Mamba Mentality - The Unprepared Podcast

spk_1:   0:13
Good morning, Misits. This is the unprepared podcast by misfit athletics where I come up with a topic before the show. But I do not tell my co hosts or guests and hopes to bring up some genuine conversation This of the Whoa Whoa! This episode? Yes. Systems of the podcast is brought to you by pure spectrum. Had to peer spectrum CBD dot com and use the code word misfit to save some dough. I am personally a very big fan of their tincture. I take it in the morning every single day. I find that, like, my most productive time is usually the first few hours of the day. So, um, I take it then and I noticed Definitely notice a difference. Less like, um, anxious about which things I should tackle. I'm just more more likely to jump right into this stuff. And then, um, potentially, even more seriously, take it before I go to bed. Um, had some some nasty head trauma in my life, and I have ah, tough time getting into deep sleep. So, um, usually wake up earlier and feel better. Sheriff's got something. I had to bathe

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in the Salle This weekend, Hunter decided that our affiliate programming work out that in the South had to bathe in it because

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makeup that's toking salt

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say Hunter decided to make the affiliate workout, which I thought was a nice, comfortable imam of his terrible six rounds, repeated three times of wall balls and dead lifts. And it is to say, I just started

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to movements that you could compete unlike a world class level with and you're something your idea, too. I was just like we should just make this very

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Smith is also brought to you by Sharp in the Sharp in the ex co dot com, Use the code word un prepared to save a little bit of dough. Miss the Winter Drop Number 2 January 29th Maybe it's already January 29th. Um, we always record these podcasts a little bit early. So head there. Joggers, zip ups, Beanies, T shirts, purple wrist bands, all kinds of good stuff. Restock on some socks. Ah, big release the

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get some boom. Um, so I'm gonna I'm gonna say the topic of the day without as much fanfare as usual. Um, yesterday Kobe Bryant. Um, 41 years old daughter Jeon, a 13 years old helicopter crashed, went up in the flames. Seven other people died along with them. Um, it's kind of taking out my head space right now. I was, like, have been obsessed with him for over 20 years. He was my idol, had all the jerseys, the shoes, the you know, all that stuff. Um, So I figured I could go into the cave of, like, watching all the old videos and some of the highlights and some of his mindset stuff. And today's topic could be mama mentality we could talk about, You know, him and you know, his work ethic and his mindset and all that stuff. And how could that translate? You know, for other people, Um, I want to start with, um, this story that we've referenced a bunch of times actually already on this podcast, but I've never gone in and read the whole thing to guys bear with me, you know, for a few minutes here while I read this, but it's it's actually really good story. So this, um, guy named Rob on Reddit, who was a he now like work for the Bengals, I believe. But he was a, um, trainer that was invited to Las Vegas to get the Olympic team ready. Um, and this is just a story that he told about it. So basket the U. S. Basketball, too? Yep. The United States basketball team. So this would have been 2000 to 2010 or six. Maybe. Would be my guess, cause it's winters. Yeah. Um, all right. So I was invited to Las Vegas this past summer to help Team USA with their conditioning before they head off to London. And, as we know, they would eventually bring home the gold. I've had the opportunity to work with Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade in the past, but this would be my first interaction with Kobe. We met. We first met three days before the scrimmage on the first day of practice early July. It was a brief conversation where we talked about conditioning where he would like to be by the end of the summer, and we talked a little bit about the hustle of the select team. Then he got my number, and I let him know that if he ever wanted to get some extra training and he could hit me up any time. The night before the first scrimmage, I remember I had just watched Casablanca for the first time, and it was about 3:30 a.m. I lay in bed slowly fading away when I hear my cell phone ring. It was Kobe I nervously picked up. Hey. Ah, Rob, I hope I'm not disturbing anything, right? No. What's up? Cope? Just wondering if you could help me out and get some conditioning work in, That's all. I checked my clock. It was 4:15 a.m. Yeah, sure, I'll see you at the facility in a bit. It took me about 20 minutes to get my gear and out of the hotel. When I arrived and opened the room to the main practice floor, I saw Kobe alone. He would was drenched in sweat, as if he had just taken a swim. It wasn't even 5 a.m. We did some conditioning work for the next hour and 15 minutes. Then we entered the weight room, where he could do a multitude of strength training exercises for the next 45 minutes. After that, we parted ways and he went back to the plate, Back to the practice. Florida shoot. I went to the hotel and crashed. Wow. I was expected to be at the floor again at about 11. I am. I woke up feeling sleepy, drowsy and almost pretty much every side effect of sleep deprivation. Thanks, Kobe. I had a bagel and headed to the practice facility. This next part I remember very vividly. All the Team USA players were there feeling good for their first scrimmage. LeBron was talking to Carmelo if I remember correctly. And Coach Stachowski was trying to explain something to Kevin Durant on the right side of the practice facility was Kobe him by himself, shooting jumpers. And this is how our next conversation went. I went over to him, patted on the back and said, Good work this morning, huh? Like the conditioning. Good work. Oh, yeah. Thanks, Rob. I really appreciate it. So when did you finish? Finish What? Getting your shots up. What time did you leave the facility? Oh, just now. I wanted to make 800 So Yeah, just now my jaw dropped. Holy Mother of God. It was then when I realized there's no surprise why he's been effective as he was last season. Every story is about his dedication, every quote that he said, hard work, all came together and hit me like a train. It's no surprise to me that he's not dunking on players 10 years younger than him. And it wasn't a surprise to me earlier this year when he led the league in scoring. So he got. Therefore, I am in trained until 11 a.m. During his off season while he was already selected for

spk_0:   10:12
the Olympic team. It's mind blowing. You think about the level of commitment and the amount of people who want to say they want to be like him. That actually follow through is such a small percentage. I mean, I've heard something similar to that before, something I think, after the 1997 180 Western Conference finals, when he missed those big threes over and over again, like threw up three airballs back to back to back and then spent that night from midnight until, like 5 a.m. shooting three pointers the entire night until he felt like he had enough reps over the course of that evening to be like, All right, I'm good. Like I feel little bit better now because unlike most who would be discouraged by that in my end up telling their story for the rest of the career, the challenge is status quo and said, I'm not gonna be satisfied with that, which is, I mean, that alone, to me is like a mind blowing story.

spk_2:   11:00
I think, yeah, what you kind of started with is people want, like I want to be like Kobe, and that's totally understandable. Whether it's him or whoever you're, you're idolizing that it's never It's almost never a question of Do you want to be like Kobe, or do you want to be like Matt Fraser or whatever It's the question is, actually, are you willing to put in the work that's required TB that

spk_1:   11:25
So I want the trapping Seattle I want

spk_2:   11:27
Yeah, I do, I do. I want the doing, want the fanfare, the fame and whatnot, and I It's easy to be so far removed from being someone at that level, regardless of what your ah, what you're trying to be like, professionally, Personally, whatever Trying to you were so far removed from that that It just appears it appears. It's like, Oh yeah, Kobe Super well off do 20 years, 20 years in the league, five championships, whatever. Like it's when when you're him, it's very It's very different when you are that person. When you are trying to be elite at anything, it's very different. It's not. You don't you don't see the the fanfare that everybody else sees. You just see the kind of the work that's ahead, or what you need to do to be better than you currently are,

spk_1:   12:19
right? Yeah, I did. The gist of the Mamba mentality is literally, just always trying to improve. Like that's what he tries to get across the people is your mindset. If you're like, really all in on something, you need to always be thinking about how you can improve. And I think a lot of people attached a certain maybe attitude to it. And as he retired and got into business, he wanted people to know that it wasn't about bravado like that's actually kind of the opposite. He's just a serious guy like like Michael Jordan was kind of known as a dick. Still, I think I have known is that. And I don't think Kobe was as much of a dick as he was like Like introverted. A little bit serious. Yeah, yeah, like, and I watched an interview where he was asked about, like, what happens to your relationships when you're like this? He's like they suffer, but like, if they're friends and if their family, I make sure that they know both how I feel about them and what my goal is right now, like I'm not always going to be playing basketball like But while I'm playing like, really want to know, how good can I actually

spk_2:   13:30
get? We've We've talked about that before it. What it takes to succeed at the highest level of anything is is a very unbalanced life, like you can't I'm I can't really think of an example off the top of my head of somebody who is truly the best at what they dio and is is like, Yeah, I'm also, like, very balanced, some very selfless, like it's not in it and not sell. They're not selfish in the sense that, like it's all about me, it's all about me, like, do do these things for me. It's just like, Hey, I'm I'm trying to be the best. I know what I want. I know what it takes toe or have an idea of what it takes to get there. And if I understand, if you don't support me or if you don't you know you're frustrated about this, but that this is what I am like. This is this is what I want to be theirs theirs. And there's a reason they're only, you know, a handful dozen truly elite, truly like untouchable athletes in the plant on the planet, right? That's that's what it takes. And most people aren't willing to do that

spk_1:   14:35
right. The sort of his process of trying to help people or when he was trying to figure out who to go into business with is like he's like that. The terribly hard question that everyone has to ask themselves. Do I really love this? And if the answer is no like he's like, yeah, it is really hard to just completely change the course of your life, But if you're dreading getting up and going to work or getting up and going to train like that's always going to be in the back of your head That's always going to be there. And you're gonna ride the roller coaster of whether you want to be doing this or not the whole time. So he's like, you have to identify that before anything and then once you d'oh, you have to This is the one that stuck out to me The most is you have to outwork your potential. So, like he does not like, What is your potential set that like Okay, And then we're going past that. We're like, taking off from there like he has his goat mountain and it's all the best basketball players. And he went to every single one of them is what you d'oh! How did you get better? Like, what exactly did you d'oh and he's And he never was like, Oh, I can be them He's like, but I'm gonna find out if I can be them like I'm going to find out if me working harder than every single person in the MBA plus my talents can turn me into that.

spk_0:   15:49
I think it was the key Malaj, Juan, Like a story that I heard where he was. He had seen the dream shake which obviously was like teams like Go to move in the late eighties. And he said, You know, even though I'm a wing player, I need to be able to go into the post. I'm able to do something like that and they're like videos of side by side. He could literally see, like a mirror image of Quim and Kobe side by side, doing the exact same move and having the same results where, Hey, I need to put this part of my game up any better at this part of my game. And you know, not just saying, you know, doesn't take 10 basketball shorts to get yourself to that level. He might put hours and hours and months and months in the gym and having the same for

spk_1:   16:26
hours at a time without a basketball.

spk_0:   16:28
Yeah, it's just crazy about

spk_1:   16:30
walk out on me like what you're

spk_0:   16:31
doing right now. Well, it's funny you talk about the same thing. I mean, in our sport, we see athletes who grab an empty bar bell in the exact same thing. You just think about the amount of attention to detail that it takes to be like that, and you know, it's one thing to say you're committed or invested in something but truly something different about to go and see that, like go out in the gym. The lights are often you have £5 dumbbell on your practicing like dumbbells. Snatchers were doing something crazy like that, like he would legit. Put himself that length of of experience because he realized that he had something t go after and refreshing to see someone who doesn't realize, like rest on their laurels. Because I frankly think about a lot of lot of basketball players who you hear about having very good success in the league and they're literally riding their talent and are not the best teammates are aren't necessary. The most deadly of these

spk_1:   17:16
people like Gilbert Arenas there, Tracy McGrady that are like one of the best players in the league. And then they're like, gone just playin like China, and it's like, what? What the hell just happened? How can you possibly be that good? And then all of a sudden you're just gone?

spk_0:   17:29
Yeah, just that you see that the athletes who are set themselves a different set themselves apart from anybody else. Almost every single one of those as that long career trajectory, and you hear these stories after they start playing. It's like this person didn't do anything else. They were principally focused on one major goal that's winning Super Bowls or winning MBA titles or whatever it is that everything else comes secondary in certain parts of the air. Because I'm sure these athletes have time. They put family first and say, All right, next month or so, we're gonna go to a family vacation. But like, as soon as that part ended, they're able to flip that switch and go back into I'm a supreme competitors, and I need to figure out what is the best way to get me a pop top my sport. And for a lot of them, it's a I'm not gonna be available for X, Y and Z because I'm focusing on something very, very intently.

spk_2:   18:15
Do you think it's more of ah, when you were talking about like you? He says, like you have to love what you're doing or whatever do you think? Do you think he loves basketball or he loves being the best? I guess you could say yes, but I do so that because, like

spk_1:   18:34
so, he's talked at length about his love affair with basketball, like the first basketball that he got. He didn't want to do anything to it because he was in love with, like, the dimples on it in the leather. He didn't want to dribble it. He's obsessed with the sound like he won an Oscar for his for his dear basketball thing. He wrote like a love letter to basketball. Oh, yeah, um, but you wonder. What other thing could he have fallen in love with? His dad was, ah, professional basketball player overseas. So he grew up in, like, a bunch of different countries and whatnot. And, like, maybe his intensity could have been pushed in any of these directions like it was apparently an insanely like good businessman and like, like the one of the top investors in the world, seems Chris Sacca. And he's just one of those dudes name like every company that's whatever 20 acts themselves. They're 1000 million, and he's in, like one of the chief chief investors, like and he originally was like, I don't want to meet with this guy. I don't have time for this. I'm not impressed by Kobe Bryant or whatever. And then he sat down with him and he's like, I ah like like he has the entrepreneurial spirit in a way that, like like, you don't even care what the guy's businesses here like. Okay,

spk_0:   19:48
just made that assumption most people do. Oh, you're an athlete. Lots of money. Cool. That doesn't

spk_1:   19:53
Kobe didn't have friends. And if he wasn't playing basketball, he was like reading novels and Italian and stuff. So, like Derek Fisher was supposed to his best friend and had never been to his house. Jesus, yeah, can relate, but yeah, I mean, that's a really that's a really good question. You always wonder when someone has that intensity about them. I think I think the best of the best it is when those ideas married together.

spk_2:   20:21
Yeah, yeah, I'm just thinking like, you know, 800 free throws, 800 shots, whatever it's like you can't Maybe you can. Maybe that's what's why he was wired so much better than other people who wanted the same thing. Like he couldn't I can't imagine he was just like, Oh, hell, yeah. Shoots shoots a shot like Oh, hell yeah, again. And it does that not 798 more times like, is it just like, Hey, I I realize this isn't the most fun thing, or whatever may be, May be fun isn't even like part of it anymore. It's just it's just a level of commitment. You, you know you love the end results so much that the whatever it takes to get there isn't even a isn't even

spk_0:   21:04
a question. Probably say that someone. That situation is more obsessed with the process of being in the gym and refining little things, like changing the angle of his elbow. And how is the risk flicks the basketball and little things like that that the average basketball player probably doesn't really harp on? But he harps on every single detail like Drew said. It's like he's in the dark by himself in his underwear, like in his hotel room, practicing, you know, whatever move like he is legit, that obsessed. So you tell there's some level of dedication to the process where I'm sure he enjoyed the benefits of winning MBA titles and M. V P's and All Star games and whatnot. But he was more obsessed with how much better he could be. And, you know, having a level of love for the process is honestly, what we see determined the factor between a lot of athletes who are okay or, you know, pretty good and ones that exceed and jump off the page of the ones that care that much about getting better day to day, as opposed to I got, you know, the the fucking gold cup of the end of season that great,

spk_1:   21:59
you know, he was one of the things that he said that will probably line up with. This is he said he got over himself at an extremely young age and then was able to be objective. He's like because, like, obviously your perception of other people's perceptions very heightened. He's like and I realized at a young age that no one's thinking about the things about me that I think they are, like like, you know, the news cycle turns back over, and none of it matters. So like he talked about like always. You always need to get over yourself because no one actually cares to the level that you think they dio. And then when you realize that you can, you know, Look at your You know, I put in air quotes your air balls because obviously, it's gonna be something different out, out, out in the gym. But you can look at those objectively and literally be like, Oh, these shots are all online. They're just all short or, you know, these are all to the, you know, to a target. But to the left, like that's how he thought about it. He did not care at all if he went out and jacked up 10 air balls in a row. He's like, I'm going to figure out what just went wrong and then I'm gonna fix it. It's not gonna matter anymore. And like when you when you have that piece of get over yourself, I think that's when you can talk about someone being in love with the process and not like in love with a moment where you're shooting a basketball and being like you be another woman is

spk_0:   23:21
think about the monetary amount of resource is he probably saved himself in the long run, being more obsessed with the details and not wasting time and effort on emotion and just saying it was the left bad. Do it again. They got much time, You know, I used think about personally, Like, how many times have done a paint training piece out in the gym and then been frustrated with some emotional attachment to the workout? Not just like, Hey, I you know, I haven't worked out that much, and I was slow or like, how much that can actually eat at you as an athlete where, you know, you just move on from it. You look at it objectively. I didn't do this the way I should have done, or I should've done this next time and put that plan into action versus just stewing on it. It's doing on how much time and energy can waste on that. He clearly was not in that situation, allowed him to outperform and essentially be better than

spk_1:   24:06
everybody else. Yeah, and he like one of the things that he did that made it, like, sort of, you know, competitive. And I don't know if fun is the right word, but he always tried to figure out, like, what are my competitors not willing to d'oh so like? And the equivalent would be You know what We watched Matt Fraser this weekend dominate strength and depth, and one of the things that I noticed is his movements looked like very crisp, like very like it wasn't as much of normally. You see him like bent over breathing like he's, his heart's gonna explode or whatever. And I just saw this, like uptick in movement efficiency, which is terrifying for everybody

spk_0:   24:45
who's out for blood.

spk_1:   24:47
But that makes you wonder, Can you possibly be too good to attack the little things? If Matt obviously is, you know, there doesn't need to be a video of him doing it, you know, as a coach to know like, Damn, that looks smooth like he's, you know, figuring out where you know these edges exist, that he can kind of smooth over. And Kobe was like, If I figure out what you're not willing to do, and I do it over and over and over and over and over once you find out that I've been doing is he's like it's too late. It's like I've been doing that for five years. He's like I've been getting up at 4 a.m. for five years so I can train from 4 to 6, and then when you go to train, I'll be there. And then the train again from 5 to 7, is like You try to catch up. But I'm too far ahead of you, like at all times. So, like, and you would think that it could be something as simple as the shots. But practice without the ball. He watched film of the thing you talked about with large Juan. There's a video like that of him, and Jordan is a video like that of him and Oscar Robinson. He stole all their moves and just stood there and practice them 1000 times until they were second nature.

spk_2:   25:52
Is he? I I don't really know, but on about him, I don't follow basketball very much. Was he Was he super gifted at a young age? Or was he Was he like a dominate like dominant through like middle high school years

spk_1:   26:06
S O. He was, um, he was like, insanely talented as a high school basketball player. He's from the era where you could jump from high school toe pros. At the time that he was drafted, he was the youngest player to ever be drafted into the MBA was 17 but his like like one of the things that I rode down, um, is that I felt like was such a great cross over to our sport is like everything that he talks about has to do with versatility, like he talked about like each of his attributes, not being great. He's like they were good. But, like not great is like Like you'll have whatever Derrick Rose can go from the three point line to the rim and the blink of an eye. If you blink, he's gone to say good bye like he's like I didn't have that and I didn't have my hands or in his biggest so and so's and like like he had to rely. Or he thought he had rely more on skill and strategy and like all this extra training, But every single time he talks about an attribute or a skill, or like he goes into insane detail on every topic and, like, pulse apart things that you would never even think of And like that concept, you know, comes back out to like Okay, cool. You're the one that can, you know, get the rover down to 1 10 You are the one that can clean and jerk, whatever you are, the one that could do 30 unbroken muscle ups. But he looked at each of those people was like, How do I get as close to each of them every single one of them, every single category, So that, you know, all of this stuff kind of comes together like that versatility like and we don't really know, like, you know, I mean, he was dunking over people when he was 14 15 years old, but he thought like I would be a good MBA player. What happens if I work harder than everyone else? Like that was his thing. And I don't think anyone would ever know. Like, like, amazingly talented basketball players don't want to say you're a dime a dozen, but when you your purview is the n b A. That is kind of true. Sure, they're all insanely talented. So, like he compared single attributes to the person who had the best in that category. Like,

spk_2:   28:21
Yeah, I'm just I'm thinking like what? Then what allowed him? Because we were talking earlier about him, like identifying that basically, what other people said or thought didn't matter. And I My initial reaction was just like, Oh, people are like telling him like, Oh, yeah, good, nice air balls, Kobe like up from the negative perspective. But if he was as talented as he was, odds are people were just like like, damn Kobe like you are like, you're gonna be something special. And he obviously in both situations, didn't allow that to dictate what he did or didn't do. It was it was him looking inward and saying like, Okay, I'm okay. I'm pretty good at this. Like, how can I be better? Whereas somebody you know somebody else aside from probably like the other few best players or best coaches in the world, have no way of identifying what he is like deficient in like only he can say, like, you know, to the to the blind person or someone, someone who doesn't know better. It's just like, Wow, that was that shot was incredible or that that fade away was incredible. And but he's just like, Yeah, but I could have done this a little bit better. Something like that, something nobody else would has even like the ability to identify right? He did do that

spk_0:   29:45
when you watch, you watch the I've ever seen. But, um, sure, we'll have it on ESPN Now, even more, so was the detail. He'd go through a person's game and like a playoff game, for example, and we'll watch four. Siri's back to back of Jason Tatum against the Sixers in the divisional round of the playoffs, and he'll pick up things and teach these. I mean, he was teaching young players. He was little. He invited them over to his house or his whatever his office and saying, Let me tell you how you can be a better basketball player and picking up on things and telling them what they should be more than nuances just likes to a level that you like watching a basketball game, and I'm growing around. I'm not a humongous n b a fan, but like you, the things you're here, but like I would even think about that. He'll, like, talk about how his foot was rotated in 12 degrees and that allowed him to go by someone the baseline, where if it were straight on, he would have no chance of doing so. This is like think about how much Maur he thinks about the details. Then you d'oh! And that's not only was he willing to work harder, but he cared more about details than almost anybody else in the league. And he can tell you specific moments like he could recall a Siri's in the third quarter where so also passed the ball to five different players and ended up in his hands. And what would happen if four people touched the basketball instead of six? People pushing the basketball like the level of like, you know, I don't know in deafness that he knew the sport made him so different? That regard. And I think that's what allowed him to essentially take another leap forward. Had everybody else he knew those things were, I'll be wanting no idea.

spk_1:   31:07
And if you draw the comparison out into the gym, an athlete watches maybe a replay of ah sanction ALS event, and they're probably remembering the heart rate. They're remembering how bad their grip hurt, whatever he's gonna want to know, you know, in the bar muscle ups, you know how close that might need it to the bar. Before my hip went up there. How do I How do I do these things? He's just pulling the feeling out of all of this stuff and throwing it away and building that resiliency through his work ethic and through the day today, he's taking those tiny steps to then, you know? Yeah, I'm probably in just a CZ. Much pain is that is the person to my left, but I'm going faster. You know, I'm being more efficient doing all those things. He was able to remove so much feeling from all of this stuff to just kind of attack it and just to go back to your thing. Um, his chip on his shoulder was his age. So when he came into the league, um, like, guys would purposely push him around, and then other people would coddle him based on that and like, he's like, you don't know what an elbow to the chest from shack feels like. But fuck, he's like he's like he's like in a veteran player. Would come up to me and say, Are you okay? And he'd be like, motherfucker in my okay. Are you like like like don't talk to me, Don't say that shit to me. Don't ever ask me if I'm okay. And then, like there was There was one time they were in Toronto in 2000 when Vince Carter was like tearing up the MBA and he had back spasms and he had to play through it because he didn't want the headline to be. Kobe sits out. That's the thing that happens in the N B A. Now, like, Oh, I Leonard will literally just sit out against the Lakers. He's like, I'll be I'll be ready for LeBron in the playoffs or something like that. It's kind of ridiculous. Um, in Kobe was, like, literally like like spasming and the layup line, like having a tough time just controlling his body. But like he's like, he's like, I am allowed to have a day off. I am allowed to rest. It's not today like my back is not allowed to hurt. Today was his like what he said about

spk_0:   33:12
it. He's definitely he's

spk_1:   33:13
like it will hurt tomorrow and I will rest and I will recover, and I will. You know, maybe, you know, take some time off here. That's not tonight. That's not gonna happen till we

spk_0:   33:21
can probably find this in the stats somewhere, but the amount of minutes he played as a player, it was almost unheard of because not only did he play full seasons where he again would be like fucking you, I'm not coming out of this game. I'm staying in the game, but then he'd play deep in the postseason every single year. So you played 20 basketball season, but I would be building to guess we added up the total minutes. Probably like 26 27 seasons worth of playing like some outrageous number, then everybody else. I mean he did and joining an end of year, having a tort Achilles and definitely kind of send him out a little bit like softer, I guess. Rather than tying his own means. You probably noticed that it was harder to come back from injury and he talked about his documentary. But like you think about that that much effort energy in that much concentration for that much amount of time. It's just like mind blowing people get upset when I have to meet a one week deadline on writing a paper. This guy had the level of focus at like 1000 for 20 straight years. Like just mind blowing to think about.

spk_2:   34:14
I'm kind of thinking of Ah, Malcolm Gladwell's book outliers and just how how he talks about its very, very Rarely do people achieve such a high level of success on their own. There's always either kind of hidden or unthought of opportunities that people were given. And then, obviously there's a combination of maybe natural talent or or just the opportunity that you live in. You live in the right area, you live in the right time, period or whatever, But, um, the commonality is that, aside from yeah, a lot of the most successful people in whether it's sport business, whatever Bill Gates ah, some of the best hockey players in the world, successful businessman, whatever. It's a combination of opportunity and like the work ethic to get there, you were. Yeah, maybe you were. You were born at the right time of year to be an NHL player in the right place in Canada, where you know the level of play is so high that, like you were, you were set up well for it. But like you're still not getting past the other group of people who are in that same boat without working harder than they did.

spk_1:   35:26
Yeah, And it's like, You know, if if you stick true to the idea that you never want to be the you know, the fittest athlete out in the gym, you know, not surrounded by someone else that can push you smartest person in the room, like whatever that is, you will. Your reality will create this scenario. It's not the n B A. But it's your life. It's your reality. That's really is the only thing that should matter, right? So you can go in and say, OK, this is my life now. This is my reality. Um, and I have put myself in a challenging position, and once you do that, then this story can you can relate to it. You can say, Am I doing absolutely everything that I can in my personal reality, to get as good as this thing that I love, that I want to get better at. And if the answer is yes, then this is all relatable toe. Every single person who listens to this. Do you know,

spk_2:   36:17
if he ever said like, outwardly like I the reason I'm doing this is because I want to be the best basketball player that ever lived. I want to win championships. So he like he outwardly stated that.

spk_1:   36:28
Yeah, yeah, he put that out there in the like, direct correlation for people that aren't basketball fans. But I have to stay within the sports analogies. I apologize. It's like a Brady Belichick kind of situation with him and Phil Jackson. There were just these things that happened along the way. You have a guy that loves basketball that much, but is like such an intense personality. And then you have a guy come in who's, you know, created. You know, this insanely like like, efficient triangle offense. But he's also this, like Zan hippie dude who can both that Jackson Yes, who can both talk like like the finest details possible with Kobe about basketball and know how to manage him because his ego was, You know, I mean, he coach Michael before Kobe, So it's like, right, like I can handle this.

spk_2:   37:17
Yeah, I wonder if in in the same vein as like, talent plus opportunity, like, would he have been a CZ good as he was if he wasn't under Phil Jackson, right? Based on what you're saying and I don't know, I'm the only

spk_1:   37:29
one still left and they kept running the triangle. Kobe was basically the coach, especially out, you know, on the floor, you hear about, you know, all these other sports especially, you know, when the quarterback it's good enough and they let you know him kind of take over out there like Like, that's kind of where that's at. So I think you know, that's what popped into my head when you were talking about, you know, you know that the karma flying in, you know, in nudging you in the right directions, right to make sure, because obviously, when you're talking about someone who could be considered the best at anything in the entire world, like some brakes have to go their way, like the Charlotte Hornets drafted him and immediately traded into the Lakers. What would have happened if Kobe was on the Hornets, right? Like his basketball jersey would have been doped colors. We know that, uh, like what would have happened? No clue. No one knows. Yeah, like no way to know could have been better. True, The last the last thing that that I pulled out of those videos last night and today was he talked about steer clear of safe purpose, purposely turned down ideas and opportunities that make you feel like you got this. Find the project that you don't think you can do it all and jump into it because the curiosity needed to turn that idea around is where you get the biggest opportunity to improve. But he's like anything that feels safe. If it's going to make, like a major impact on your life thrown away, it's not enough. You are positive that you can't do it on Lee because you haven't done it yet. And that was what he tried because I asked him, like, What do you do now? Like you, like actually, like directing these movies or you like, you know, going into these marketing meetings with, you know, get that beverage company, that body armor 20 X or whatever, Um and like it's Yeah, it's It's just one of those things where it's like like you feel like you can't do something on Lee, really, because you haven't done it yet. So he was always, you know, in the business sector after doing it to himself, pushing people tow like, Well, why can't you do that? It's like I haven't done it yet. I don't know. I don't know how to do. And he's like gold. Figure it out.

spk_0:   39:37
He's teaching me a lesson, taking the emotion out of it. Don't allow yourself to be discouraged by something that's scary or something Don't. You're gonna be good at and say, All right, why don't you try and figure it out versus just giving up before you start like so many people that we work with both in the gyms here and remotely, who give it a week or two and go, I'm not there yet. I guess I should give up. It's like you don't have the upper. You haven't earned the right to say that. You don't have figured it out yet. You haven't spent time to try to figure it out. And that's funny because you and I were talking about a similar articles. Mr Athletics, about you know why, To avoid being safe like take risks, you know how much you can grow is an athlete grows a person. If you were willing to put yourself out into a situation where you're not comfortable. Because how else do you become comfortable? Something that you're not comfort with other than, you know, taking a risk in trying it. I just mean that point alone could have an entire podcast, but like it's super like, it's like deep thinking. I mean, next level, type of shit. Like to go put yourself in this steering clear of safe, like intentionally put yourself in uncovering situations and see how how you grow from it. I mean, that's that's how you grow is by putting yourself in situation you're not familiar with, and so many people want to skew the other direction. Just go with what they know. That like I think I could be under can't be understated, how valuable it is to put yourself out there in a situation where you're no. You don't know the outcome

spk_1:   40:50
well, how good our athletes feel when they see the work out On paper, they're pretty damn sure it's not gonna go Well, maybe there's a movement. Maybe it's the whole whatever. But then they walked back in after, you know, we had one recently that had the heavy, dumb bell one of them in the front rack, one of them overhead for lunges and, like that was at regionals. How many years ago?

spk_0:   41:08
27 17 17 I believe,

spk_1:   41:11
and all of that G P P work and all that stuff happens, you go try it again. You thought it was this massive weakness. Now it feels really good like that. You know, that's what he's talking about. You know, these ideas of being able to do that cross cross fitters should

spk_2:   41:26
understand, probably better than anybody, the value of being as versatile as possible, like within our sport, obviously like or when you step inside the gym, there are only so many things you can be really good at. But again, kind of going back to the other other hugely successful people like Kobe, someone who obviously was multi talented, not only basketball but sounds like savvy business person like look clearly at a borderline a professional basketball coach. But then you think about people like again like Bill Gates, who, if you guys haven't seen the Netflix documentary on him, he's like a guy, you know. Guy founds Microsoft in his garage and is now trying to solve the world's plumbing problem. Like what? The actual fuck, like, almost eradicated polio.

spk_0:   42:17
Yeah, like Like what? Like what The fuck?

spk_2:   42:19
Yeah, And you have to wonder, like, you know, maybe he didn't is. It's not like he was in his garage, the founding Microsoft, and was also something toilets. Hey, like I got this idea for this flusher. Watch this. But, you know, like he as as he started to grow, he was like the interests expanding. It's like, Well, what? It's not. It's not as much the question of Like what? What else can I do? It's like, Why not? Why letter Why or what? What am I limited to? What am I not good at its instead? Like, why can't I be good at that time? Why can't I? Why can't I steps so far outside of my comfort zone and and be successful? And I think people may probably pigeonholed themselves into thinking like, I can't do this. I'm not good at that. And you have no idea until you kind of expand those margins of your experience

spk_0:   43:11
that you put unintentional handcuffs on yourself to say I don't know if I'm gonna like this or I'm gonna be getting into this thing. You don't know what your passion. Maybe until you put yourself out there and try new things. You have no idea. Like we're talking about this morning with you going surfing. And it's like, you know, Hey, it's January in Maine. It's probably not all that nice in the water, but like one of those things, you might find a passion for something new. If you go try something you've never tried before, like for you. Who knows when you found that passion? Maybe you said, Hey, I'm scared of sharks in the ocean. I never tried surfing and you literally miss out on a passion of yours that you could have. You know, now you really enjoy going surfing. But you may not have done it because you were scared about something because it wasn't say I

spk_2:   43:47
suck, not sack out it at first, too. I spent way more time underwater than on top of it.

spk_0:   43:51
Now it's like, but

spk_2:   43:52
it was like, for me. It's like a man like I'm looking at these people like these professional surfers, which probably isn't like a good crowd toe toe look at. But in Southern California one of the best spots in the best spots and arguably the country, probably lower Trestles. It's like it used to be a stop on the World Surf Tour, and I never surfed out there because the reputation it had its like it's a It's a high performance wave. The people out there really good, especially relative to what I was. And toward the end of my my time there, I was like, You know what? Like there's no fucking way I'm leaving Southern California without having surfed like one of the most sought after waves in the world. When it's 15 minutes from where I live and I go out there and sure shit. The majority of people out there are fucking 12 years old or less five foot six and under. And I'm like, You fucking kidding me, Aaron?

spk_0:   44:49
Yeah, exactly. Thes people are. My thing is great.

spk_2:   44:57
And and I was like Like what? Why was I Why was I so nerve? And there's like there's a level of like it's a different culture and like you don't want to get yelled at and things like that, but at the same time, like I'm really glad that I put myself out there and I think that made me better, more, more willing to, like, put myself out there when it or when the surf gets really big, go out to someplace new, are take a trip somewhere, something different. But the point overall point is that, you know, had I not kind of chosen toe expose myself to something that was a little outside of my comfort zone in a sport that I'm already, you know, average at best at like, you know, who knows how many, right? How many of you listening like have something like that that you've passed by but didn't even know it?

spk_1:   45:42
Yeah, the one of my favorite books, um, is 01 by Peter Thiel and it's It's not about like it's weird to say, but it's not necessarily about the book itself, like the like Paragraph two paragraph. It's just this idea that, like people take ideas from never existing that zero toe, one being the one company that's doing whatever. And he's obsessed with finding the people that air, you know, going from 0 to 1 and then like like just posing that question in general, and that's what this makes me think of just this idea of like when we go to rewrite the phases or whatever, we need to be willing to go out on a limb with an idea with a concept that we really believe in, even if we think it might sell less subscriptions. You know what I mean? Like like that whole 01 concept is it's so important to think about, like like how much of my expertise or what I'm putting out there is influenced by what every other person is doing. Like, Can I be the one that goes and tries to find something that I know will work that, you know, at the end of the day, after hundreds or thousands of people go through it there, there's your sales, you know, once you come out that other side. But having the audacity to go in and try and take an idea from non existent to like world leading is is a big deal.

spk_2:   47:10
Yeah, to me it it's sort of like I'm a visual guy. So what I'm thinking is people who are trying to start or turn cos into successful ones. Ah, an apple is the one that I think of. It's like when they were trying to figure out how to design, how to sell consumer electronics in like a physical space instead of saying, like, how do instead of kind of thinking about what currently exists and reverse engineering From there it was like What doesn't exist? And what's the possibility that could happen? Because they, instead of saying like, Okay, let's model this after BestBuy or Radio Shack. Instead, it was like, Let's send a bunch of employees to the Ritz Carlton training program and see what we can learn about how we can develop. How can How can we build a consumer electronics store that is more like a Ritz Carlton than a best Buy? And now they're the most profitable, profitable store per square foot in the world. This'll whole

spk_1:   48:07
idea of like Google wants to be or TV or speaker. You're this. You're that you buy from Google music. You buy from whatever that is all based on. When jobs came back and was like, you know, you buy all of your songs through iTunes and they come out here and then now the your Web browser. It's like he wanted every single thing toe work together. You know iCloud. It's on your device. Now. It's on your iPhone like Like that's every business now they want. They don't have Like what? His Amazon D'oh! Everything Yeah, names on Web service is is bigger than Amazon. The store. Throw that out there. People thought it was on the store was the biggest thing. No, they have another part of their business that's larger. So like like like those concepts. It's like all of that is based on Steve Jobs being like, let's create an ecosystem where they can't leave us. And that's why everyone has an iPhone Now. A lot of people want to switch. You don't get those blue text messages. And then people don't even get their text messages half the time after they leave Apple because some are going to my message. You know, iCloud email addresses, and some are going to whatever. That's what you get those texts say, you know, maybe sure, but like it's my name. Well, then it's like it's like, Well, I

spk_2:   49:21
have this Mac and like if I get rid of my iPhone, then I'm like then I might have to change my Mac to a PC. It's like, Well, then I can't use airplay And it's just like, Well, then fucking Siri like, won't listen to my conversations and it's fuck. Well, I might as well just keep everything I own is as Apple now versus switch.

spk_1:   49:42
The last thing that I that I wantto go into before we do final thoughts is just, you know, we've harped on this versatility thing for a long time, and I think everyone understands it. I don't know that everyone understands the road to versatility, this idea that Kobe didn't have a ball when he was doing X, y and Z that, you know, no one is too good to work on keeping their dip at the top of a muscle up. No one is too good to, you know, be amazed at how so and so pulls, you know, underneath the bar bell on Instagram. So then they go take 45 then 75 then 95. Like I think a lot of people want shit quicker. They're not playing that long game and like, that's not the road, you know, really like diversifying like your abilities that you have to do all of these, like like mentally intensive things. You have to take the time to go in and work on like like take a video of your muscle up. I don't think my heels or anywhere near my butt. What the hell is that? Andi feel like that? Like that's the kind of stuff that he's talking about, that I We don't have a video of Fraser. He's not gonna let all the, you know secrets out, but, like I can just tell. I can tell that someone is talking to him about his movement, or he's intuitively figuring it out. Like to do those things. You can't just go beat your head against the wall

spk_0:   51:11
you need. You need guidance, you need tohave things you're looking for. You need to have perspective on it. You need to talk to experts. You need to have training partners, you need to have coaches. And the thing that popped in my mind instantly as you're talking about like refining movement, you know, is that I'm sure Greg got this from someone else and is in the cross. The Journal. But it's like once you think you've mastered everything, start over again. That's the same thing for anybody out there and doing literally anything. You think you're the best at it. You could do something better. You're never a finished product. And I think there's so many people that have here need to hear that because they think that they watch Matt and they just go our He's fit forever. Like who cares? He's constantly reinventing what he's good at, what he needs to focus on when he's the work on. Kobe is doing the same thing. He needs to shoot with his left hand under hand, over hand from fucking 75 feet away from 74 feet away from 72 a half feet away. He knows all of these things and that. No point is anyone a finished product. But, you know, don't be afraid to reach out for for help, because I guarantee Kobe spoke to Kareem. He spoke to Phil. He talked to Michael. He talked of these athletes. He said, Listen, this part of the game, I want to be better at it. I want to know this part or what you thought about when you did it did X, y or Z and that helped shape him into developing what he became to be. And it's no different for anyone here. If you need guidance, you need help. Ask it and seek it out and be willing to put yourself out there to keep doing it over and over again because you're never there. Just I think it means be echoed over and over again. You're never there. You could always be better at something, and that should excite you, not discourage you. You should always have something to work on and never be like be so obsessed that you could get better, that you are constantly seeking out. What could I be doing differently? Because the tinkers out there like Kobe like brainy like Jordan put themselves ahead of you because they were willing to tinker when you're not.

spk_1:   52:52
Yeah, and then one of the one of the exercises you can do is pen and paper, and you list out every single thing that could possibly help you sleep. Nutrition, mobility, skill, work, strength, work, endurance, strength, endurance, like gymnastics. Like you go through all of these things and you just start to ask yourself, Am I doing anything here? Am I too waited over on this side, my all effort based and then don't care what I do outside of the gym like you can really like, put a magnifying glass on, Like why you're a little bit too much over to this side or that side. Try to become more balanced with all these other things, because again, you say it's not a bad thing. Like when you find a new thing that kind of takes you to another level like that's really exciting and cross because you could be stagnant for a while.

spk_0:   53:41
Yeah. I mean, you could have at the time the gym where you figure you're not progressing. You're staying at the same PR is your maximum muscle. This is the same thing, And then you you know, instead of just saying, Well, shit, that's what it is, that is what it is. Now you find someone to help you with some nuance to it that you didn't write guys before, but you're going with a muscle up, like maybe my kip was little bit off for my you know, keeping my dip didn't quite help me enough. And I'm burning on my muscles that you know whatever 10 reps, because I can't press out of the dip anymore. And you find someone to help you refine that and find, you know, a new trick is Travis would call it like, um, and allows you to take another step, another one rep forward And then that propels you to find something else to work on. Because you can always retool your ability through no analysis. And I think that what you just said, Listen, these things out there can help you bring awareness to it because a lot of times people are just like, good. This is This is this is me. This is who I am where there could be a lot of opportunity for growth if you just take the time to actually sit down and think about

spk_2:   54:34
it. What was the original statement that you said The last little that you started this conversation?

spk_1:   54:39
What is the road to versatility versus knowing that you need to be versatile? Oh,

spk_2:   54:45
yes. Oh, What I was gonna kind of say is that we for better or worse, we like the people who really want to be successful have at one specific thing, have probably the best opportunity to do so In history we have. There's like an unparalleled access to information knowledge to be able to become the best at something, Whatever it is that you want to be. Odds are with A with an Internet subscription and some WiFi, you can become pretty damn good at a lot of different things. The differences. How many of you are so distracted by the multitude of things that you can or want to be good at? That you you don't There's no focus to it. There's no the the distract the opportunity. The information that's available is more of a hindrance to you, because you're not focusing on the thing that you actually need to pay attention to and toe loop it back to like the Kobe thing like stop at a young age. You stop listening to the to the hyper to the people down playing. You are telling you that you're not good enough for telling you that you're going to be incredible. Instead of kind of absorbing all that, you stay kind of within yourself within your own head, identify and attack the things that you need to be that you need to be better at without the distraction of something else or the shiny object syndrome of like, Oh, I need to actually get better at my snatching. Oh, never mind. I need to go better eye muscle. If I had a bad work out, My my pull up suck whatever it is like the surest way to when you attack everything, you attack nothing. You you have to be willing to identify those issues and have the focus not get distracted or overwhelmed by external factors in order to kind of get better. I guess for lack of a better term, I think you just nailed your final thoughts. Yep, that was it. I don't got nothing else.

spk_0:   56:48
The only thing that I thought of over the time because I think I texted you yesterday when I seen the news and the thing first thing came to my mind was Kobe was asked right after he retired. Like like what? Next? Your your life is over. You're not an athlete any more like, you know, like pack it up and give up. He's like, if my life is fucking over it, like, 40 years old and I've fucking suck like that's not my life. That's not my whole story and to me. But that, like elicited, was Hey, there's always opportunity to reinvent yourself no matter where you are, where you're stuck or what's going on with your life. Don't feel like you're a finished product. You can't grow or do something different. And I thought that was really refreshing to hear, because you do hear about so many talented athletes who the suits have done playing they they killed themselves or they go bankrupt or you find them. They're going to jail because they want to live the lifestyle they had before. They didn't figure out a way to cope post basketball and like to me that the lesson of like, you're never finished product and there's always something to be searching for. Something to be doing is really remarkable and ahead of his time. You know, a lot of people look to the stomachs for philosophy and how they should treat their life, but that was very stoic statement and he made it like, this is my life's not over. At 40 I plan on being here for another 40 years, so like, what else could I contribute? I think that all of us should hopefully seek out. You know, if you're good at something right now, what else could you be doing down the road? Or where else can you stay interested in? Because, to me, that is a really fresh perspective on what life should be about how, how else can I contribute or help other people beyond just this one little thing I was good at

spk_1:   58:17
For me, it's It's He's such an example because you could never question how much he cared. And he cared so much that he was able to remove emotion where it needed to be removed so that it could be objective. And I think that gives people permission to go in and let themselves off the hook in terms of writing that emotional roller coaster every single day in the gym piece to piece to piece like you're going into it and you're looking at it, you know, maybe with more of a coach's eye or whatever. You know whether that coach actually exists or it's your camera or whatever, and you know someone else telling you to be less emotional when they don't care as much as you do I think wouldn't be the right example. It would just be like they don't know what I'm going through that and understand. But when someone of that level that obviously cares more than anyone else ever has about something says like, remove the emotion from it and be objective so that you can get better and you do get to execute. And at the end of the day you cared about being successful, like that's where that leads you to. You're gonna find out where in your life that you can apply that to so that you're not always like, you know, consistently either beating yourself up or, you know, on Cloud nine toe on Lee, you know, find yourself, not there again. That's

spk_2:   59:36
why it's so crazy just to think that he's got, you know, had the the focus and the precision of a micrometer with a 10,000 foot view at the same time. Like you, it's hard That's hard to beat somebody with that sort of mentality.

spk_1:   59:53
It is, yeah, and you know, a lot of times throughout history of they'll refer to someone like that is like a warrior poet, and like that, again, is the versatility. You can be a warrior, and you can be thoughtful. But I think that, you know, you put those two things together, and that's why he was able to transition so quickly from basketball to the arts, into business. Like it makes a ton of sense. You all right? Um, thanks for joining us today when you know, my mind was pretty pretty clouded with this stuff. I think we pulled some some interesting tidbits out. Um, you know, it goes without saying, but, you know, rest in peace toe the way all of the people involved in that And, um obviously some families air now left with some some pretty big holes. It's tragic for many more reasons than just the fact that one of the best athletes of all time passed away. Absolutely. Um, this episode of the podcast Theo Quick Transition here. This episode of the podcast was brought to you by pure spectrum. Had to pierce spectrum CPD dot com and use the code word misfit. Also brought to you by sharpen the ax, sharpen the ax co dot com. Use the code word unprepared to save on misfit winter drop number two, as always, I am at misfit. Coach on Instagram. Hit me up. Slide into those D EMS. Talk to me about what you think about these episodes. What other episodes you'd like to see and anything else will see you next time.