691 Kobe Bryant: Mamba Mentality and The Mind of a Champion

“REST AT THE END, NOT IN THE MIDDLE.”- KOBE BRYANT He’s won five NBA championships with the Lakers and led the NBA in scoring during two seasons. He’s an 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team. He holds the NBA record for the most seasons played with one franchise for an entire career: 20 seasons. In 2018, he received an Academy Award for his animated short “Dear Basketball.” He also just launched a podcast called The Punies that teaches kids morals and history in a really fun way. Kobe’s known for what he calls his Mamba Mentality, but it’s his big heart that is truly admirable. He is constantly reinventing himself and continuing to pursue new dreams. There is so much power in his energy and presence. I know you’re really going to love this one. So get ready to learn all about Mamba Mentality and how to embrace failure on Episode 691. Some Questions I Ask: Who was your greatest teacher? (7:10) What are some other things you do to raise the level of your teammates? (17:00) What’s been your greatest challenge since leaving the game? (20:30) What’s a constant theme in your life? (24:40) Why is storytelling important to you? (25:39) What’s your greatest weakness? (34:35) In This Episode You Will Learn: All about the “Mamba Mentality” (12:20) Why he has a passion of storytelling (26:00) Why you should be excited about failure (27:10) Kobe’s greatest moment in 20 seasons of basketball (36:14) Kobe’s daily routine (39:00) Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 691 with one of the greatest of all time, Kobe Bryant. 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.

• 0:32Lewis Howes?

  Joseph Campbell said, "If you're going to have a story, have a big story or none at all." And boy, oh, boy, does Kobe Bryant have a big story. And I'm so pumped and excited that he's on the podcast today. If you don't know who he is, you've probably been hiding under a rock for a long time. He won five NBA championships with the Lakers. He is also an 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, and 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team. He led the NBA in scoring during two seasons and ranks third on the league's all-time regular season scoring and fourth on the all-time postseason scoring list.

• 1:14Lewis Howes?

  He holds the NBA record for the most seasons playing with one franchise for an entire career and is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. And he is the first guard in NBA history to play at least 20 seasons. 20 seasons, guys. It is so demanding on your body and your mind to be able to sustain a career at that high of a level for that long. He's also an Academy Award winner for his animated short, Dear Basketball. And he just launched an amazing scripted children's podcast called The Punies, which is an incredible family series that teaches children's morals and history in a really fun way.

• 1:58Lewis Howes?

  Make sure to download that podcast right now as well. It's called The Punies and it's a lot of fun, guys. And what we talk about today are why you should be excited about. Failure and the Mamba mentality, this mentality that Kobe has developed and cultivated since a child and he breaks down all of this information in this episode. Also, his greatest moment in 20 seasons. I was a little shocked about what he said here, but also inspiring as well. His daily routine, getting up at 4am to exercise in the dark and what that does for his mind and his body. His passion of storytelling and why he started his new podcast, The Punies,

• 2:43Lewis Howes?

  and all the other projects that he's been working on and his passion for storytelling. Also, why you need to replay all of life's events if you want to improve yourself. That and so much more. Guys, this was one of my favorite interviews that I've done and I've done almost 700 episodes now. Kobe opened up so much during this. Make sure to share this out with your friends. I want to get this out in a big way because Kobe doesn't do many interviews like this. Make sure to take a screenshot, tag it on Instagram, tag at Kobe Bryant and at Louis Howes. Let us know that you're listening or watching. Make sure to download The Punies. This is a powerful interview and I know a lot of you are going to get a lot of value out of this.

• 3:28Lewis Howes?

  So make sure to tag your friends, share it with your friends, LouisHowes.com/691. Without further ado, one of the greatest of all time, Mr. Kobe Bryant.

• 3:45Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. We have the incredible legendary Kobe Bryant, my man. It's good to meet you.

• 3:51Kobe Bryant?

  Pleasure, man.

• 3:51Lewis Howes?

  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 focused 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 your 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?

• 4:30Kobe Bryant?

  It's funny, man. I had a lot of them. My parents were great. You know, growing up, they instilled in me the importance of imagination, of curiosity.

• 4:40Kobe Bryant?

  Understanding that, okay, if you want to accomplish something, I'm not just gonna sit here and say, yes, you can do whatever you want. Yes, you can, but you have to also put in the work to get there, right? So they taught me 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. And you grow up having that fundamental belief.

• 5:02Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Who was more influential for you, your father or mother?

• 5:06Kobe Bryant?

  Both were influential at different points.

• 5:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 5:09Kobe Bryant?

  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. Where my father played, my uncle played, and they were like all-time greats.

• 5:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 5:26Kobe Bryant?

  Stuff. And Bo Chamberlain played in the league, Earl the Pro Man Row played in the league. And here I come, playing, and I don't score one point the entire summer.

• 5:35Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 5:36Kobe Bryant?

  Not one.

• 5:37Lewis Howes?

  How old were you?

• 5:38Kobe Bryant?

  11, 10, 11.

• 5:39Lewis Howes?

  You're playing against other 10, 11-year-olds, or you didn't score once?

• 5:42Kobe Bryant?

  Not one.

• 5:42Lewis Howes?

  Were you in the game?

• 5:43Kobe Bryant?

  I was in the game.

• 5:44Lewis Howes?

  How'd you not score?

• 5:45Kobe Bryant?

  Because I was terrible.

• 5:46Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 5:47Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah.

• 5:48Lewis Howes?

  At 10, 11 years old, you were that terrible?

• 5:50Kobe Bryant?

  Awful. I mean, and I had these big knee pads on because I was growing really fast. I have socks all the way up here, and I have like the pod top.

• 5:57Lewis Howes?

  Skinny, yeah.

• 5:58Kobe Bryant?

  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, being upset about it. And my father just gave me a hug and said, listen, whether you score zero or score 60, I'm gonna love you no matter what.

• 6:15Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 6:15Kobe Bryant?

  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.

• 6:29Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 6:30Kobe Bryant?

  Right? And from there, I just went to work. And I just, I stayed with it. I kept practicing, kept practicing, kept practicing.

• 6:35Lewis Howes?

  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?

• 6:42Kobe Bryant?

  I think that's when the idea of understanding a long-term view became important. Because I wasn't gonna catch these kids in a week. I wasn't gonna catch them in a year. Right, so that's when I sat down and said, okay, this is gonna take some thought. Alright, what do I wanna work on first? Alright, shooting, alright, let's knock this out. Let's focus on this half a year, six months, do nothing but shoot. Alright, after that, alright, 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?

• 7:11Lewis Howes?

  I meant you being like, I've got my jump shot from fifteen, I've got my...

• 7:14Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, I got my jump shot from fifteen, I got my three-point shot, like, just open shots. Not miss open shots, right? Be able to shoot it with speed, because those kids are so much more athletic.

• 7:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:24Kobe Bryant?

  And then the next time I came back, I was a little better. The summer came back, the next summer, I was a little better, I scored. You know, it wasn't much, but I scored.

• 7:31Lewis Howes?

  Missed twelve, thirteen.

• 7:32Kobe Bryant?

  Twelve, thirteen, and then fourteen came around, back half of thirteen, fourteen 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...

• 7:59Lewis Howes?

  And then your athleticism, once you have the fundamentals,

• 8:02Kobe Bryant?

  Exactly.

• 8:03Lewis Howes?

  the hard work, the mindset, and you tack on the athleticism, it's game over.

• 8:07Kobe Bryant?

  Then it was game over.

• 8:08Lewis Howes?

  Wow, so from thirteen, you're good, average still?

• 8:13Kobe Bryant?

  I was good, I was good, and then about, about, like, the end of my, like, right when I was turning fourteen, I became the best player in the state.

• 8:20Lewis Howes?

  At fourteen? So from twelve to fourteen, you went from scoring zero to being the best in the state of all ages?

• 8:26Kobe Bryant?

  Yep, but it's, 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. And I tell this to my daughter, and my daughter's team as well that I coach. It's a simple thing of math. If you wanna 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 an hour and a half, two days a week.

• 8:51Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 8:51Kobe Bryant?

  Do the math on that. It's not, it's not going, it's not going to get it done. 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.

• 9:02Lewis Howes?

  You're accelerating.

• 9:03Kobe Bryant?

  You make quantum leaps, man.

• 9:04Lewis Howes?

  Just doing a summer camp for two weeks, you, you see a difference. I remember playing basketball.

• 9:09Kobe Bryant?

  You, you see it.

• 9:10Lewis Howes?

  You get a lot better. You come back more confident, playing on the playground with guys who used to beat you.

• 9:14Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah. And I, and I got, I tell the parents with my team, I said, it's, it's when I say, your kids are going to become great basketball players. They're like, really? Like, yeah, it's not.

• 9:22Lewis Howes?

  It's math.

• 9:23Kobe Bryant?

  It's it.

• 9:24Lewis Howes?

  Show up every single day.

• 9:25Kobe Bryant?

  Show up every single day. Do the work.

• 9:26Lewis Howes?

  But you have this Mamba mentality. Your book's coming out soon. And how did you develop this? There's a, there's a beautiful story that I love from Jay Williams. I don't know if you remember Jay 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 like before anyone. And he shows up at the court, I don't know if it was in LA or where I was, and you were the only one there, already shooting free throws, already doing your fundamentals. And 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.

• 10:00Kobe Bryant?

  I gotta go.

• 10:01Lewis Howes?

  I'm tired. 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, so I knew you were watching and I wanted to show you I was willing to outwork you.

• 10:20Kobe Bryant?

  Right.

• 10:21Lewis Howes?

  Something along those lines.

• 10:22Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 10:22Lewis Howes?

  I don't know if you remember this.

• 10:23Kobe Bryant?

  I remember that.

• 10:24Lewis Howes?

  You remember, yeah. And I thought that was so powerful that you have this mindset, but how did you develop that? And I don't know if that's what you call the Mamba mindset, but how did you develop that?

• 10:35Lewis Howes?

  And when did it start?

• 10:36Kobe Bryant?

  Uh, it started in, in middle school and high school. Because a lot of the kids that I was playing against were inner city kids. And so they're looking at me as if, okay, this kid's soft, right? He's from the suburbs of Philadelphia. His father played in the NBA, played professionally.

• 10:51Lewis Howes?

  He's got a DZ.

• 10:52Kobe Bryant?

  Got a DZ, born on second, you know, all this other stuff, right? And so they 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? Right, and so that's when it first started for me is figuring out how to get the upper hand on an opponent that way.

• 11:18Lewis Howes?

  And what would you do to mentally break people down then?

• 11:20Kobe Bryant?

  Well, I mean, we used to have an All-American camp that I used to go to and, you know, at the time, I first showed I was a sophomore. One of the things I would do is, well, everybody would be at the cafeteria, work, 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.

• 11:35Lewis Howes?

  They'd be resting.

• 11:36Kobe Bryant?

  They'd be resting, and they'd see me leave. 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.

• 11:53Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 11:53Kobe Bryant?

  And I'm mentally going to be much tougher.

• 11:56Lewis Howes?

  Did someone teach you that? Was that just a thing that you decided, like, I'm going to get in people's minds?

• 12:00Kobe Bryant?

  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 kid from Italy, blah, blah, blah, and all sorts of stuff. And it was like, okay, I gotta, I can't let them, I gotta defend myself here, right? And then it became, okay, pretty witty, I can say some pretty witty things.

• 12:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 12:20Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah.

• 12:20Lewis Howes?

  And Italian, and Italian.

• 12:22Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 12:23Lewis Howes?

  It's interesting, you know, I never, I never was physically gifted to an extreme level. I was always really good, but I was never like, 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.

• 12:36Kobe Bryant?

  Right.

• 12:37Lewis Howes?

  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 clearer vision. And, um, but I wasn't waking up at 4 a.m. like you, so.

• 12:52Kobe Bryant?

  That's, that's interesting, because like, when I played, um, one of the things I had to learn is how to get the best out of my teammates.

• 12:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 12:59Kobe Bryant?

  And most people think it's a simple thing, you know, passing the ball. You know, but that's not how you make guys better. You have to really affect their behavior.

• 13:07Lewis Howes?

  How do you do that?

• 13:08Kobe Bryant?

  I would tell guys, you know, you got to back to backs, you know, I don't care if we're in Miami, I don't care if we're in a great city of Chicago, you can't go out, you got to get rest, right?

• 13:16Lewis Howes?

  Back to back games.

• 13:17Kobe Bryant?

  Back to back games, right? Monday, Tuesday. You play Monday and play again Tuesday. Guys aren't going to listen, right? You don't, you know, a few times say, all right, well, I'll go out. We'll go out together.

• 13:26Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 13:27Kobe Bryant?

  I'll, I'll drink with you. But the next morning, I'm banging on your door at 5:00 in the morning. Let's go.

• 13:34Lewis Howes?

  They're not getting.

• 13:34Kobe Bryant?

  Where are we going? I hung out with you, now you come hang out with me.

• 13:38Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 13:38Kobe Bryant?

  This is what we do, alright, 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.

• 13:44Lewis Howes?

  And they're dead.

• 13:45Kobe Bryant?

  And they're dead, and they're like, lesson learned.

• 13:47Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 13:48Kobe Bryant?

  Lesson learned.

• 13:48Lewis Howes?

  So you take them out once.

• 13:49Kobe Bryant?

  Listen, if you're gonna do that, do that. But don't let that compromise what we're here to do.

• 13:54Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:54Kobe Bryant?

  This is why we're here, this is why you're here in the first place.

• 13:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:58Kobe Bryant?

  Right?

• 13:58Lewis Howes?

  And if we're gonna win a championship, we have to have that championship mentality.

• 14:01Kobe Bryant?

  That's it.

• 14:01Lewis Howes?

  Work ethic.

• 14:02Kobe Bryant?

  That's it, so you gotta show them, no, Kobe can do that and still has the energy to get up and do this. So either I gotta meet that same energy, or I gotta keep my butt in my.

• 14:09Lewis Howes?

  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 the business team or any sports team?

• 14:20Kobe Bryant?

  I think you have to, you have to listen, 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? One of my favorite ones, Pal hates it every time I tell this story, he hates it, he hates it. But we, we lost to the Celtics in 08. And it was a physical series, I mean, they beat the crap out of us.

• 14:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:39Kobe Bryant?

  And so, we go into the Olympic year, that year, we wound up playing Spain for the gold medal match. And we beat them. And so now we come back to start training camp, and Pal shows up, first day of, of training camp. I had my gold medal hanging in his locker.

• 14:53Lewis Howes?

  Oh no.

• 14:55Kobe Bryant?

  And he, I mean, like, the one thing that he truly, truly loves is his country.

• 14:59Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 15:00Kobe Bryant?

  That is like, everything to him. So it just drove him crazy. I said, Pal, listen. He said, you're an asshole, la, la, la. I said, listen, Pal, you lost to the Celtics, you lost to us in the gold medal match. Let's not make this three in a row this year.

• 15:15Lewis Howes?

  Wow. That is brilliant.

• 15:18Kobe Bryant?

  Let's win this thing. And that was, that was it for him.

• 15:20Lewis Howes?

  And he probably stepped up at a whole other level.

• 15:22Kobe Bryant?

  Pal was a phenomenon to begin with. And then for him was just stepping up to a level of physicality.

• 15:28Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:28Kobe Bryant?

  That we needed him to get to, which he did, and we went on to win back-to-back championships.

• 15:33Lewis Howes?

  How important is understanding human psychology and human behavior to work with a team? As opposed to just relying on your gifts and talents?

• 15:42Kobe Bryant?

  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, he wouldn't just coach the team or coach the game. But he'd read everything about every single player. You learn about your history, how you grew up, how you were raised, where were you raised? You know, he'll read every interview. He'll learn about you and gives him a better understanding of what's motivating you. Or 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.

• 16:26Lewis Howes?

  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?

• 16:34Kobe Bryant?

  No, I learned it from Phil. There was a stretch in oh, three 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. 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 forty plus points.

• 16:54Lewis Howes?

  Nine straight?

• 16:55Kobe Bryant?

  Nine straight games. And then Shaq comes back, second to last game of that. And then Phil called me up to his office and said, Kobe, okay, I need you to dial it back. I'm like, why? Like, we're winning. I don't understand. He says, 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.

• 17:24Lewis Howes?

  His motivation, his excitement.

• 17:25Kobe Bryant?

  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, he's a smart dude.

• 17:35Lewis Howes?

  Wow, he's really smart.

• 17:36Kobe Bryant?

  He's one smart dude, man. So I pulled, pulled it back.

• 17:39Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 17:39Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah.

• 17:40Lewis Howes?

  What do you think was been the greatest challenge you've had since leaving the game?

• 17:47Kobe Bryant?

  I think it's.

• 17:47Lewis Howes?

  I mean, you won an Oscar. You're launching podcasts and shows and you got a book coming out.

• 17:54Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah. It's different though, like, you know. We were just talking about it here in the office the other day. When you play the game, you hit a game winning shot, you miss a shot. The reaction's there. You can see how people responding to it, right? You can feel it.

• 18:09Lewis Howes?

  The energy is like.

• 18:10Kobe Bryant?

  The energy is there. What I do now, you don't. Like, I don't see how people are affected by your basketball. Or 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.

• 18:34Lewis Howes?

  The instant feedback you get from shoot, missing or scoring a shot, winning or losing a game. It's like, either way, you're getting a result, right?

• 18:41Kobe Bryant?

  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 talked to them about Frozen and Moana and how our kids love them. And they're always like, oh, that's awesome. And they want to hear it because they don't ever get a chance to truly see it. Like, they're not.

• 19:02Lewis Howes?

  Not sit in the movie theater like.

• 19:03Kobe Bryant?

  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.

• 19:11Lewis Howes?

  Creating.

• 19:12Kobe Bryant?

  Yes, yes, so that's the one thing.

• 19:15Lewis Howes?

  What do you think the biggest challenge is for most athletes after they retire?

• 19:19Kobe Bryant?

  I think it's the fear of starting anew. And that was certainly present for me as well.

• 19:24Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 19:25Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah.

• 19:25Lewis Howes?

  Like, identity, you mean, or?

• 19:26Kobe Bryant?

  Well, it's starting from scratch, right? Because when you, when you play for 20 years, I played for 20 years, you reach a 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 scary.

• 19:46Lewis Howes?

  Even for you?

• 19:47Kobe Bryant?

  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's over.

• 20:00Lewis Howes?

  At any time, when you were playing, you mean, yeah?

• 20:02Kobe Bryant?

  Now, what do you do? You have these ideas about doing something with your life after basketball.

• 20:09Kobe Bryant?

  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.

• 20:25Lewis Howes?

  Big announcement, we've got a movie coming out. That's right. We have been working on a movie for the last couple of years. It's called Chasing Greatness. And you can go to greatness.com right now to opt in to be notified when we're launching this online. We're also doing a live premiere in Los Angeles, Hollywood. If you want to come and watch this live, then come check it out. All you need to do again is go to greatness.com, be notified of the live premiere. And also when we're releasing this entire movie and documentary online. So check it out right now at greatness.com.

• 21:03Lewis Howes?

  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?

• 21:09Kobe Bryant?

  I struggled 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?

• 21:16Lewis Howes?

  Was it more money thinking or?

• 21:18Kobe Bryant?

  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 for.

• 21:30Lewis Howes?

  Didn't you launch a fund or something?

• 21:31Kobe Bryant?

  I did, I did. And so I started, 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? 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.

• 22:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 22:09Kobe Bryant?

  And that's when I called Mike Rapoli. Mike Rapoli was an entrepreneur who built Vitamin Water, Pirate's Boot and some other companies and started learning from him. And then from that came the opportunity to invest in Body Armor.

• 22:21Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 22:22Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, which we're drinking now.

• 22:23Lewis Howes?

  It's delicious.

• 22:25Kobe Bryant?

  But all that came from the injury, really having to self-assess, face that really dark room of what comes next.

• 22:32Lewis Howes?

  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 you, that really resonates with you? Or a book or a movie that just feels like this is me?

• 22:47Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, that's funny. Movies, there are plenty, but there's a quote from one of my English teachers, a little Marion 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 going to rest, and I'm 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, just going to keep going. And I'll figure these things out as we go, right? And you just continue to build that way. So I try to live by that all the time.

• 23:18Lewis Howes?

  Rest at the end.

• 23:19Kobe Bryant?

  Rest at the end.

• 23:19Lewis Howes?

  What's the question that eats you alive the most that you haven't answered yet?

• 23:26Kobe Bryant?

  The question that eats me alive that I haven't answered yet?

• 23:28Lewis Howes?

  I'm just still looking for the answer.

• 23:30Kobe Bryant?

  I'm still looking for the answer. How to tell a good story? I don't think anybody has that answer. You know, like when I sat down to write Dear Basketball, I was like, okay, what do I want to say? You have certain acts and how you can structure certain things, right? The ebbs and flows of story, certain formulas that have been there since the beginning of time. But it's such an exact science.

• 23:54Lewis Howes?

  So challenging, yeah.

• 23:56Kobe Bryant?

  Right? And so that one question is really interesting.

• 24:00Lewis Howes?

  Why do you want to tell a great story?

• 24:03Kobe Bryant?

  I think stories is what moves the world. Whether it's an inspirational story, or it's an informational one, nothing in this world moves without story. Being from the political world, sports world, nothing that we have moves without story. And so I think that is the root of everything. And if we're gonna try to make the world a better place, story's the right place.

• 24:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I agree.

• 24:28Kobe Bryant?

  But most people don't understand, like my last year, people would come up to me and say, okay, what are you gonna do? I said, I'm gonna be a storyteller.

• 24:34Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 24:35Kobe Bryant?

  And they go, like, what are you talking about? Alright, man, so what's gonna happen? Yeah, like, what's gonna happen when you retire is you're gonna go through like a week of depression. Then the second week is gonna be like denial and all something like that. I'm like, dude, seriously, I'm good. So after a while, I just got sick of it and I just, just said, I don't know. I'll go play golf or something.

• 24:54Lewis Howes?

  Right, just tell them a lie.

• 24:55Kobe Bryant?

  I'm not gonna do anything.

• 24:56Lewis Howes?

  I'll invest in real estate, yeah, yeah.

• 24:57Kobe Bryant?

  Whatever, I'm not gonna do anything, I'm just gonna sit around.

• 24:59Lewis Howes?

  What does losing feel like to you?

• 25:01Kobe Bryant?

  It's exciting.

• 25:03Lewis Howes?

  Why is it exciting?

• 25:05Kobe Bryant?

  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, right? Certain weaknesses that were exposed, that you need to shore up. So it was exciting, I mean, it sucks to lose.

• 25:20Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 25:21Kobe Bryant?

  But at the same time, there are answers there, if you just look at them.

• 25:25Lewis Howes?

  Because you get the information from losing more than from winning, probably.

• 25:28Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, yeah, I mean, the answers are there when you win too. You just have to look at them.

• 25:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:32Kobe Bryant?

  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. As 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?

• 25:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:50Kobe Bryant?

  And, but the hardest thing is to face that stuff. That's a really, really tough challenge.

• 25:55Lewis Howes?

  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, and?

• 25:59Kobe Bryant?

  I'll give you an example. So Katie Lou Samuelson is one of the best college basketball players in the country. She plays at UConn, she's gonna be a senior.

• 26:06Lewis Howes?

  Right now.

• 26:07Kobe Bryant?

  Right now. 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 coach. And they just had a really tough season last year, where they lost to Notre Dame in the final.

• 26:19Lewis Howes?

  That's right.

• 26:20Kobe Bryant?

  Really tough.

• 26:20Lewis Howes?

  First loss in like years, right?

• 26:23Kobe Bryant?

  And so I asked her, I said, have you watched the Notre Dame game? She was like, no. So, well, why not? I 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. There's a chance that you see them again in the final. He 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 her down to the office and we sat down. We watched that game together, right? And you gotta, you gotta deal with it.

• 27:04Lewis Howes?

  Face it.

• 27:04Kobe Bryant?

  You gotta deal with it. Face it, learn from it.

• 27:06Lewis Howes?

  Wow, it must have been cringing for her and she'd be like, oh, replaying like we could have won all these things.

• 27:11Kobe Bryant?

  That's exactly it, isn't it?

• 27:12Lewis Howes?

  If I just did that one thing, if I didn't get that foul, if I would score that layup.

• 27:16Kobe Bryant?

  That's exactly right. You're looking at it and say, oh, there's the mismatch. Ah, 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 gotta really study it, face it. Not to say you'll win the next time you face it, but at least you'll, you'll give yourself a better, a better chance.

• 27:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What was your routine and ritual like after every game? Would you watch almost every game over or certain games?

• 27:42Kobe Bryant?

  All of them.

• 27:43Lewis Howes?

  Every game you watch?

• 27:44Kobe Bryant?

  Every game.

• 27:44Lewis Howes?

  The whole game?

• 27:45Kobe Bryant?

  The whole game.

• 27:45Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 27:46Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah. So it started with me when I was, when Phil Jackson's, his first year here with the Lakers. One of assistant coaches, his name was Tex Winter, and I call him Yoda. I mean, he was like 82 when he got here.

• 27:57Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 27:58Kobe Bryant?

  He was responsible for teaching me the triangle offense.

• 28:01Lewis Howes?

  How old were you then?

• 28:02Kobe Bryant?

  I was 21.

• 28:04Lewis Howes?

  So three years, four years in the league?

• 28:05Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, so my, about my fourth year in the league. And so I go up to his room and this is when there were, there were no iPads or anything like that, right? So when you're on the road, yeah, 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 you're popping in. And I thought we were 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. Not like the TV feed. We're watching the in-the-arena feed. The layup line, the timeouts.

• 28:40Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 28:41Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah. Rewinding, stopping, fast forward, rewinding, slow motion. Every little thing, every game of that season.

• 28:52Kobe Bryant?

  With the 82-year-old Yoda.

• 28:53Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 28:55Kobe Bryant?

  Who is as brutally honest as you can get.

• 28:59Lewis Howes?

  What did that teach you that season?

• 29:01Kobe Bryant?

  Oh, it taught me to look at detail. Right, look at things that they're smallest. Look at body language. Look at the energy between players. Our team and the other team. Right, look at the tactics. You know, look at the overall strategy and to 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.

• 29:25Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 29:26Kobe Bryant?

  Where I can see pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. 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.

• 29:41Lewis Howes?

  Seeing it before it happens.

• 29:42Kobe Bryant?

  Yes.

• 29:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. We, you know, in football, we'd watch it once a week, game film, but not after every game. It was only one game a week. You got like three, three a week sometimes.

• 29:50Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, yeah, you gotta, you gotta go.

• 29:52Lewis Howes?

  And I know, 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. 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.

• 30:16Kobe Bryant?

  You gotta learn, man. I mean, Beyonce's same, same thing.

• 30:19Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 30:20Kobe Bryant?

  After a performance, she's immediately on her laptop, rewatching the performance.

• 30:25Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 30:26Kobe Bryant?

  Yes, seeing how to do things better. What could we have done differently? It's 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 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 gonna help me.

• 30:48Lewis Howes?

  Get better.

• 30:48Kobe Bryant?

  Yes, yes.

• 30:49Lewis Howes?

  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?

• 30:56Kobe Bryant?

  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 Pau, Lamar, Dee Fish, pull them aside and say, let's look at this. Right, we probably should have done this, that, and the other.

• 31:19Lewis Howes?

  So you'll show them the game from a little bit here and there.

• 31:21Kobe Bryant?

  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. 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, 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, right? And it's like, okay, Kobe, they're doing this, that, and the other to you. Maybe we should do this, and that, and that. Okay, yeah, awesome, great, let's do it.

• 31:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. What about season 16, 17, 18? Are you still watching every game film as obsessively as the first 10 years?

• 31:59Kobe Bryant?

  Not now, no. Well, when I was playing.

• 32:01Lewis Howes?

  When you were playing.

• 32:02Kobe Bryant?

  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? That was the big challenge, is you move from being the single dominant player to understanding, okay, I have to help these other guys.

• 32:21Lewis Howes?

  How do I lift everyone else up?

• 32:22Kobe Bryant?

  It's tough.

• 32:23Lewis Howes?

  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 mastered this one part of the game?

• 32:39Kobe Bryant?

  The challenge for me was always compassion and empathy.

• 32:43Lewis Howes?

  Because you're like, guys, let's go, get results, shut up, don't complain, right?

• 32:47Kobe Bryant?

  I don't want to hear you whining. I don't want to hear it.

• 32:49Lewis Howes?

  No excuses.

• 32:49Kobe Bryant?

  Don't tell me how rough the water is, just bring the boat in. You know, I don't want to hear it. And it's, uh.

• 32:55Lewis Howes?

  That's funny.

• 32:55Kobe Bryant?

  It's understanding, like, okay, these guys have lives. Outside of.

• 33:00Lewis Howes?

  They have other things happening.

• 33:00Kobe Bryant?

  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 personally that never fazed me.

• 33:13Lewis Howes?

  You compartmentalized it.

• 33:14Kobe Bryant?

  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.

• 33:23Lewis Howes?

  That's hard.

• 33:23Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, it is.

• 33:24Lewis Howes?

  Do you feel like you never really had the compassion you wish you would have had? Like until the last maybe couple of years?

• 33:30Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, I think about 09, 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 all, 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.

• 34:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, wow. What are you most proud of from your 20 seasons?

• 34:12Kobe Bryant?

  Honestly, it was, may sound a little shallow, but I gotta say beating the Celtics in game seven. That's what I'm most proud of because it was the hardest. You're playing with Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett.

• 34:28Lewis Howes?

  All stars.

• 34:29Kobe Bryant?

  Ray Allen. And it was myself, Powell, and the players that other teams didn't want. And how do we figure out as a group what to do? And the reason why I loved that series so much is that we went down three games to two against Boston. And now you 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.

• 34:54Kobe Bryant?

  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. 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 NBA champ. Would you take that?

• 35:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:26Kobe Bryant?

  They're like, right. That's all we gotta do.

• 35:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:29Kobe Bryant?

  Go home, win two, we're NBA champions. All we gotta 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.

• 36:07Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 36:07Kobe Bryant?

  And I wasn't playing well. I wasn't shooting the ball well at all. And so my teammates.

• 36:12Lewis Howes?

  Picked you up and they delivered.

• 36:14Kobe Bryant?

  Yes.

• 36:15Lewis Howes?

  Wow. 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 frigging 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? Which congratulations, by the way.

• 36:42Kobe Bryant?

  Thank you.

• 36:43Lewis Howes?

  I hope I look as good as you. Why still wake up that early and train at this level in your life right now?

• 36:52Kobe Bryant?

  There's several factors for that. Like when I first retired, let myself go a little bit.

• 36:56Lewis Howes?

  Really? You got a little.

• 36:57Kobe Bryant?

  Oh, yeah.

• 36:57Lewis Howes?

  You got a little chubby life?

• 36:58Kobe Bryant?

  It was awesome.

• 37:00Lewis Howes?

  You enjoyed everything?

• 37:01Kobe Bryant?

  Oh, man, I'm eating.

• 37:02Lewis Howes?

  What?

• 37:03Kobe Bryant?

  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, it's really hard because there's no end goal.

• 37:14Lewis Howes?

  There's no game, there's no season, there's not.

• 37:16Kobe Bryant?

  So how do you motivate yourself to do it?

• 37:18Lewis Howes?

  How do you?

• 37:18Kobe Bryant?

  And so for me, it was like, okay, I have to, I have to aim for something. So I said, I want to aim for size. I want to aim for bulk, right? So that's a tangible thing, I'm gonna go for that, right? But then also, it's, you know, my children. Cause like, you know, your kids can't see how hard you work. You go to the office, I come in the studio, they don't really see the effort, right? 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.

• 37:46Lewis Howes?

  4am?

• 37:47Kobe Bryant?

  4am, my 15 year old goes with me. She goes with me before school and it becomes a daddy-daughter thing.

• 37:51Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 37:52Kobe Bryant?

  She just got a permit, so she drives in the morning, it becomes a cool thing, right? But through that process, she understands the value of hard work. And things taking time. And the same thing with my 12 year old, right? She practices every day, right? And so it's through those behaviors is where I find the motivation to do it.

• 38:11Lewis Howes?

  And what brings you the most joy right now?

• 38:13Kobe Bryant?

  Being with my family.

• 38:14Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 38:14Kobe Bryant?

  That is, man, that is the most fun. It's just, um, you know, it's, uh, hanging out with them all summer. Being able to, to do things that I ordinarily couldn't do.

• 38:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:25Kobe Bryant?

  Cause of training, cause of season, and stuff like that. So being around them and watching Bianca grow up, cause there are a lot of things that I missed with Nathalie 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.

• 38:38Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing. And what does, what does love feel like for you?

• 38:43Kobe Bryant?

  What does love feel like?

• 38:46Kobe Bryant?

  Happiness is such a, I think I would describe love as happiness. I think I'd describe it as a beautiful journey. You know, it has its ups and downs. Whether it's in marriage, whether it's in the career, 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.

• 39:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 39:10Kobe Bryant?

  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 the someone or something that you truly love.

• 39:26Lewis Howes?

  You've got a new podcast out right now called The Punies.

• 39:28Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah.

• 39:28Lewis Howes?

  Which I started listening to. I've listened to the first two episodes. It's incredible. They're like 13 to 15 minute episodic storytelling cartoons, I guess.

• 39:39Kobe Bryant?

  Yes.

• 39:40Lewis Howes?

  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 liked the last one where it's like, we talk about history so we don't repeat it.

• 39:56Kobe Bryant?

  Right.

• 39:57Lewis Howes?

  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 and the podcast and what it's all about?

• 40:08Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, so The Punies came to me from, you know, we have our family tradition where we watch The Sandlot every 4th of July.

• 40:15Lewis Howes?

  God, it's the greatest movie, man. In the summer?

• 40:17Kobe Bryant?

  Squinting, yah yah.

• 40:19Lewis Howes?

  Smores, baby.

• 40:20Kobe Bryant?

  Dude, come on.

• 40:20Lewis Howes?

  Give me some smores.

• 40:21Kobe Bryant?

  So like, that's our family ritual.

• 40:23Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 40:23Kobe Bryant?

  Every 4th of July.

• 40:24Lewis Howes?

  Sandlot.

• 40:25Kobe Bryant?

  Sandlot, right? And so after watching The Sandlot movie, 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 is to watch Charlie Brown.

• 40:38Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 40:39Kobe Bryant?

  Right, in the pumpkin patch, right? So we watch 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 Bibi.

• 40:54Lewis Howes?

  Two of the characters.

• 40:55Kobe Bryant?

  Two of the characters and the Puny's. And I said, well, let's combine those. Let's, let's. And then from that, that's when the Puny's started coming to fruition. And I started thinking about the characters and, you know, why does this show need to exist? And where are some of the deeper messages that can be there that

• 41:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:11Kobe Bryant?

  consciously you may not observe, but but you can sense and feel. And that's when I started constructing the show.

• 41:17Lewis Howes?

  And are you part of the whole process? Are you helping write the script? Are you helping?

• 41:22Kobe Bryant?

  So we have a great

• 41:23Lewis Howes?

  Put it all together?

• 41:24Kobe Bryant?

  Young producer here, who actually started here three years ago while he was still at SC. And has since grown into a position.

• 41:30Lewis Howes?

  Greatest film school, yeah, yeah.

• 41:31Kobe Bryant?

  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, who's a great writer. And so we gave him the outline and he just made it a thousand times better. And then I just, I directed each episode and

• 41:49Lewis Howes?

  You oversee it all? You edit, you, you

• 41:51Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, yeah, I directed it. So

• 41:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:53Kobe Bryant?

  The other challenge was finding great actors.

• 41:56Lewis Howes?

  Voice acting is a different skill.

• 41:57Kobe Bryant?

  Yes, it's a, it's a challenging art form. I mean, you really have to be able to communicate a lot just through your voice.

• 42:04Lewis Howes?

  Essence and energy with your voice, yeah.

• 42:05Kobe Bryant?

  And so the trick was finding actors that have not lost that childlike quality. Right, that can still imagine themselves being children, being at the park and playing. Right, and once we found them, they really brought the characters to life. And now here we are with the Puny's, man.

• 42:23Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing. I want you guys to go download it right now, subscribe. It's the Puny's on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and everywhere podcasts are at. I'm telling you guys, there's a lot of parents who listen to this 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. Tag me on Instagram, tag Kobe on Instagram, please.

• 42:46Kobe Bryant?

  Yes, please, that would be amazing.

• 42:47Lewis Howes?

  Because That's what's gonna give you great feedback.

• 42:50Kobe Bryant?

  Oh gosh, that would be amazing.

• 42:51Lewis Howes?

  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, or put it on GoPro and just press record.

• 43:00Kobe Bryant?

  Yes.

• 43:00Lewis Howes?

  It's about 15 minutes long. Take your kids to school.

• 43:03Kobe Bryant?

  Take them to the park, too. Like, we made them on Saturdays. Like, every Saturday is a new episode, because Saturday is normally the day us parents drive our kids to different sporting events.

• 43:12Lewis Howes?

  To the pool, to the games, the park.

• 43:14Kobe Bryant?

  Yes, that's why every episode has to be between 12 to, you know, 15, 16 minutes, right? Because that's normally the drive.

• 43:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 43:20Kobe Bryant?

  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.

• 43:26Lewis Howes?

  It's like mini 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 Toby on Instagram. Are you on Instagram a lot yourself?

• 43:37Kobe Bryant?

  I am on Instagram, yeah.

• 43:39Lewis Howes?

  Tag him.

• 43:39Kobe Bryant?

  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.

• 43:46Lewis Howes?

  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?

• 43:53Kobe Bryant?

  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 through injury, recovery, 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.

• 44:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Mamba Ment- but it's also your mindset bible, right?

• 44:29Kobe Bryant?

  Yeah, yeah. Well, you see how I break things down, like how I'm looking at things to the smallest of detail.

• 44:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 44:34Kobe Bryant?

  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.

• 44:44Lewis Howes?

  I love it. Make sure you guys get the book. You can preorder it right now. Download the Poonies. Follow you on social media. The final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

• 44:54Kobe Bryant?

  I think the definition of greatness is to inspire the people next to you. 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 that I think lasts forever. And I think that's our challenge as people is to figure out how our story can impact others and motivate them in a way to create their own greatness.

• 45:24Lewis Howes?

  Why don't I acknowledge you again, man, for the inspiration? You're just a symbol of truth and inspiration to so many people.

• 45:30Kobe Bryant?

  Thanks, man.

• 45:30Lewis Howes?

  And I just appreciate you as a human, so.

• 45:33Kobe Bryant?

  Appreciate it, man.

• 45:33Lewis Howes?

  Thanks, man. Appreciate you, though.

• 45:38Lewis Howes?

  There you have it, my friends. Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest of all time. The Mamba mentality, talking about NBA championships, winning Oscars, the power of storytelling, and so much more. I was blown away by this. His willingness to share, his willingness to reveal, his open-heartedness, his generosity. And I hope you appreciated his sincerity and his wisdom as much as I did, as this was a real treat and honor to be able to have that time with Kobe and really just to pick his brain and tap into his heart. I think there's so much power in his energy and his presence. And we can all learn some incredible things from the way he's overcome challenges, the

• 46:19Lewis Howes?

  way he's continued to pursue dreams after this massive career he's had and continue to reinvent himself. So if you enjoyed this, please share it with your friends. LewisHowes.com/691. Again, tag at Kobe Bryant over on Instagram. Let him know that you enjoyed this. Post it on Twitter, tag him there, Facebook, all those places. Want to make sure that he sees all of you who are enjoying this information. And definitely check out The Punies again. The Punies is a powerful family series that teaches children morals and history in a really fun and positive way. So make sure to check that out. I enjoyed listening to the first few episodes and I think you will as well. Play it to your kids while you're

• 47:04Lewis Howes?

  driving in the car to school or to sports practice or out to dinner and see their reaction. Again, take a video of you playing it with your kids in the car or when you're going out somewhere and get their reaction and tag Kobe as well. Send it to me and I'll send it to him if you want to. Would love to give him that feedback that he's looking for on this show and his creation as well. You can check out the full show notes, the full video interview over at LewisHowes.com/691. And one of the things I enjoyed the most about this was storytelling and the stories that Kobe told and talked about during this and how he mentioned that storytelling was something that he wanted to get better

• 47:47Lewis Howes?

  at. It's one of his visions and dreams moving forward. And as Joseph Campbell said at the beginning, "If you're going to have a story, have a big story or none at all." We all have a life to live. We all have an opportunity to leave an impact, to leave a story behind and to tell a story while we're here. And I want to ask you, are you sharing a positive, impactful story? Or are you sharing one of negativity, of drama, of anger and resentment right now? Ask yourself, am I sharing something meaningful in the world? Am I showing up every day and pursuing the things that I love, that I enjoy, that I believe in? Or

• 48:30Lewis Howes?

  am I complaining, making excuses and being a victim of my own story? You have an opportunity to change the script at any moment, to change your mentality, to change your actions, to change your goals, to change your relationships, to change your health. But it's your decision to make. It's your story to write. What's the story that you're going to be writing moving forward? I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Again, share it with your friends. Let's spread this message far and wide. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.