Tom Brady: “You need coaches that push you outside your comfort zone because that’s how you grow and that’s how you develop self confidence and self esteem. They push you to deal with failure.”
Kobe's speech to @AlabamaFTBL in 2016 will always be legendary and packed with timeless wisdom for leaders:
🐍 Edit your life. If your habits, relationships, routines, or distractions don't align with who you say you want to become, ELIMINATE THEM. Simple as that. That clarity will help you create commitment in your life.
🎥 Excellence begins with curiosity. You have passion to learn but you have to stoke it like a fire in order to grow. The separation isn't talent, it's the willingness to OBSESS over details others overlook. Kobe didn’t watch film just to confirm what happened. He watched to uncover what could happen. He was feeding his curiousity. What if the defense adjusts? What if the first option gets taken away? What counter exists after the counter? Anticipate, prepare, and think multiple moves ahead.
⚡ Excellence isn't an event, it's an identity. Kobe believed coasting against weaker competition only creates bad habits because standards don't change based on the opponent. If you want to perform at an elite level when it matters most, you have to practice excellence when nobody's watching.
Everybody wants to be the beast, but not everybody wants to do what the beast does. Fall in love with the process, because the habits you repeat eventually become the person you are. 🐻
NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson said the one constant among winning players is being willing to fail in the summer when nobody is watching.
Every failed rep forces you to adjust and figure it out, and that is exactly what builds the self belief that shows up when the lights come on.
Get uncomfortable early and often… that is how winners are built.
This 45 minute Stanford lecture will teach you more about building companies than every startup book combined.
Bookmark & give it 45 minutes today, no matter what.
Really good stuff here from Jay Wright
“The most open you will ever be is when you first catch the ball….The habits of most players is to catch and dribble or catch and hold”
Great teaching point
(Via @Coach_PatCasey 🎥)
Great perspective from @NDFootball Coach Marcus Freeman (@Marcus_Freeman1) on why he feels he must remind his players to choose hard:
"Struggle with what you have."
Everyone starts from a different place. Some people are born on third base. Others have never even seen a triple. But growth isn't determined by where you begin, it's determined by the challenges you're willing to embrace.
When you step onto the field, the court, or into any defining moment, nobody cares where you started. What matters is how you've prepared, how you've responded to adversity, and how you've conditioned yourself for the grinding opportunity in front of you. It's a daily choice.
The hard way is the right way.
Choose hard!
Especially when life makes easy available.
"Be on time" isn't one of Pete Carroll's rules.
"Be early" is.
He won a Super Bowl with 3 rules total.
Rule 1: Protect the team.
Not the slogan. The mindfulness.
It's pulling a teammate out of a fight.
It's not hitting the guy late in practice.
It's the call you make when nobody's watching.
Rule 2: No whining, no complaining, no excuses.
Stolen from Coach Wooden
The point isn't to be upbeat.
The point is your self-talk runs the show.
Words come first. Behavior follows.
Rule 3: Be early.
Not on time. Early.
You can't be early by luck.
You thought about it the night before.
You set the alarm.
You knew the commitment.
Being early is a sign of respect you can see.
3 rules to run an NFL locker room.
Most teams have 12 values nobody can recite.
People claim the footwork in the NBA NOW is a travel, yet Hakeem Olajuwon, who has the best footwork of all time, teaches like this
Just enjoy the greatness
Kobe Bryant on mental health awareness: “It is not a sign of weakness.”
“Let’s face the challenge individually but understand that we’re facing that challenge collectively.” 💎
LeBron on the relationship between self-doubt and preparation:
Self-doubt isn't a sign you're unprepared, it's the price of caring for something meaningful.
🚫 Leaders don't eliminate doubt, they outwork it.
😳 We're most uncomfortable after an event where internally we know we didn't prepare enough.
Kobe Bryant reveals exactly why so many athletes go broke a few years after retirement
"Once you retire you don't have that source of income coming in. Even if you save over a 15-year career, if your spending habits remain the same, eventually that well is going to run dry"
"For us athletes the retirement age is 32, 34, if you're lucky 37 like myself. What comes next?"
"The question needs to be, what is my passion. Not where I can create the most value or generate the most revenue, but what is my next passion"
"When you find that next passion, then everything else will make sense"
"But that's the hardest part for us"
"We have to constantly learn. Our mantra is value growth, because to grow you have to constantly learn, constantly move, constantly improve"