen. He said, you're an a**hole. I said, listen, Powell. You lost to the Celtics.

You lost to us in a gold medal match. Let's not make this three in a row this year. Wow. Let's win this thing. And that was it for him. And he probably stepped up on a whole other level. Well, you know, Pal was a phenomenon to begin with. And then for him was just stepping up to a level of physicality that we needed him to get to to which he did and we went on to win back-to-back championships my man yeah yeah how

important is understanding human psychology and human behavior to work with a team as opposed to just relying on your gifts and talents it's uh it's probably the most important thing you know when you're in this culture in our society you can do some phenomenal things individually, but they'll never reach their full potential unless you do them collectively. And you have to figure out how to do that. And, you know, Phil Jackson was great at that. Phil, you know, he wouldn't just coach the team or coach the game, but he'd read everything about every single player. He'd learn about your history, how you grew up, how you were raised, where were you raised. He'll read every interview and he'll learn about you

and gives him a better understanding of what's motivating you, what your insecurities are, right? And then it just helps him communicate with you better or even push a button here if he needs to. When did you learn that it was important to understand who your teammates are, what their likes or dislikes are? Was that in high school for you or more? No, I learned it from Phil. There was a stretch in 03 where Shaq was out with an injury and Phil called me up to his office and said okay we need

you to really turn on the afterburners and start scoring the ball if we have to win so I did and I wound up scoring I think it was nine straight games with 40 plus points nine straight nine straight games and then Shaq comes back second second to last game of that and then Phil calls me up to his office says Kobe okay I need you to dial it back I'm like why like we're winning I don't understand because because our goal is to win a championship and we can get through the Western Conference with you playing this way but in the East you know we can dominate them inside with Shaq in the post but if you continue to do this we'll lose Shaq we'll lose him his motivation his excitement what triggers him right so I need you to pull back so we can pull Shaq

forward for June and I just looked at him like this is one smart dude wow yeah that's one smart dude man so I pulled pulled it back. Wow. Yeah. What do you think has been the greatest challenge you've had since leaving the game? The greatest challenge. I think it's, you know, you won an Oscar. You're launching podcasts and shows. And you've got a book coming out. Yeah. but it's

it's it's different though like you know we were just talking about it here in the office the other day you know when you play the game you hit a game-winning shot you miss a shot the reactions there you can see how people responding to it right you can feel it the energy is my energy is there. The energy is there. What I do now, you don't. Like, I don't see how people are affected by deer basketball or, you know, creating the punies and you put it out there. Like, I wish I could see a car ride of a family the first time their daughter hears Lily's Lemonade and what she's doing, you know, she's singing along to it. That's not there, right? So that's the challenge. that's the one thing that I miss

is being able to feed off of the energy. The instant feedback that you get from missing or scoring a shot, winning or losing a game, it's like either way you're getting a result, right? Yes, yes, yes, that's the one thing. And when I went to, because I spent a lot of time with mentors as well, up at Pixar and Disney Studios,

they've been absolutely wonderful animation, Disney animation. And I've talked to them about Frozen and Moana and how our kids love them. And they're always like, oh, that's awesome. And they wanna hear it because they don't ever get a chance to truly see it. They're not sitting in a movie theater like.

No, no, and they don't have time to go to Disneyland and walk around the park and see how many families are enjoying the content that they've created because they're busy making the next one. Creating. Yes, yes, so busy making the next one. Creating. Yes, yes. So that's the one thing. What do you think the biggest challenge is for most athletes after they retire?

I think it's the fear of starting anew. And that was certainly present for me as well. Really? Yeah. Like an identity, you mean? Well, it's starting from scratch, right? Because when you play for 20 years, you reach a certain level, you certain level you're like okay wait a minute i have to start again at the base of a mountain and try to climb the top of this mountain first of all what mountain am i

climbing i don't even know like what the hell am i going to be doing it'd be it's very it's very scary it's very even for you oh absolutely absolutely and the thing that helped me actually was hurting my Achilles. Because that forced me to sit there and say, okay, the day could be today that your career is over. At any time, when you were playing, you mean, yeah. Now what do you do? You have these ideas about doing something with your life after basketball. But what if today is the day that you, that's it.

Now what do you do? So I had all this time sitting there with my Achilles injury and contemplating and thinking. And I said, I better get to work. Wow. That was that. What was the vision for you afterwards then? Was it to do what you're doing now?

Did you have other ideas? Or what's the vision? I struggled with it at first. Because the first question I asked, which is the wrong question, is what's the vision i struggle with it at first because the first question i asked which is the wrong question is what's the biggest industry i can get into was it more money thinking yes money thinking saying okay athletes are saying you can't make more revenue when you retire this is your source of your income is here saying okay that's a challenge what can i do and i remember going didn't you launch a fund or something? I did. I did. And so I went for a ride.

And I said, okay, stop thinking of it that way. You're thinking of it the wrong way. Why did you start playing basketball? Because I loved it. All right, what do you love to do? Oh, I love to tell stories. All right, let's do that. And then that's where it started for me.

And then on top of that, it became things like, you know, you started learning more about the financial industry and about players going broke once they retire and saying, okay, how can I minimize the chances of that happening? What are things that I can do to invest my money smartly? Also help control some of that outcome to a certain extent. And that's when I called Mike Rapoli. Mike Rapoli was an entrepreneur who built Vitamin Water and Pirate's Boot and some other companies

and started learning from him. And then from that came the opportunity to invest in Body Armor. Yeah. And which, yeah, which we're drinking now. It's delicious. But all that came from the injury and really having to self-assess and face that really dark room of what comes next. Storytelling is something you're really passionate about. What's a story over your life that's been a constant theme that you go back to?

Is there something you heard as a kid that really resonates with you or a, or a movie that just feels like this is me? Yeah, that's funny. Movies, there are plenty, but there's a quote from one of my English teachers at Lower Merion named Mr. Fisk. He had a great quote that said, "'Rest at the end, not in the middle.'" And that's something I always live by.

I'm not gonna rest, I going to keep on pushing now. There are a lot of answers that I don't have. Even questions that I don't have. But I'm just going to keep going. I'm just going to keep going. And I'll figure these things out as I go. And you just continue to build that way. So I try to live by that all the time.

Rest at the end. Rest at the end. What's the question that eats you alive the most that you haven't answered yet the question that eats me alive that i haven't answered yet but you're still looking for the answer i'm still looking for the answer uh how to tell a good story i don't think anybody has that answer you know like when i sat down uh to write deer basketball i was like okay what do i want to say and um you know you have certain acts and how you can structure certain things right the ebbs and flows of story uh certain formulas that have been there since the beginning of time but it's such an in that an exact so challenging yeah? And so that one question is really interesting.

Why do you want to tell a great story? I think stories is what moves the world. Whether it's an inspirational story, whether it's an informational one, nothing in this world moves without story. From the political world, sports world, nothing that we have moves without story um and so i think that is the root of everything and if we're going to try to make the world a

better place story is the right place to start i agree but most people understand like my last year people would come up to me and say okay what are you going to do i said i'm gonna be a storyteller really and they go they're like what are you talking about? All right, man. So what's going to happen? Yeah. They're like, what's going to happen when you retire is you're going to go through like a week of depression. Yeah. Then the second week is going to be like denial and all that stuff.

Right. I'm like, dude, seriously, I'm good. So after a while, I just got sick of it. And I just said, I don't know. I don't know. I'll go play golf or something. Right. Just tell them a lie.

I'm not going to do anything. I'll mess with real estate. Whatever. I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to sit around. What does losing feel like to you? It's exciting. Why is it exciting? Because it means you have different ways to get better. There are certain things that you can figure out that you can take advantage of. Certain weaknesses that were exposed

that you need take advantage of right certain weaknesses that were exposed that you need to shore up right so it was exciting i mean it sucks to lose right but at the same time there are answers there if you just look at them um because you get the information from losing more than from winning probably yeah yeah i mean the answers are there when you win too you just have to look at them yeah right so it's a constant process answers are there when you win, too. You just have to look at them. Yeah. Right? So it's a constant process. It's exciting when you win. It's exciting when you lose because the process should be exactly the same. Whether you win or you lose is you go back and you look and you find things that you could have done better. You find things that you've done well that worked. You figure out how did they work? Why did they work? How can you make them work again? Yeah.

But the hardest thing is to face that stuff. That's a really, really tough challenge. You mean face it? You mean look yourself in the mirror and say, okay, this is how I showed up or this is what happened? I'll give you an example. So Katie Lou Sanderson is one of the best college basketball players in the country. She plays at UConn.

She's going to be a senior. Right now? Right now. And she's from Huntington Beach out here by us. And so she comes down and she works with some of my girls on the team and she helps from Huntington Beach out here by us and so she comes down and she works with some of my girls on the team and she helps coach and they just had a really tough season last year where they lost to Notre Dame in the final. That's right. Really tough. First loss in like years right? And so I asked her, I said have you watched the Notre Dame game? She was like no. I said well why not? She said I don't want to watch that. I said, I know you don't, but you're going to play Notre Dame this year, yeah?

Yeah. What's the chances you see them again in the final? She goes, well, you'll probably see them again. I said, well, you can't show up and play them without knowing why you lost that one, right? So, you know, the mistakes that you've made in that game, you have to do the hard stuff and watch that game and study that game To not make those mistakes over and over again Just because you weren't brave enough to face it. So she came down to the office I brought down the office and we sat down we watched that game together. Oh, right. Did you got a Gotta deal with ace it got to deal with it face it learn from it. Wow, it must have been cringing for her

Did you be like, oh you playing like we could have won? from it. Wow, it must have been cringing for her to be like, oh, you're playing like we could have won. Well, that's exactly it, isn't it? I just did that one thing. If I didn't get that foul, if I scored that layup. That's exactly right. You look at it and say, oh, there's the mismatch. Oh, there's the gap. You know, and all those little things and it sucks. But, but you don't want to have that feeling again, do you? Right? So you got to really study it, face it. And not to say you'll win the next time, but at least you'll give yourself a better chance. And what was your routine and ritual like after every game?

Would you watch almost every game over or certain games? All of them. Every game you'd watch? Every game. The whole game? The whole game. No way. Yeah. So it started with me when I was a – when Phil Jackson's, his first year here with the Lakers,

one of the assistant coaches, his name was Tex Winter, and I call him Yoda. I mean, he was like 82 when he got here. Wow. And he was responsible for teaching me the triangle offense. How old were you then? I was 21. So three years, four years in the league? Yeah, so about my fourth year in the league.

Okay. 21. So three years, four years in the league? Yeah, so about my fourth year in the league. And so I go up to his room, and this is when there were no iPads or anything like that, right? So when you're on the road, you have to call down to the front desk and have to bring up the TV with the whole, you know, the rolly thing and the VHS and the cassette tape and pop it in. And I thought we're going to watch what we call touches. So watch all your touches when you have the ball, all the decisions you make, good ones and bad. No. We're watching the start of the game to the end of the game.

And not like the TV feed. We're watching the in-arena feed. The layup line, the timeouts. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Rewinding, stopping, fast forward, rewinding, slow motion, every little thing, every game of that season with the 82-year-old Yoda. Oh, my gosh. Who is as brutally honest as you can get.

What did that teach you that season? It taught me to look at detail. Look at things that they're smallest. Look at body language. Look at the energy between players, our team and the other team. Look at the tactics. Look at the overall strategy and look at how tactically things are manifesting themselves. And because I watched so much film, then it gave me the ability to see game in real time

as if I was watching film. Where I can see, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. Because a lot of times the game starts moving really fast. But if you train yourself to watch hours and hours of film, the game's not moving that fast anymore. You can really recognize who's doing what and why. Then you can position guys in the right places in real time. Seeing it before it happens.

Yes. Yeah. You know, in football, we'd watch it once a week, game film, but not, you know, after every game. It was only one game a week. You got like three weeks sometimes. Yeah, you got to go. And I know Tom Brady is obsessive over game film as well. I mean, watching his show that came out, Tom vs. Time, was all about him just in there studying.

Even months after the game, he's studying to prepare, right? It's just like, he's obsessed. And that's one of the keys, you think. It's like, if you're not watching film,

whether it be as a speaker on stage or a performer and a musician, if you're not watching yourself back. You've got to learn, man. I mean,

Beyonce is the same thing. Really? After a performance, she's immediately on her laptop re-watching the performance. No way. Yes. Seeing how to do things better. What could we have done differently? Right? I mean, it's just an obsessiveness that comes along with it. You want things to be as perfect as they can be. Understanding that nothing is ever perfect. But the challenge is trying to get them as perfect as they can be. Understanding that nothing is ever perfect. But the challenge is try to get them as perfect as they can be.

And what can you do? It's in your control. So control what you can. I can watch film all day long. It's going to help me get better. Yes. Now, did you have your teammates also follow on this obsessiveness that you had as well? Or did you just encourage them?

Or what was the... No, you can't push somebody to do that, right? But what you can do is alter behavior and also change the vernacular of how they speak about the game. So on team buses, team planes, in a locker room, after practice, I would look at the film. I'd pull Powell, Lamar, D. Fish,

pull them aside and say, let's look at this, right? We probably should have done this, that, and the other. So you'll show them the game from a little bit here and there. Yeah, and then you speak to them in executional terms. It's never, come on, guys, we can do better. Come on, guys, we can do better. That's rah-rah stuff.

A leader must give very tactical things that we can do, adjustments. Okay, the defense is doing this, that, and the other. That means we should probably do this defense is doing this, that, and the other. That means we should probably do this, this, this, that, and the other. By midway through the season, through that behavior, you start seeing them communicating the same way back to you. And it's like, okay, Cole, they're doing this, that, and the other to you. Maybe we should do this, that, and the other. You're like, okay, yeah, awesome, great, let's do it.

What about season 16, 17, 18? Are you still watching every game film as obsessively as the first 10 years? Not now, no. Well, when I was playing. When you were playing. Yeah, so when I was playing, what I would do is study the film, but study our younger players and see what areas do they need to develop in and how can I help them develop. developing and how can I help them develop? I mean, that was the big challenge is you move 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. What I mean, you were so dominant your whole

career. One of the greatest of all time. Was there a weakness that you had? Or did you because obviously, you're always trying to master your weaknesses so they became your strengths. But did you, at the end or towards the end, did you ever feel like, gosh, I still haven't, like, mastered this one part of the game? The challenge for me was always compassion and empathy. Because you're like, guys, let's go. Get results. Shut up. Don't complain, right?

I don't want to hear you whining. I don't want to hear it. No excuses. Don't tell me how rough the water is. Just bring the boat in. You know, like, I don't want to hear it. You. I don't want to hear it. No excuses. Don't tell me how rough the water is. Just bring the boat in. You know, I don't want to hear it. You know? And it's understanding, like, okay, these guys have lives outside of here.

They have other things happening. They have other things happening to them that may be affecting the way that they're practicing or the way that they're performing. And it was hard for me to understand that because nothing bothered me. Anything personal, you know, never fazed me when I played. You compartmentalized it. Very well. So I couldn't understand how my teammates

couldn't do that either. So I had to really work on that aspect of it. That's hard. Yeah, it is. Do you feel like you never really had the compassion you wish you would have had? Like until the last maybe couple of years? Yeah, I think about 2009 things started changing for me.

I started really making a conscious effort to better understand. And that doesn't mean you have compassion and empathy so you go soft on them. It's more like 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 for this player to get them to the next level? So it's never, it's not sit around and it's all happy-go-lucky type of thing. Your leader, your job is to get the best out of them, even if they may not like it at that time. Yeah. wow. What are you most proud of from your 20 seasons?

Honestly, it sounds, may sound a little shallow, but I gotta say beating the Celtics in game seven. That's what I'm most proud of. Why? Because it was the hardest. You know, you're playing with Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett. All-stars. Ray Allen.

And, you know, it was myself, Powell, and the players that other teams didn't want. And, you know, how do we figure out as a group what to do? And the reason why I love that series so much is that we went down three games to two against Boston. And now you've got two games coming home. I remember sitting in the locker room, and they beat the crap out of us, too, that game. So we're sitting in the locker room, and it's really, really quiet. I'm sitting there looking around, and we just lost the Celtics in 08. So this is like revenge, right?

And they're kicking our butt again, right? So I sit around and I just started laughing. I started laughing and then I remember Derek Fisher looked at me like, and Lamar looked at me and goes, what is funny? I said, dude, they beat the crap out of us. They just beat the crap out of us. I said, I'm missing the part where that's funny. I said, man, listen, if we start this season

and they say all you have to do is win two games at home and you're an NBA champ, would you take that? Yeah. Right. That's all we got to do. Go home, win two, we're NBA champions. All we got to do is win two games in a row.

That's it. We'll take care of the first game and I promise you they're not winning game seven on our home floor. It's not happening. So we all just laughed about it. And then we went out and we figured it out. But that game seven was, we're down 15 points in the fourth quarter, right? And that's when you have to collectively look at each other and say, you know, the spirit of your team must be good. Because at that moment is when teams fracture. If the energy amongst each other isn't there, that trust isn't there, you're done. And we were able to collectively dig deep together and say, all right, we're going to figure this thing out.

And I wasn't playing well. I wasn't shooting the ball well at all. And so my teammates picked you up and they delivered. Yes. Wow. Gosh, man. I want to be respectful of your time. I know we've got only probably like five to seven minutes left um I saw on Instagram that you're up at like 4 a.m lifting by yourself in the dark and again you've had in one of the most incredible careers, arguably of all time, made all the money in the world, got a freaking Oscar now. You've got all these other things happening, and yet you're still waking up, or at least you're in the gym at 4 a.m. working out.

And you just turned 40, right? Congratulations, by the way. Thank you. I hope I look as good as you. Why still wake up that early and train at this level in your life right now? Well, I mean, there's several factors for that. Like when I first retired, let myself go a little bit. Really?

You got a little. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. A little chubby life. It was awesome. You enjoyed everything. Oh, man, I'm eating. What?

In and out. Well, man. Bring it to me. Let's go. Steak. Oh, let's go. Right. Milkshakes.

Let's do it. Let's do it. And then the challenge was, okay, can I get back in shape? And it's really hard because there's no end goal. There's no game. There's no season. So how do you motivate yourself to do it? How do you? And so for me, it was like, okay, I have to aim for something.

So I said, I want to aim for size. I want to aim for bulk. So that's a tangible thing. I'm going to go for that. But then also, it's my children. Because your kids can't see how hard you work. You go to the office, I come to the studio, they don't really see the effort. So how can we teach our children what it means to work hard? Well, you do it through training.

So when I get up in the morning, my daughter goes with me. 4 a.m.? 4 a.m. My 15-year-old the morning, my daughter goes with me. 4 a.m.? 4 a.m. My 15-year-old goes with me. She goes with me before school, and it becomes a daddy-daughter thing. That's cool. She just got her permit, so she drives in the morning. It becomes a cool thing.

But through that process, she understands the value of hard work and things taking time. And the same thing with my 12-year-old. She practices every day. And so it's through those behaviors is where I find the motivation to do it. And what brings you the most joy right now? Being with my family. Really? Man, that is the most fun.

It's just hanging out with them all summer, being able to do things that i ordinarily couldn't do yeah because of training because of season and stuff like that so being around them and watching bianca grow up because a lot of things that i miss with natalia and gianna because i was playing so being there every day with them is so much fun man so it brings me the most joy that's amazing and what does what What does love feel like for you? What does love feel like? Happiness is such a, I think I would describe love as happiness. I think I'd describe it as a beautiful journey. It has its ups and downs, right? Whether it's in marriage or whether it's in the career,

you know, things are never perfect, but through love you continue to persevere and you move through them, you move through them. And then through that storm, beautiful sun emerges, right? And inevitably another storm comes and guess what? You ride that one out too. So I think love is a certain determination and persistence to go through the good times and the bad times with someone or something that you truly love. You've got a new podcast out right now called The Punies, which I started listening to.

I've listened to the first two episodes. It's incredible. I started listening to, I listened to the first two episodes, it's incredible. They're like 13 to 15 minute episodic storytelling, you know, cartoons, I guess, for kids. And the thing I love about it the most is it's funny, it's entertaining, there's original music, there's all these different characters. You're teaching history like in a fun way which i like

the last one where it's like you know we we talk about history so we don't repeat it right in our own lives and then you teach the lessons about overcoming failure for kids and insecurities and challenges we're facing and i think it's beautiful can you talk about the punies in the podcast and what it's all about yeah so the punies um came to me uh from you know we have our family tradition where we watch um the sandlot every four for july god it's the greatest movie right in the summer yeah yeah it's the best baby dude come on so like that's our family ritual oh my god every four for july sandlot sandlot right and so after watching the sandlot when i was like we need a new sports movie like this, right?

So I started kind of concepting ideas and stuff, but nothing I truly loved. And then over Thanksgiving, our other ritual was to watch Charlie Brown, right? In the pumpkin patch, right? So we watched that and then I go, whoa, wait a minute, let's just put those together. Put those together, right?

And I already had written some stories, individual stories for Puny Pete and Bebe. Two of the characters. Two of the characters and the punies. And I said, well, let's combine those. And then from that, that's when the punies started coming to fruition and I started thinking about the characters

and why does this show need to exist and what are some of the deeper messages that can be there that yeah consciously you may not observe but but you can sense and feel and that's when i started constructing the show and are you part of the whole process are you helping write the script are you helping so we have a great uh um young producer here who actually started here three years ago while he was still at SC. And has since grown into a position. It's the greatest film school.

Greatest film school. And so he and I worked together hand in hand on outlining every single episode. So we outlined each episode, the story beats, and then we found a great writer named John Holler. He's a great writer. And so we gave him the outline and he just made it a thousand times better. Wow. And then I directed each the outline, and he just made it a thousand times better. Wow. And then I directed each episode. You oversee it all?

Yeah, I directed it. So the other challenge was finding great actors. Voice acting is a different skill. Yes, it's a challenging art form. You really have to be able to communicate a lot just through your voice. An essence, an energy with your voice. And so the trick was finding actors

that have not lost that childlike quality. They can still imagine themselves being children, being at the park and playing. And once we found them, they really brought

the characters to life and now here we are with The Punies, man. It's amazing. I want you guys to go download it right now. Subscribe. It's the punies on Apple podcasts or Spotify and everything. Anywhere podcasts are at Tony guys. There's a lot of parents listen to the show, download this, listen to it in your car and do me a favor. Take a video of your kids in the car

and send it to me. Um, send it to her, tag me to me or tag me on Instagram. Tag Kobe on Instagram. Yes, please. That would be amazing. Because that's what's going to give you great feedback. Oh, gosh. That would be amazing. Seeing how kids react.

So put your phone. Again, don't film and drive. Do it when you have someone else filming it, right? But make sure you put it on GoPro and just press record. Yes. It's about 15 minutes long. Take your kids to school.

Take them to the park, too. We made them on saturdays like every saturday it's a new episode because saturday is normally the day us parents drive our kids to different sporting events to the pool to the games the parts that's why every episode has to be between 12 to you know 15 16 minutes right because that's normally the drive yeah right sometimes it may be longer and in that case you can play multiple episodes but that's something you can listen to on your way to an event. It's like many frozen and Moana episodes, right? It's like little with original music and all that stuff. It's really cool. Go download it again, take a video and tag Kobe, uh, on Instagram. Are you on Instagram a lot? I am on Instagram. Yeah. Tag him, especially Lily's lemonade, listen to Lily's

lemonade. And I would love to see kids out there trying to do the Lily's Lemonade song. Love it. Hopefully we'll get a bunch of video clips for you. And your book is out in October. It's called Mamba Mindset. Do you want to talk briefly about that? Well, the Mentality book is really about process and craft. I've broken the book up into two sections.

And process is really about the process of preparing you know through injury recovery uh studying of the game and then the craft is the actual performance and the tactics and so a lot of things that i learned through the game were through photos you can look at a photo and see like a player making a move look at the angle of his feet look how he's using his hands on defense and i can really break down things to the smallest detail through that. And that's what you'll see in this book. I mean, it's really a basketball Bible. Yeah. But it's also your mindset Bible, right? Yeah. Yeah. But you'll see how I break things down, like how I'm looking at things to the smallest of detail. Yeah. And that's the best way to understand how to have that kind of mentality is to ask questions, then find answers.

And then that leads to more questions and you find more answers and that's what the book is i love it make sure you guys get the book you can pre-order right now download the punies um follow you on social media the final question is what's your definition of greatness um i think the definition of greatness is to inspire the people next to you yeah i think that's what greatness is or should be it's not something that's that that lives and dies with one person it's how can you inspire a person to then in turn inspire another person that then inspires another person and that's how you create something I think lasts forever and I think that's our challenge as people is to is to figure out how our story can impact others and motivate them in a way to create their own greatness.

Well, I want to acknowledge you again, man, for the inspiration. You're just a symbol of truth and inspiration to so many people. Thanks, man. And I just appreciate you as a human. Appreciate it, man. Thanks, man. Appreciate you, brother. Thank you so much for watching this interview of Kobe Bryant. Again, he brought such a mentality to the game of basketball, but also he brought so

much love to life. And it's so incredible to see the stories, to hear the lessons of people who have been impacted by Kobe Bryant. I only got to meet Kobe once. We messaged a few times on social media, but I didn't know him like most people. However, I got to experience him before and after this interview in a way that I found really inspiring and uplifting. I've done over 1500 episodes on the School of Greatness. And you meet a lot of different people, people from all walks of life, people who have lots of money, lots of fame and success. And sometimes

people don't treat you the same way that Kobe does. And my experience was profound in the way that he was so busy the entire day. He had interview after interview all day, but he wanted to really take the time and ask me questions. What I'm going to do is share some bonus footage, about five minutes of never before seen video of Kobe interacting with me before and after this interview. We were able to restore this video. We were able to get the audio. The audio was we were able to restore this video. We were able to get the audio. The audio was never able to be used during the original interview, but with AI, we were able to capture more of the audio.

And that's why I wanted to share it with you today in this video. Now, before I share this bonus content, which for me was just really inspiring to watch and rewatch, I'm going to share with you what that is and my reaction to it. I just wanted to share a few lessons that I learned from my experience in this interview with Kobe and just my experience with him during that time. Again, I didn't know him well, but I do know people that did know him well, and they all spoke so highly of him and continue to speak about him and his legacy in such a high regard today. But one of the things from this interview that really stood out to me is about inspiring

the people next to you is how you create something that lasts forever. And again, Kobe inspired me in that moment. And that has been lasting for years after his passing and so many people around the world. It's about the value you add to each individual. That's what it's really about. He also talked about the power of unconditional love is giving you the permission to fail.

I love the story with his father where he said, you know, my father said, whether I score all the points or no points, I'm gonna love you no matter what. And I just think that's so powerful. In today's world, there's so much pressure on people to perform, to get results and deliver, especially parents with their kids. And to hear that he had that type of relationship with his father and he felt loved no matter

whether he won or lost, It gave him permission to fail. He talked about the power of the fundamentals and how it's important to rest at the end, putting in the time and effort to train, always coming back to the fundamentals and working on them every single day. Now, Kobe wasn't a champion overnight. He spent years, decades honing his craft

until he became a champion of the world. And he worked on the fundamentals. And sometimes we get busy trying to find the latest hack or trick to optimize us quicker than we need to get somewhere when really, the more we focus on the fundamentals over and over again, the faster we will go in life. He talked about losing being exciting. Now, here's Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest NBA players of all time, one of the greatest athletes of all time, talking about losing being exciting.

And whenever I saw him lose, it didn't seem like he was having a lot of fun. But inside, he was learning. He was developing, he was analyzing and assessing what could I have done differently to prepare to win better the next time. And when you make losing exciting, it doesn't discourage you to try and give your best effort. You're able to fully commit to the thing that you love and you're passionate about, whether you win or lose. And the more you fully commit, the more likely you will succeed and win in that process. I really love that.

He talked about storytelling. I just thought this was fascinating that Kobe Bryant is talking about storytelling. He said, this is the way we change the world. He said in the interview that nothing moves without story. He was working on this with Dear Basketball and his book and the Punies podcast, which is what we were interviewing him for in this episode. And he was always talking about how to inspire someone through story, and that's how you change the world.

I just thought this is so cool that this basketball player was much more than an athlete. He was a storyteller on and off the court. And one of the things that I really enjoyed the most from this interview was him talking about family, him talking about love. And I think this is why this interview has resonated with so many people over the last few years that it's been out is really him opening up about family, love, relationships in a way that people never really heard him speak about that topic. He talked about love, whether it's for a person, for a career, or for a sport. He says that

things are never perfect, but it's the ability to persevere through the ups and downs that matter the most. And that spending time ups and downs that matter the most. And that spending time with his family brings him the most joy. And for me, at this season of my life, it reminds me about what's really important. And I don't have children yet, but it makes me want to have children faster to create that experience, that love, that joy. And it just was so inspiring for me to witness this. Now, those were just a few of the many lessons. There was an incredible story that actually happened before the interview that I'll share

in the future sometime. But I wanted to get to the bonus footage. Now, again, the reason this content wasn't out there originally is because it was broken audio, it was kind of messed up, and we weren't able to restore it. But I said, let's go back. Now that AI has been really leading the way over the last six months, I said, let's see if we can actually restore this footage. Let's see if we can capture it, if we can edit it, if we can make it so that we can hear it. Now, the audio wasn't originally working, so you'll see Tiffany, who was working on the audio

at a certain point in this video, because we weren't able to get the mics to work. So we are picking it up from the camera from a distance, but we couldn't really hear it before. And now with AI, it's able to pick it up pretty well. We also added subtitles here. So I want to play a video right when I sat down with Kobe. There was a couple minutes of us talking that we had a

beautiful moment sharing some stories. But then we started to record. And this is what you're going to see right before we go into this full interview. So here are the first four minutes of never before seen footage and experience of just connecting with him. And I'm going to react to this video because you're going to see, again, like I said before, a lot of people on a big level who've succeeded like Kobe don't act the way he does in this video. So I want to play this. I'm going to pause it. I'm going to react at a few different times, but I just thought it was really cool.

So let's watch this bonus footage together right now. So this is called the School of Greatness. We interview the world's greatest leaders in business, sports. I was a former professional football player and transitioned into business. And I play with the USA National handball team. I don't know if you know Team Handball. Yeah, I do.

So I play with the USA team. We haven't qualified for the Olympics since 96. So we've still been, it's kind of a side hobby, which I haven't played in a while. And I know you're legendary for your Olympics and how much you can give to the other athletes there. So it's really cool to hear that stories. I'm Brooklyn handball. Handball is big in Italy. Big in. So it's really cool to hear that stories.

Brooklyn handball, handball is big in Italy. Big in Europe. Massive. Huge in Europe. Massive. So handball was like a part of our daily routine. So in gym class we played handball. Right, it was a big thing, man. You go to handball, professional handball games, man. Those things are sold out. It's huge.

20,000 people, it's like a soccer game indoors, yeah. Spain, Germany, they're all big sports. Is there anything, any questions you have for me before we start? Now, this is interesting because usually when you're sitting down for an interview and you're starting to connect with someone across the other side of the table with you or, you know, wherever you are, I'll ask these same questions. And most people just say, no, I'm good to go. Let's get started. But Kobe starts engaging with me. So I ask him,

do you have any questions for me? That's what I ask everyone. Most people say, no, I'm good. Let's go. Because they want to get into the interview. They want to talk about themselves. But this is what I thought was cool right here.

I mean, just the transition. That's always tough for athletes, right? To make that transition. So it's always important for us to learn from each other and how you made the transition. Because there's some cases out there that are popular. They just saw Michael Strahan. There's some of you guys who've been able to.

A lot of guys don't. Right. 90% go broke after a couple years. Not only go broke financially, but broke emotionally, spiritually. Lucas, I'm curious. Again, Kobe's asking me a question. He's asking me about my transition from sports into life.

He's giving examples. He asked two questions here. He's diving in and asking me questions when he's only supposed to give me 20 minutes for this interview. Again, his team is telling me, you've got 20 minutes. There are only so many things

that you can't talk about, that you can talk about. Other people are setting up production in another side of the office. He's back to back to back interviews, promoting a podcast called The Punies all day. He is, I'm the first one to go for that day and he is podcast called the punies all day. He is, I'm the first one to go for that day. And he is stacked for the rest of the day. And they're like, you've got 20

minutes. And he's already giving me time because he's being gracious because our audio wasn't able to get sorted out. For whatever reason, the audio wasn't working, even though we tested it right before. So he's being gracious. He's being present with me. He's being connected. He's not getting frustrated or angry or rushing this process. He's not saying, hey, you don't have this figured out. When there was some big production setting up just 20, 30 feet away, we were trying to figure it out and get things set up on remote location at his studios. Again, you see this is his office. You see the famous Black Mamba painting right above there, which I thought was pretty cool, just representing him well. But he's asking me

questions. Most people didn't ask me questions. This was five years ago. My show wasn't as big. I wasn't as well known. I didn't have the audience, the size that I had now. But he is engaging with me and asking me questions. Again, you hear the audio is a little bit off here because we had to reclaim it from AI and try to optimize it. But you'll see the subtitles. But he's asking me questions. He's interested in me. He's engaged with me. Telling about growing up playing handball in Italy, watching handball.

He's relating to me. Where most people just want to talk about themselves. And I just thought, what a classy move. What a classy guy to really, he doesn't know me. He has no clue who I am or what I'm up to. But what a classy guy to give that time, to give me the energy and the thought process to ask me, what's going on with you? How did you transition?

And again, I wasn't a huge pro athlete. I didn't make millions of dollars. I was making $250 a week playing arena football. So I wasn't like some big athlete that was hard for me to transition. It was like I was just a younger athlete trying to figure it out. I didn't have his credibility as an athlete either, but he was still curious, how did you do it? How did you overcome that?

And I'm just like, I thought this is fascinating. I was on my sister's couch for a year and a half after football. I got injured. I broke my wrist. I was in a full-on cast from here to here

for six months. Took the bone out of my head and put it in there. But I was making, I was playing arena football, so I didn't make the NFL. It was on my way up. And I was only making

$250 a week. So I was just playing a little of the game and, you know, get paid a little bit of credit. And it wasn't until about six, eight months in when I started really reaching out to mentors. I said, okay, I need to learn the sport of life because all I knew was sports. I didn't do well in school.

I struggled, you know, all throughout school. It took me seven years to graduate college. It just took a while. And so I said, how can I recreate my life out of sport? And so I started reaching out, I was like, I need great coaches. I need to structure my day as like an athlete. And so I just have everything detailed out on a schedule.

I get very clear what my seasonal goal is, and I just reverse engineer just like an athlete does. In football, we would get together the first day of... Now, when I'm watching this batch, I'm kind of like, man, I'm speaking too much. I need to be asking him questions. I'm watching myself like, why am I speaking? Why am I telling my story in front of Kobe Bryant

when I only have 20 minutes with him? I should be asking him questions. But that was the thing. When I'm watching this back, you can see his eye contact with me. You see his energy. He's present with me. He's relaxed. He was calm.

Again, this is the first time he met me a few minutes before this. And he had the busiest schedule. He just won the Oscar a few months prior to this. Five NBA championships. I mean, he was a machine. He was crushing it in all areas of life. He was thriving in every area. And here he is, focused, present, connected, engaging, curious, asking questions to me. And I'm just like, not a lot of people at this level do this. And you leave a mark on people

based on essentially something that lasts forever, something that they can remember that will last forever. That was one of the messages he had in this interview, the power of the fundamentals. He's just being an engaging human being when he really doesn't have that much to gain from this interaction with me. And again, I feel like bad because I'm just rambling here, telling my story, but I'm also knowing that our audio isn't set up yet. So I'm trying to, you know, extend my time a little bit because we don't have the audio ready for us to start the episode, but he's being nice. And I'm just like, okay,

how can I make this happen? But let's see what else I say. In the locker room and the coach would say, what's our goal for the season? Let's figure it out, put it up on the chalkboard, and let's break it down weekly, then daily, and then positions, and that's just what I do now. To the end of the movies, you edit everything according. That's it. Yeah, that's it. That's brilliant.

Most athletes can't do that, though. It's hard. It took me a couple years. He's just still adding to the conversation. Most athletes don't do that. He's not saying, okay, you ready to go yet? Let's hurry up. He's not doing that. He's not saying, okay, you ready to go yet? Let's hurry up. He's not doing that.

He's just being present, being in the moment, being engaged, going with the flow to really figure it out because I never made money really before. And audio, okay. I never made money before. Really, I was 25. I wasn't an entrepreneur. But I had to really learn how to add value to the world and how to package it and sell it and so I was like

but I didn't know how to I didn't know how to nobody does that's the thing that's the thing I like you're figuring it out now right it was like I just couldn't work go to school I teach out in New York yeah exactly that's it that's it that's it yeah and hopefully exactly. That's it. That's it. That's it. Yeah. And hopefully when you get stuck in quicksand, there's somebody out there that's going to bridge. Exactly. That's why I think having powerful mentors and coaches with you along the

way is what's important. Can't do it alone. Can't do it alone. It's hurting a lot of people out there that you're a partner for. Absolutely. And my intention for this is to make this the most inspiring interview you've ever done. Just letting you know my intention. Awesome. To tell your story in a beautiful, powerful way so that people are inspired to take action on the podcast you have,

to take action on anything that you care. And also, we sell a ton of books. So I want to mention your book because it's coming out in October. It is. Right? Yeah. Which I think is going to be a huge hit. So I'm excited for that.

So I want to kind of use this to promote podcasts, the blog, and then anything else that you're excited about or happy to have. Awesome, man. Let's do it. Happy to go there. Audio's good. All right.

There you have it. So that was kind of the, that was four minutes, a little over four minutes before we just sat down right before then, just shook his hand and said, hey, Kobe, thanks so much. And let's sit down. And, um, and that was that interaction because we didn't have the mic set up again. We had like a couple of cameras, a couple of live mics. It was, we usually did it at my apartment, uh, but this was a couple hours away at his

studio. So we brought, you know, our equipment there. We just didn't have it all set up or there was a glitch, but it allowed me to have these extra moments with him, with him before the interview. And also, right after that, you know, I was only supposed to do it for 20 minutes. And this interview went for 40 minutes, because Kobe was like, you know what, let's keep talking. Let's keep going. He was so generous with his time with me, when his team was like, hey, you got to cut it off. But he was like, you know, it's all good. Like, I'm really having a great conversation. I love talking about this. I love talking about greatness. And he is the definition

of greatness on how he lived his life and, and how he showed up for his teammates and how he excelled in so many different areas. And I just thought that was really cool. So this other clip right here is a is a shorter clip. It's right when the episode ends. I want to show you kind of the behind the scenes afterward, which again, I just felt like was so cool to watch. Looking back at it now, recovering this footage because I've done over 1500 episodes. I've met a lot of interesting, inspiring, successful people. You learn a lot about someone, about how they treat you and the team around you when there's nothing in it for them. So watch what happens here.

Amazing. Dude, I wish I could interview you for like three hours. So much good stuff there. Thanks, man. Thanks. We'll just do a couple quick photos and then get you in there because I know you've got to run. Thank you.

Dude, that was amazing. My audience is going to love this love this dude you're great I appreciate it I appreciate it that is cool that is cool right there again a lot of times people finish and then they're out of there Kobe went to me give me a handshake give me a hug he said hey thanks so much. And then he went to the two people on my team, and he shook both their hands before leaving. And I just thought, you may not think that's a big deal. But most people don't do that. Most people at his level don't do that. And they don't treat everyone the same way. Again, he's telling a story by doing that. I'm still telling his story. I just spoke at a conference in Mexico in front of almost 2,000 people telling the story of my experience with him before this interview and what I got to witness, which was so powerful.

And just these little moments, someone at that level to treat someone, look them in the eyes, ask them questions, connect with everyone around them. It's just a really special thing. So, so many powerful lessons. I'd love to hear your greatest lesson from this interview in the comments below. Leave a comment on how Kobe inspired you, the greatest impact he had on you by watching him or being a fan of his. And again, what was unexpected for you? Any comment or inspiration that you have? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching this video for consuming this interview and for watching this behind the scenes content, which I just feel like was so cool to

experience as someone who is interviewing him. And, you know, Kobe continues to inspire and leave a legacy for so many people around the world through his story and the things that he created. And I'm just so grateful that I got to have that experience to interview him. And I hope you gain something, some value from this interview and this conversation as well. I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter, and make sure to go out there and do something great. I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show

with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me, as well as ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend. Leave us a review over on Apple Podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes. I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content

to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness Newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter. And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.