What a wild day. For anyone over the age of 30 or so they know that Kobe Bryant was probably one of the most followed sports stars with a cult following: Lebron, Jordan and maybe Curry for a moment in time really compared. Even though there are super stars still in the league, Kobe was a worldwide spectacle and people in Asia, Europe etc. all knew who he was. It takes a lot to be shocked and for the first time since the presidential election people are shook.
Lives Are Not Equal: If you’re looking for clear proof that lives are not equal you can look at the reactions today. Despite over 2,000 people infected and 56 dying from a new virus, the entire world is focused on one man and his family. That is the definition of influence if we’ve ever seen it.
This is a general theme we’ve had here for years. A single ultra successful person generates more value than a larger number of unsuccessful people. Yes we realize that doesn’t “read nice” but it’s also true. If you reach a point of influence your choices/mannerisms impact the world a lot more. The average person does not have a ripple effect on the world and a super-star in any industry (even sports in this case) can cause a small ripple to occur. Your life-long objective is to become successful enough to have at least a small ripple on the world when you’re gone
Human Behavior Won’t Change: Unfortunately, we doubt this changes human behavior as most won’t learn from it. Instead they will lash out at people who say anything remotely wrong about him. The real lesson should be immense respect for life itself. You can become a billionaire (Steve Jobs was an example) and die within the next few years. If you’re wasting your time trying to tear other people down, you’ve spent a large amount of time wasting your own life (which could be cut off tomorrow).
Human behavior is sadly predictable despite the answers being firmly placed in front of everyone. If you focus on yourself and improving your life (and anyone around you), you’ll exceed your expectations. This is simply how it works. Put tons of effort in focused on improving yourself.
Some Simple Lessons: While the chances of a reader being a 6’6” athletic individual with a near 40” vertical leap is next to none, a lot of his mannerisms can be mimicked. As many of you know we bet quite a bit on basketball and boxing as they are the two sports we follow close enough to be educated on the topic. When you look at Kobe’s life he actually spent insane amounts of hours in the gym and working out. You didn’t see him mentioned in parties or benders like you have seen with other NBA stars. Quite similar to Lebron James in that manner, didn’t show up drunk to games like a Charles Barkley or JR Smith.
The main lesson you can take from someone with genetics completely unrelated to you? Find what you’re good at and become obsessed with it. That’s the real conclusion here. No one cares about people who are mediocre and no one cares about people who are lazy. You can be talented and lazy and you’ll be absolutely curb stomped by people who are talented and grinding every day. Kobe Bryant was simply the latter. Videos would surface of him running up sand dunes and taking hundreds of shots before and after practice… This doesn’t’ even include their maintenance regimens to stay in tip top shape. Playing through broken fingers and other injuries were the norm when it was an important game.
If you are talented in something and have the slightest chance at making it big, you should stop everything and focus on that talent. This is not negotiable as the difference between being number 1 and number 10 is miniscule and changes your life by a wide margin.
Another important lesson here is that you’re going to have a ton of haters on the way. Even though we are focused on Kobe here we can’t help but think about the 2019 NBA finals when people quite literally cheered when Kevin Durant ruptured his Achilles. That was one of the grossest displays we’ve ever seen (from a sports event) and here we are in 2020 and suddenly Kobe’s haters have nothing to say. It seems that people have some sort of interest in seeing people suffer and only go quiet when the person dies. Pretty sad state of affairs in the USA, but it’s how it works now. Remember that all of your haters (while certainly smaller compared to Kobe), have horrible lives and will unlikely ever make it in life anyway. Best to ignore.
Health is by far the most important asset you have. Another interesting thing about Kobe is he never seemed to “let himself go” and was in shape despite retiring a few years ago. The vast majority of sports stars end up gaining tons of weight a losing their physique. He wasn’t in this camp and had (what appeared to be) great respect for health. You definitely cannot do much about a helicopter crash.
Some Quick Final Thoughts: There is no way anyone could have predicted this so we’re keeping the post short. It is big enough for us to write on since we’ve followed the sport for quite some time. Kobe Bryant unlike a lot of pro athletes actually reached his potential (our opinion). Arguing about the best players of all time is less relevant and the more important item is that he didn’t “squander” his talent like a lot of other professional athletes (overweight NBA stars or stories similar to Shawn Kemp… Many are probably too young to know who he was). Don’t squander your talent, work as hard as you can on something you can become great at and remember that everything can be taken away from you tomorrow. Don’t spend a single second worried about what other people think (vast majority are hoping you’ll fail) and stay focused on your present and future.
Solid. Massive respect for the guy. Thanks for this breathe of fresh air WSPs, what a morning.
Facts lad. Kobe was the true GOAT inside and outside the courts.
It is interesting how many of the things you mention that did not make sense to me while reading it 1 or 2 years ago makes sense now.
I am essentially following the steps in Efficiency along with with your 10 years 1 million guides and spending 6 months getting after have achieved the following:
– Maintained my country’s version of a 4.0 GPA (Straight A+s and a single A) while working part-time in an innovation hub focused on a particularly large and old industry characterised by durability, illiquidity and ability to generate cash flow
– Starting internship at top-tier pharma company working in digital transformation focused on automation of business and manufacturing processes in which **average salary** per employee is +/- 100k. Am still working at the other job but remotely as they were so eager to keep me, got more responsibility and are project managing a full-time resource besides not even being done with my bachelor degree.
– Am practising my online sales skills by bootstrapping on Etsy using on-demand printing (designs are sourced from person I know who are very good at drawings), ideally, I get enough sales to know what works so I can scale up when I get my first large career income post-uni that I can invest
People around me are so predictable, here is a list:
– People becoming pregnant at a way too young age without even having started a career
– People drinking too much, using credit (money they dont have) to buy alcohol while complaining about “how tough their life is”
– People feeling like “they don’t have time for themselves” besides watching 3-4 hours of Netflix a day
These same people are noticing me putting in the work and not answering them every single time they send a text or similar and then giving me shit for not “caring”, being “emotional” or “being worried about my health and my stress levels”
The worst thing is a lot of these people are actually decently smart and they have talents. They just think they deserve all the fun, the freedom and ability to spend now and without putting in the time and the effort.
I guess 1); Regular people making comments means I am going in the right direction, 2); I need to be in a better room and 3); if I ever feel I can relate to them something is SERIOUSLY wrong and I need to get my shit together
You are making the right choices and trying to be the best “you” possible.
If they are not “down with that” find people who are.
So sad. He was just one year younger than me. I liked that he spoke Italian fluently and seemed to always make people feel welcome after retirement.
Work ethic is everything. RIP Kobe.
Sam
Crazy, one event and it’s over. Very sad day.
Great example with Kemp. Loved watching The Glove feed him. Also, thought about Harold Miner aka “Baby Jordan”. Remember getting his jersey and just knowing he was the next big thing.
I am 22 and not even following your career path (criminal record). I am a construction worker throwing all my cash into an ecom store. I made $40k profit last year from my side business.
$60k after taxes is not even something to brag about. And yet everyone who knows about my side business gives me shade over it. I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut over the last couple years. My experience is that the idea of me rejecting my working class background is what angers people more so than making money in of itself.
Like there is something “wrong with me” because I don’t want to hang out with anyone. Smoking weed and watching sports, blacking out on the floor, and going to music festivals got old after I turned 20.
I don’t really even have friends anymore. It’s lonely out here. I know this is not a Q&A although one day I’d really like to hear your opinion in-depth on strategies for how to find those 1 or 2 true lifelong friends you’ve mentioned. For me that’s way harder than getting a girlfriend. The majority of guys I’ve ever known are annoying and always trying to backstab and one up eachother.
Same age; same shit; same problems.
There is no in-depth strategy, just like there isn’t an in-depth strategy to getting an amazing life-partner — in contrast to just a regular-ass GF — but the way you get both is pretty similar: make yourself present in places where these people frequent, and keep yourself open to forming new connections.
Oh, and demonstrate value while you’re at it.
Those kind of friends you are looking for, you won’t find them working 80hrs a week.Wallstreet Playboys says go out two nights a week. Honestly, why bother? Nobody worth anything wants to socialize with guys at your income level.
Just keep focusing on earning. When it’s rolling in, quit your day job and move to an affluent area. As long as you keeping making more money most of these problems will fall into place as you upgrade your life.
I’ll answer how I found my good friends if you can tell me a bit more about how you started your side income.
– how you got the idea for your business
– how you got from idea->product/income
– what tools you used to get it running. Shopify + Aliexpress? I have a few ideas, but not sure how to execute on them.
Good friends are very hard to come across, and I’m lucky to have a few. The closest friends that I’ve found were from 3 situations:
– look for right-leaning people in graduate programs, particularly ones focused on humanitarian goals because this shows a nuanced worldview. The ones working in more obscure fields are the best ones, unlike politics and medicine. I met a guy working in microfinance projects so that people in 3rd world countries could obtain capital to jumpstart ideas. incredibly intelligent and kind guy.
– another guy I met from going abroad to a wealthy university for a semester. he came from a broke village and you could tell by the way he dressed. but he was extremely hard-working, grateful and open.
– closest friend is a young guy studying in a 1st world country from a dangerous country. came from some wealth, but knows the difficulty of the streets. very prideful, but street intelligent and always has my back. met him at an MMA gym.
in summary, look for opposite characteristics (humanitarian+right wing or studying physics+ethnic studies), moving up despite bad situation (broke->top university), and young with non-traumatic intense life experience for a short period of time (escaped former war-torn country, now in the 1st world).
most importantly, avoid people who are negative or obsess over ANY group: guy who talks too much about women or their “nature” (views sex as a measure of status and self-worth), outspoken Israeli/Palestinian advocate, extremely anti/pro-immigration, etc.
Best of luck.
Find your thing. Something that you can do for hours (besides making money) and the time seems to fly by. Find the thing that sucks you in and puts you into a mindless state of flow. That thing you are obsessed with. The thing you research, build, unbuild. That thing that you enjoy talking about the history of it, the future and just be in awe of the present. Find that thing and that passion will attract people just like you. Those will be the lifelong friends.
For Kobe, basketball was that thing.
What’s yours?
I think everybody has problems. I kind of have that backstabbing problem but the biggest one I’ve seen is people come and go. I currently live in Chicago and it seems like everyone I went to school with high school and above are in other cities.
I have a couple friends that I might consider lifelong friends and maybe it might be hitting them up and not doing that backstabbing stuff. Eventually the gems reveal themselves.
I’ve also seen some older guys that I would suspect have the lifelong friends problem as well as can’t find a wife here in America. Seems like supporting Trump is a great way to alleviate that in that scenario.
He was the first one I thought of when you tweeted about how a man should never retire a little while back.
solid post and RIP to him and the other 8 killed.
Great post guys, appreciate your perspective. Yes he had incredible genetics but he found that talent and made the absolute most of it (unlike the vast majority). Definitely a great lesson for those who have talent but think that’s all that they need.
“Find what you’re good at and become obsessed with it. That’s the real conclusion here. No one cares about people who are mediocre and no one cares about people who are lazy. You can be talented and lazy and you’ll be absolutely curb stomped by people who are talented and grinding every day.”
Spot on. This is the most uncomfortable truth out of this entire thing. I was not a basketball fan but I admire his tenacity with his passion. That’s the part your average person is going to miss; they’ll get high off the empathy getting passed around, count that as a dopamine surge, then back to assume, consume, resume mode.
Hope this doesn’t come off as insensitive. But they have always said retirement kills.
Can’t imagine how many rides he took through a 20 plus career and this is how he goes out.
Unbelievable. Very sad day
He definitely was not retired grinding all the time on new ventures after basketball. He had an incredibly successful sports drink for those that actually followed his career
His playing career was over due to age, not like he retired due to lack of effort, just reached his late 30s
I was referring to his playing career.
Retirement comment not only directed at him in particular, just a human observation I have observed. I think it’s the change up in routine that affects people the most. . For example when Kobe was playing, a typical Sunday morning probably would have been in the gym preparing for a game on the road.
For the average person “retirement kills” likey due to boredom? Trying to find things to take up time that they may not be AS passionate about as the thing they have spent the last 20 years doing. Lack of routine, lack of mastery of environment etc.
Gotcha makes sense
“You definitely cannot do much about a helicopter crash.”
Yes, avoid helicopters as much as possible. Kobe flew A LOT.
Delta Force veteran Larry Vickers (Vickers Tactical) had three helicopter crashes in 20
years of service. He survived but got permanent back and joint problems. Rich or military, helicopters are dangerous.
Single mast rotorcraft VTOL is so outdated, it should be rapidly replaced by quad mast rotorcraft like what many drones use or what Uber is toying with for flying cars. Or, technology should just transition to vectored thrust VTOL for widespread use. There is no reason nowadays to have to train pilots for times when their vestibular system is *guaranteed* to get messed up based on raw probability. Eliminate or minimize as many random variables as you can and they should do that beginning with the craft itself. The skill of the pilot (the pilot was no dummy) shouldn’t hang on the possibility of the human anatomy to sustain balance in potentially vertigo inducing conditions in a craft that requires literally 100% laser focus from takeoff to landing. Helicopters are extremely unforgiving, and they are inferior aircraft in almost every way in terms of stability, safety, part redundancy, and ease of use. I’d be willing to bet that the pilot suffered from these pitfalls of the technology (not counting flight control’s continual changing of his vectors in crowded airspace) and he simply could not recover altitude in time. Regardless of what the investigation finds, my point on current widespread VTOL use still stands.
Anyway, glad to see you release the book! Will have fun reading it. Take care