Transcription
Winning is not about the trophy and the accolades. It's about the grind. It's about the obstacles. It's about the challenges. It's about the pain.
The reason I know so much about winning is because I've had to deal with so much losing. Everybody wants to win, but in order to know how to win, you've got to know how to lose because you're going to lose more than you're going to win. But what do you gain from it?
You've trained some of the greatest of the greatest: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Charles Barkley, Dwyane Wade. So you know something about winning. You know something about sustained winning over time. Your mind has to immediately shift back because now you've felt and tasted something that you can only get through winning. Are you willing to do it again?
And that was one of Kobe's favorite words when it related to winning. He says, "You have to be obsessed with whatever your win is. Be all in." Me, three greatest lessons I learned from Michael: competing, accountability, and then winning at all levels. Winning all levels. What does that mean? You just don't win in one arena. Win in your sports. You win in business. You win in your personal life. Other people win because you win. It isn't just about you. It's about being able to pull the team and show them what it feels like to win.
And this isn't about playing basketball like Michael Jordan did, like the late great Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade. This is about having the mindset to win. When you fail, your feelings give you excuses. Your mind makes you more resilient. You look at when Kobe, his first playoff series, he had this horrible game, but he shot like four or five straight air balls. Now, he could have came back next year and said, "I gotta pull everybody. This man, you're too young. Why did you take me?" And he was just like, "You know what? That's on me. I have to own that moment. Now I gotta prove to myself I can overcome this because now everybody else is doubting me, but I can't doubt myself."
Everybody told MJ, "Don't go to North Carolina. You'll never play. You shouldn't be here." And Michael went out. He said, "I don't need to prove to coach. I don't need to prove to Buzz. I need to prove to myself that I belong here." I always say, "You can have fear, but you can't have doubt."
[Music]
When I was working with my professional athletes, it required me to do a lot of traveling. And this story gets me every time. So when people say, "It didn't hurt." It still hurts. I was packing for a trip. My daughter walks into her room.
[Music]
She says, "Daddy, why do you travel so much?" I said, "Sweetheart, this is I provide for the family. This is how I take care of you and Mom. This is how I put food on the table." She looks at me, says, "Dad, if I eat less, will you stay home more?"
Now, people would think in a fairy tale, or most people would think that I unpacked my suitcase. I'm not going to take this trip. I mean, let's go grab some ice cream or let's go out. I kept packing. Why? I had to set an example for her early of what it meant to win. The way you have to leave behind sometimes in order to pursue what's unique to you. I wanted her to understand this is who I am, and I want to send an example for you.
I had a conversation with her later on. They're telling why I did all those things.
[Music]
Conversation, she stopped me. She goes, "I get it. I understand." She saw the results. She saw how it brought us closer together. She understood my dedication to my craft and what it took to excel and what it took to be different and what it took to stand by unpopular decisions. Knowing that every successful person that I've met, every successful person that I know, had to make those decisions over and over again. There are things that are going to have to take a back seat. You're going to have to leave a lot of things behind.
The hardest thing with Kobe was getting him to stop. "Yeah, okay. Take a break. Rest. Yes, take the day off." That was the most challenging thing with him because over all the years that he had his success, it was about go, go, go. And then when I came on, I was the complete icicle. I got to get you to stop.
[Music]
His 3 A.M. workouts. Yeah, crazy, crazy. You know, having to keep the Staples Center open later because he wasn't happy the way he performed at that game. And I would not leave till he would leave. Really? Yeah. So we would be, we would be in the arena sometimes two, three o'clock in the morning. Shut up. All the lights are turned off except on the court, and we just keep going. We just keep going.
What is the mindset of winning? They both had that. So I look at it, I look at it three ways. So you have individuals that compete. You know, a lot of people that compete. Yeah. You know, every, we all know how to compete. Everybody knows how to, how to, you don't forget how to compete. We just decide not to anymore. But a lot of people compete just to finish.
Then there's individuals that win, but they only win one time. It's easy to win, and they never win again.
[Music]
And then there's people that win, and winning, you can come back the same. Cannot come back the same. You have to come back different. You have to come back better. Winning wants you to be different. Winning requires you to do different things. Winning requires you to think in a different way. Winning speaks its own language. Winning has its own way of recognizing you.
[Music]
Winning wants you to write your own story. Stop looking for steps. Those steps are infinite. Find your own path to winning. Because as the late great Kobe Bryant said, "Winning is everything."
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
foreign
[Music]