The Visionary
The future, and what is barely possible, reads round the next corner.
Kobe Bryant reads as The Visionary because he was mapping post-career creative territory at twenty, long before most athletes considered a second act. He architected six-year youth basketball development frameworks and built premium children's media with the same obsessive blueprint-building that defined his playing career.
“Mentally, I've got to find a way, and sometimes you have to what you have to do is you have to trick yourself, you have to look inside yourself and find different types of challenges from game to game. That's how I got myself motivated. And it wasn't the same every game. I had to find a focus to go out and play at a certain level.”
“Your strategy is to make everyone else get on your level. You're not going down to theirs. You're not competing with anyone else ever again. They're going to have to compete with you.”
“And can do what you do. It's not a matter of they're trying more or working harder. They really just can't do it. And if it's not handled right, it will destroy your entire team or office or wherever you have elite performers surrounded by less gifted colleagues. That is exactly why Steve Jobs said that you cannot indulge B players.”
“He did just to save him some time. He refused to wear them. I had interfered with his routine. He had the equipment manager get him a new pair unlaced, so he could lace them himself. Every time he warmed up in practice, he started with a chest pass. The greatest player in the world working on a basic chess pass, why?”
Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson & Darius Miles: “KH Classic: Kobe Bryant”
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