TEDxShanghaiSalon - Power of the Mind

[Music] all right you ready to go I'm ready to go I feel I feel a little underdressed I just came from the basketball court why don't you say hi to everybody first we're online with tedx um it's going to be millions of people watching you here you want to say hi to everybody well just saying hello and thank you for tuning in and you guys thank you for being here and thank you for having me here I truly appreciate it thank you we're super excited to have uh Kobe Bryant allstar MVP world champion NBA champion

here we're at Shanghai Tower really behind us this is like a you know futuristic they call it us the eye of Shanghai we're at the 126th floor uh no one's ever been up here before running an event this is kind of like a anti-compression earthquake so we're safe up here we're going to have fun today sounds good what do you think that looks like I think I think it's from Back to the Future flux capacitor something right that'll work so today you know uh let's let's start off with uh with something I want to talk

about because you know we have we have a whole lot to get into but my my thing is that a lot of people here haven't seen you since that last game on television yeah that was crazy 60 points are you kidding me 60 points everybody did everybody see that last game who saw that last game you know for people in LA or in the States you know we they watch that live at 7 at night we watched way early in the morning you know so your Global fans are on smartphones on tablets every wi will

you can we're cheering we're watching that and we were we were super excited you know just let's bring us back there because that will lead us into what we're talking about today because that's it's the Mamba mentality that last game came out of nowhere man yeah pretty much you know it it's uh for me it was just like the end of a really um long beautiful Journey you know I started playing a b game of basketball since I was two right and so for this to be the moment this is the last game for me

to come out and perform in front of my fans in front of my home crowd in front of my family um it it was really exciting you know it wasn't any pressure wasn't sad or anything like that it was like this is awesome you know let's go out here and put on a show one more time you've been doing this for 20 years I'm sure you don't get nervous were you nervous before this game no I wasn't nervous I I was I was excited like I was ready to go you know I was ready to

go and you know I saw my family right before we ran out in the court and uh you know looked at my wife and our kids and I just asked my kids I say let's go put on the show One More Time time is that okay they said yeah so went out and put on the show so it was fun it wasn't was any nervousness or anything like that first shot didn't go in second shot didn't go in third shot didn't go in fourth fifth and sixth and then all of a sudden buckets yeah well

boom boom boom boom boom well I mean it makes it it makes the journey worthwhile you know what I mean because you go through moments where you have that adversity and you got to figure your way through it so like the start of the game I actually had to just start laughing at myself after a while like after I missed like the fifth shot in a row so this is pretty funny this game can either be like I can either turn it around or is this going to be absolutely horrendous be the worst last game

ever so you know from that point I said I'm comfortable it's either going to be the worst last game ever it's going to be the best last game ever but I don't want anything in between so that that leads me to to ask because that last game you've been doing something you've been doing since you were four five years old it's not about the physical because you've done this a million times you've practiced the left hand pull up mid-range the right hand pull up mid-range the step back the pivot the reverse pivot you know going

at attacking different angles you've been doing that so it's not about physicalness because that's all ingrained was that last game fully just mental just fighting through it and just say look I got I got to do this and yeah I it was no cuz I was I was ready to play I was excited to play you know once the game started it became became the norm you know it became reading defensive situations um you know positioning of my teammates and you know just overall strategy and tactics and it felt good to get back to that

you know because that's the part of the game that I enjoy the most the mindfulness of that game yeah the fun of it's like a puzzle you have to figure out what pieces go where and and that's the enjoyment in the game I think that's what we're we're leading here today in our tedex talk is uh uh the power of the mind and I think uh because you know there's been so many athletes that have made the NBA the highest Echelon of of professional basketball in the world and uh there's athletes that can jump as

high as the sky run as fast as you know a cheetah um they get hit buckets they can they can react but it's the it's the special niche of players that have that mindfulness that have that attacking mode that Relentless mode that mode where they go ice cold last few minutes you know I think I think that makes a difference between the great ones and the greatest ones right yeah you know it's it's funny like it's to me the mentality is a really simple one in a sense that the confidence comes from preparation you know

so when the game's on the line I'm not asking myself to do something that I haven't done thousands of times before right so when I prepare I know what I'm capable of doing I know what I'm comfortable doing and I know what I'm not comfortable doing you right and so in those moments if it looks like I'm ice cold or not nervous it's because I've done it thousands of times before so it's one more time so that leads me to talk about a lot of uh this Kobe tour this year in Asia is we we

reiterate the Mamba mentality you know can you talk a little bit about what the Mamba mentality is because that's something that's been developing over not I don't want to say 20 years it's been developing for 35 years since you were a little kid that Mamba mentality because you didn't start working when you got to the NBA you started working when you were at Laura Maran when you were in Italy when you were five when you're playing Nerf Nerf basketball right so talk about talk about the development of the mamba mentality uh the pillars the five

pillars of this mama mentality and then we'll kind of break it down well I mean I overall you know the idea is a very simple one and you know the mama mentality simply means trying to be the best version of yourself that's what the mentality means it means every day you know you're trying to become better and it's a constant Quest it's an infinite Quest so starting at the age of two when I first started playing the game and on and on and on I always ask questions I always tried to get better every single

day learn more learn more you asking questions that too oh dude I was asking questions all the time you'd be surprised like some people like my kids at two could do a lot of things M right at two I could dribble a basketball I could shoot a basketball on a Nerf hoop at the house and I would go to practice with my father I would observe my father um I'd sit and watch games with him and so was he your first coach um yeah man I guess you could say that you know a lot of

things I learned by being just being around the game right so by the age of six I was already strategizing versus other six-year-olds you know the age of six I figured out six-year-olds couldn't dribble with their left hand and so I said okay a lot of a lot of 12y olds can't dribble with their life yeah would imagine six so like when I was playing these six-year-old kids I would make them dribble with their left because I knew they couldn't and so they dribbled off their foot I'd pick it up Lay It Up do it

again dribble off foot pick it up laid up so at 6 years old I had 63 points and and uh I remember my day so your six six-year-old self could beat your 38-year old self because you only scored 60 in the last game yeah no but I can dribble with my left though so that's a problem but um but yeah I mean listen I I just constantly looked for things to learn from and um you know very observant okay so when we talk about the mama mentality uh you have your exhibition today starting in Shanghai

right um also we've been talking about this whole tour with young kids uh that are 5 10 15 20 we've been we just did a Kobe Academy right now we talk about being passionate being obsessive being relentless being resilient and being Fearless these are the five pillars of the mamb mentality so we'll kind of break that down today sure the first one is is to be passionate you know what what is that uh is there is there a is there a moment where you can Define your passion for the game or was it just something

accumulated over time well I mean you know the passion came from the love for the game you know I loved everything everything about it like the smell of the ball you love the smell of the ball yes the ball you know the smell of like brand new sneakers and like the sound the ball makes when it hits the ground sneakers in the gym s yeah the ball going through the net like all those things I I love and so the passion comes from that because once you have that love you just want to be a

part of this thing all the time when you when you talk about this love when does it develop were you did you like it when you were five or is it something that kind of two I was born and I was born to play basketball you know what I mean and I played a lot of different sports um but nothing brought me the sense of of of peace and of uh Escape you know that the game of basketball do is it an escape when you get on the court is that your Zen time your your

your Solitude time even though it's a teamwork game yeah when I need that escape it's there for me right when I need a friend it's there for me you know when I need the vent and D dunk and the Mama comes out it's there so it's yeah the game is absolutely everything for me mhm when when you when we talk about trying to get kids to be passionate I don't think every kid I don't think your situation is the norm not every kid is knows their passionate at two or five right how do kids find

that passion then well I I think as parents you you you embraced it right away too I mean I think as parents we try to put them in different things try to expose them to as many things as possible and then see if there's one thing that connects with them you know because if it does you don't have to tell them to do it you whether it's writing or painting or drawing you know if they have that passion you don't have to tell them they'll go off and do it because it's just fun they'd rather

do that than anything else so but as parents it's our job to just expose them to as many things as possible and see which one they gravitate to the most yeah it's interesting because you you talk about kids right originally we were talking about you now you're talking about your kids and their passions do you do you kind of feel that passion for them and and say hey let's go play some basketball or volleyball or let's go swimming yeah we we expose them to all kinds of I mean they play a lot of different sports

they do a lot of things creatively you know writing and things like that and designing and um you just sit back and you just watch which one they move to and then it's our responsibility as parents to try to set them up for success as much as we possibly can do you want them to play basketball I want them to find whatever it is that they're passionate about like whatever they feel like their purpose is then that's what I want them to do do they love basketball though your girls um so my my youngest one

um she does she wants to she wants to play and she wants me to teach her how to play this summer and you know our eldest is really into volleyball uhuh so and um but we'll see you know passions tend to change so you're going to get into volleyball now well yeah I mean yeah my sister was a great volleyball player so we have a teacher in the family is there is there one moment where you can say it Define your passion for basketball is there a story or moment when you said D that was

that was it that was like when I felt really pass passate no it doesn't it never leaves it never leaves like I you know the game is just a part of me um so it never leaves even now that I'm retired you know everything that I've learned from the game of basketball I've carried it over into life you know like basketball's help me be a better person a better friend a better father well because there's life lessons that are within the game like communication like unselfishness um like attention to detail and um empathy compassion like

all those things are in the game and uh as an athlete if we are aware of those things um it helps us become better human human beings and you can apply that toward your post post basketball days retirement into your business World future Ventures sure I mean you can apply you know I was applying that um even while I was playing just in life outside of the game and even more so now you know in building a business and all these things you you know kind culture you want to have um you know all those

things are are um directly learned from the game of basketball for me uh next up is uh the next pillar be obsessive obsessive that's I think uh I think a lot of people equate that with you you know Kobe is obsessive in a lot of things uh we've been doing this for what eight years now Asia tour you know I've been with you for a long way I I the one moment that stands out out of we've done I don't know how how many done we've done what 800 events M the one time was 4:00

a.m. we went out to practice at 4 a.m. and that was your idea to do it and then you know all these Nike people are like no no no no let's not let's not do that and then you're like let's do it at 4:00 a.m. so you got security you got brand marketing Sports Marketing going no no no no no no no let's not do it you're like let's do it because that's your assess this right I mean to me it just makes complete sense not to us but I don't like okay so see we

all right what you us I'm sleeping at 4:00 a.m. you're you're working out so talk about that okay so if if if your job is to try to be the best basketball player you can be right to do that you have to practice you have to train right you want to train as much as you can as often as you can so if you get up at 10:00 in the morning train at 11: right 12 say 12 train at 12 train for 2 hours 12: to 2 um you have to let your body recover so

you eat recover whatever you get back out you train start training again at 6 train from 6:00 to 8 right and now you go home you shower you eat dinner you go to bed you wake up you do it again right those are two sessions right now imagine you wake up at 3:00 you train at 4:00 you go 4: to 6 come home breakfast relax so so now you're back at it again 9 to 11 right you relax and now all of a sudden you're back at it again two to 4 and now you're back

at it again you know seven to nine look how much more training I have done by simply starting at 4 right so now you do that and as the years go on the separation that you have with your competitors and your peers just grows larger and larger and larger and larger and larger and by year five or six doesn't matter H what kind of work they do in the summer they're never going to catch up because they're five years behind right so it makes sense to get up and start your day early because you can

get more working is that genetic or is that something you you ingrained and trained yourself no it was who taught you that for me it was just it was just common sense like I can I can if I start earlier I can train more hours and I know the other guys aren't doing it because I know what their training schedule is right so I know if I do this consistently over time it's the gap's just going to widen and widen and widen and widen and widen and they won't be able to get that back MH

so to me it was just common sense and like thinking how can I get an advantage oh start earlier yeah let's do that when did you start doing that man high school high school weart my first class in high school was 7 at 7:45 I used to get to the gym around 5:00 a.m. and I'd play before school mhm and then school would start who's playing with you at 5:00 a.m. my coach so my coach would show up and we do all these basketball drills right so just you and your coach just me and my

coach and sometimes it would just be me and the janitor and who's still there today and um and um and then I play at lunch time that gu should get a medal I I hooked him up with a few things um but I played doing lunch and and then then practice after and then you go home do my school workor and then watch a bunch of game film and games on TV and study study film was that the only thing you've been obsessed about basketball well until recently yeah until recently yeah basketball dominated you know

my uh my entire life for more than 30 years when when uh when I when I brought it up like where do you is it genetic or you just learned it I mean how how did that idea even come up because that's obviously a a pillar of Mama mentality the obsessiveness this is just like you said I'm going to get up at 4 everybody's get up at 6 if everybody's going to get up at 4 I'm going to get up at two right right how do you how do you develop that or where do you

where do you learn that from well I I think it's just you know it's just a matter of what's important to you what's important to you for for whatever reason you know I I felt like um I didn't feel good about myself if I wasn't doing everything I could to be the best version of myself if I felt like I left anything on the table um it would eat away at me I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror right so the reason why I can retire now and be completely comfortable about it

because I know that I've done everything I could to be the best basketball player I could be um and so that's where it comes from for me you can't leave any stone unturned because uh you know we do all these events and um like today we just did one uh you guys weren't here we were just at the co Academy M we just had all these kids 24 best high school basketball players in China running playing basketball running five on five running all these drills and then at the end we had this little game where

um all they had to do was run uh this drill called 17s 17s is really simple one minute you got to run 17 times from from uh sideline to sideline it's tough it's tough you got to run it in one minute if any of you been playing basketball in high school you know what I mean it's a killer it's all it is is just Grit it's just let's just run and then uh this kid you know we're running and this is for media we got the media on the side and and if they ran they

get a pair of Kobe shoes so you know it's for fun but I warned them I warned them I said if you guys run the 17 everybody gets a pair of shoes if you don't touch the line you get nothing everybody touched the line so this is where Kobe gets his obsessiveness so we're sitting there everybody's kind of happy we're thinking nah they run the lines we're going to have a presentation for the shoes the kids are running they've been running for 2 hours running running running this one kid misses the line by like half

inch no it wasn't even half inch was like by that much he misses the line Kobe's like stop stop stop stop stop we had to stop we had to stop everything and he's like nobody gets shoes and all these kids are like oh they're mad at the kid they're like touch them line all you is touch the line that's it it was this much touch the line and and you know Kobe's like look nobody nobody get shoes you got to sit on the sideline and then Kobe made this kid run suicides which is another drill

Baseline free throw line Baseline half court Baseline opposite free throw line Baseline Baseline and back three in a row three times you had to run three of them yeah but the best part was the best part was uh the last one Kobe ran with this kid he ran with this kid okay yeah it's awesome he ran with this kid and there's a mill 1.1 million people are watching online crazy he r with this kid this kid was dry heaving he was about to die yeah but you you lucky he didn't die no he's he wasn't

going to die he wasn't going to die but but the the important thing to understand is you can't you can't short Change yourself like you're not you're not cheating anybody but yourself right I mean you're tired you're literally this far away from the line why would you not go that extra to touch the line right so if I let him get away with that right all of a sudden he starts maybe a cheat something over here right not give his best over here not give his best over here and as years go on he's going

to be extremely he's not going to reach his full potential because he's been taking these little shortcuts that just add up add up add up add up add up and you can't let that happen our job as teachers as mentors as inspirers it's our responsibility to hold them accountable to those things the the funny part is uh we were we're just talking about this kid we're in the back and Kobe's like I bet you that kid will never ever miss the line again yeah it's not it's not going to happen it's not going to happen

because of that one moment so that that's you being obsessive but teaching obsessiveness because that's that's where you got to be right do you you have to be obsessive to get to that level in everything you do details don't waste time do it right Perfection yeah I mean it's it's really um simple it's like whatever you're doing at that moment is what you're doing at that moment you know it's like that's where the obsessiveness is having attention to detail for the action that you are performing at the time you're performing it and if you can

have that kind of focus you can't help but to have a certain level of of obsession or attention to detail moving on to the the third pillar is uh to be relentless that we know you for you know we see you on TV being relentless first quarter second quarter third quarter fourth quarter attack attack attack never letting your teammates slack off attack attack attack what how do you get that talk about what is what is the meaning of relentlessness to you well it's to never to be unyielding MH you know never give an inch to

anybody like you're always going after it always going after always going after it and if there's a challenge that ensues oh good I want to see how I stack up to that so you go after you go after it and it's it's just um it it's fun it's like you get a chance to compete against um opponents and you get a chance to see where you stack up against them it's like I want to see if maybe I'm not good enough today if that that's fine I'll be good enough the next time I see you

though you know and you get a chance to always measure yourself and um it's uh it's just fun to do that so I guess that's where relentlessness comes from is is it something that's also learned or ingrained or is it something you kind of learn over time um because these things that we talk about in a mama mentality uh you know for you it's second nature mhm uh it's not for a lot of people right A lot of it is is trained or it's not god-given you know I m I I had to learn it

as well though because I I mean I had a year um of playing like when I played basketball in Italy I was taller than everybody else and faster um like the age of 11 and I came back to America to play basketball and it was not the same thing cuz kids were bigger stronger and so I went through a summer of playing basketball in America where I didn't score one point mhm it was one League I didn't score one point and uh it was devastating um but I had to no I'm not giving up it's

not going to happen so you bounce back and you keep playing you keep practicing you keep practicing but I mean it wasn't handed to me you didn't score one point not one I mean not even a free throw and you were zero you were how old 11 11 were you playing against 25 year olds no I was playing against 11 year olds no I was playing against 11y old believe wow I know I know but I was playing against 11y olds and I didn't score one point and then was was that did that uh did

it hurt you were you were you well yeah it was very embarrassing because you know my father was a Philadelphia basketball legend my uncle was a Philadelphia basketball legend and now here I am this kid like these really big knee pads and I'm walking around and I can't score anything so I was like really embarrassing that drove you of course it did of course it did and I vowed to be much much better so you live for those moments where you're embarrassed when you're down people kick you don't let you score those are the moments

that drive you well I mean those are the moments that occur right so whatever moments occur good bad or indifferent I can use those moments to propel me forward use those as fuel to um help me be a better player is there a moment in your NBA career where you felt like you you you didn't hit that Mark and that was a huge transition for you yeah I always felt like I missed marks um in League um what were some of the down moments for you in basketball well losing to the Celtics in the finals

in 2008 I mean that was tough that hurt me too yeah I mean it was it was brutal and I remember at night in the hotel room um after we lost just thinking to myself I may never win another championship like I might have just like this is it it's too hard to get back here maybe it's not in the cars to win another one and so I go through that night of being mad then the next morning I wake up and I start thinking nah I got to fix this so where did it go

wrong you know why did we lose right we weren't Tough Enough okay we weren't Tough Enough whose responsibility is that to make the team tough it's mine all right so now I have to start figuring out how I'm going to lead this team differently so to make sure that when we get to the finals the next time we're tough and ready for this Challenge and um you know that's uh that's how you bounce back from those moments that was 2008 2008 2008 against the Celtics and I mean all of Laker Nation was hurt because especially

because it was against the Celtics right it was painful Celtics you can't L Celtics come on God Celtics oh yeah because also that was their that was their like 17th right yeah for their for their organization and the Lakers I'm to talk about that yeah and then you bounced back the next year against uh Orlando Orlando Orlando and then got our revenge against the Celtics in 2010 did did beating the Celtics feel better than beating Orlando oh oh yeah oh yeah yes yeah yeah oh yeah I mean I grew up such a Lakers fan and

so like the Lakers and Celtics rid ha everything yeah like we can't there's no way I can be on a team on a Lakers team that loses to the Celtics twice no you know it's a funny thing because um in in Asia me being here in Asia too a lot of a lot of fans are fans of a player and they they love that player and subsequently they they love that team that that player plays for but growing up in the states if you grew up in Philly you were a Sixers fan right and then

if you grew up in La you were a Lakers fan right you were also a Dodgers fan and at the time you were a Rams fan you you affiliated with your city right and then the city that you hated was your arch enemy so you if you're a Laker fan you just hate the Celtics and you hate every team yeah every team that that loses to you root for every team against the Celtics no question yeah the enemy of my enemy is my friend you just want to see them do bad yeah just do bad

and then if you if you are a Dodger fan you just want to see the Giants lose right so it's not necessarily Good Karma but yeah it's not but but that when you lost to the Celtics and you beat him again that moment that that's Relentless because you come back coming back coming back and you you had to come back and beat them on their Court can't give up and then is there is was that a was that a big moment for you beating beating the Celtics it was huge you know because you know we

seen I've seen us as a team grow so much from 2008 you know pal Lamar you know all our guys like how much we have grown since the last time we faced this team and uh I you I couldn't be any more proud of them you know it wasn't even about me it was about sitting back and watching us as a group and we just accomplished this amazing thing and uh now we can all enjoy it together so moving on to the next pillar is to be resilient um I remember this time last year you

came and uh we did a premiere for uh a movie you did Muse and a big a big part of that movie was talking about your injury and coming back to be resilient uh take us back to that day against uh Phoenix right when you injured your Achilles it Golden State it was it was it was hard man it because the Achilles injury is is the worst injury for an athlete it's like the worst it's like the the kiss of death and when I ruptured my k I I knew what happened I knew the severity

of the injury and I didn't know if I was going to come back from it yeah in the locker room you were crying yeah I me I didn't like this is it like my career could be over right now so how do you get back from that because you know when you talk about injuries you know people sprain their ankles dislocate your fingers but Achilles yeah you don't people don't come back from that well athletes don't come back from that to the level they were before yeah how how is to how do you get that

resilience how do you fight that well what I did is you know I went home and I was just really angry and um Angry I was angry I was mad I was angry I worked so hard for us to get to the playoffs and to have a chance to win another championship and then this happened so I had a lot of anger and uh then from the anger then I was sad and then you start feeling bad for yourself and then you say all right okay I'm done being a baby okay what am I going

to do now because I can't sit here and give up that's not an option so now what how long was this cycle from this anger this one night one night this is one night it's one night it was like because you you started writing in the middle of the night right you wrote that uh you you you wrote that then it was okay what are we gonna do so yeah it was one night um but then you know then you start it's a process you look at process what am I going to do what can

I control surgery we'll do the surgery come out of the surgery recover from there Physical Therapy okay physical therapy piece by piece by piece by piece by piece start running back on the court so I broke things down into sections and said okay I'm going to focus on resting right now this is it I'm going to focus on moving my toes and then walking and then so you look at every challenge at every step and uh that's how you're able to be resilient and come back from these things because uh you know for your field

in uh in sports injuries often happen right and to come back but you know for for most Everyday People it's it's something that they can't fathom because they don't they don't have that type of res resistance that they have to face right so how do they how do they come back from it because sometimes people fail in their fields and their jobs or at school young kids you know you don't have a good test score you don't make the basketball team or you know they have these disappointments how do they how what is your advice

to young kids to you know to to face the face this adversity how do you persevere well I like if you because you you have that chemical makeup to fight through it yeah not all kids do but but you you every kid every person has the ability to put one foot in front of the other one step at a time right so like if you're saying okay I'm going to climb Mount Everest you're at the bottom of the mountain and you look up and you're going I'm not going to CL Mount Everest right but if

you break it down into sections and you just one foot in front of the other one step at a time next thing you know you're at the top of the mountain so the the the map the the plan is to set short-term goals yeah and to get there a to B B to C C to d i coming back from my achilles I came back from the Achilles and I was fine and then the next year I fracture my knee right it's like here we go again come back from that next year tear my shoulder

here we go again right but if I looked at those things in totality it'd be depressing but if I look at it it's just the facts M this is this is it happened can't do anything about it it happened now what are you going to do one step at a time Achilles knee shoulder any step of the way you said screw it forget it done no more no never no well no why right because you know as time goes on I'm sitting there um 70 80 years old and I'm going to be wondering if I

could have come back from this injury I don't want to wonder I want to find out we got to get to that I want see I want to see man we get to that yeah like the critics are out there saying he's done he'll never come back well maybe you're right maybe you're not but let's find out we got to get there we got to get there last one to be Fearless you know that's that's something that uh I think every young adult young kids they they face their fears right what is what does that

mean to you to be Fearless why is that such an important part of the Mamba mentality well man because I think the greatest fear that we face is ourselves actually you know I think it's um it's not anything that's external or anything that's superficial I think the greatest fear you face is yourself because you know we all have dreams and it's very scary sometimes to accept the dream that you have and it's scarier still to say Okay I want that it's scary because you're afraid that if you put your heart and soul into it and

you fail then how are you going to feel about yourself right so being Fearless means putting your out there and going for it no matter what go for it not for anybody else but for yourself when you when you when you got to the league you were 18 did you have any fears before getting there or when you got there right away yeah I mean you know I had fears that um everybody was going to be right I made a poor choice poor decision jump from high school to TOA and I wasn't going to amount

to anything so that was always in the back of my mind for sure MH and then and so out of these five pillars which one do you think comes first being passionate being Fearless Relentless resilient or or or they just come together all no this funny thing is like we created these separate pillars but the reality is it's all one thing you know because it all comes from within all comes from within us we all experience these things at different stages and different points different times um the key I feel is just to be aware

of those moments as they occur right you're aware aare of a certain fear or um a certain obstacle or challenge right you're just aware of those things and then from there you can navigate through them um but I look them all I look at them all as one one connecting um thing because I think uh being Fearless this last one U sticks out in my mind a lot because uh you know being in Asia Asian kids a lot of times they're a little bit more boxed in in in thought in mentality as opposed to Western

kids Western kids the lot of the family the environment you know ever since a young age in school it's it's preaching Independence speak your thoughts be creative independent you know a lot of that you know it's in its in its it's also reiterated by teachers principles um mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles and coaches is to to bring name to yourself and to be independent to be out there and go on your own but in in eastern in Asia a lot of the cultures whether it's Chinese Japanese Korean it's you know don't go out

there and do crazy things don't go out of your comfort zone bring make your family proud you know don't don't bring other people attention just do your thing do it well but don't bring attention you know it's and I think a lot of kids are fearful of going out of this box right is there advice for these kids because a lot of times it's a cultural difference sure right you know how how how do how do they put themselves out there when listen it's very simple you have to dance beautifully in the box that you

are comfortable dancing in right so like everybody's box is different my box was to be extremely ambitious within the sport of basketball your box it's different than mine right every kid here has their own box but doesn't mean that your box isn't as beautiful as mine right everybody has their own it's your job to try to perfect it and make it as beautiful of a canvas as you can make it and if you have done that then you have lived the successful life you have lived with Mamba mentality right so it doesn't mean you have

to go out here and do all these crazy things I'll have to be like this person or that person no what are you comfortable being what it is that what what is it that you want to do with your life and once you have that then you try to live it to the best of your ability so you know uh growing up in Italy and then moving on to Philadelphia and then to La you know obviously you talk about this box right so is is that box constantly changing are are you trying to get out

of your comfort zone even when you were you know first year in the NBA and then 10th year in the NBA and then even this year does that box that this metaphorical box you talk about does that change no I never try I never looked at it as like I'm just going to you know uh try something completely crazy or like just just go out of my box with a thing I just looked at it as I want to be one of the best basketball players who've ever played that's the end goal okay how do

I get there how do I get there and every decision I made in my life was centered around the process of helping me eventually get there you know what I'm saying so I had that purpose once I had that purpose every decision that I made was centered around that purpose you think you got there looking back upon it now two decades in the MBA you know High School uh Italy to high school in Philadelphia to the NBA you spent your whole career with uh one organization to me is the your big accomplishment to be with

one team thank you um you look back upon it now when you had your goals as a kid you're 5 years old you wanted to be in the NBA and then when you're at low Marian in Philadelphia and those dreams started to become hey I'm going to get there right and then you're in the NBA you set goals for yourself you talk about all the time when you're young in the NBA you set Personal Achievement goals I'm going to win a game I'm going to win a championship I'm going to win the MVP I'm going

to win this I'm going to win that and then later on you changed because you said I'm just going to get better and when I if I'm going to get a better left hand I'm going to have a better three-pointer I'm going to have a better free throw those other personal achievements come naturally now you're done mhm played your final game 60 points you dropped it on Utah Mamba out right yeah you look back upon it now where do you see yourself did you did you do everything you wanted to do did you become the

B best basketball player you can ever become did you become the best it's weird like I the my um vision of um what my goal is changed drastically as I got older so like as a kid I said I want to be the best ever right and now you go through your life and everything you do is try to be the best ever be the best ever be the best ever and as you get older you start understanding that those things are very superficial things right and everybody has a different opinion about it no matter

what you do I can win 20 championships there's always an opinion on who's the best everybody has different opinions and so I started really kind of understanding maybe that's not the important thing maybe the important thing is to you know how do we as a team grow how do I help my teammates be better so that was the first change for me and then as I got older still it became more about um how are you inspiring others right to find themselves that is the ultimate Championship so won five championships that's great another team won

a championship this year team's going to win a championship next year those things come and they go but what stays is how do you use your passion and and use that to inspire somebody else to create their passion and then how can they pass that on to the next person that is true success um so my goals have changed drastically from the time I was 6 years old to the time I was 17 to the time I was 25 and now sitting here at 37 so now you left the game of basketball we're here in

Shanghai uh we're going to end our talk today because uh we've gone a little bit past our limit but I think everybody is very happy to be here and I think they learned a lot about the M Mamba mentality right um what's what's next you know for you well I mean it's it's always teaching the game right teaching the game through various ways you know it's we do camps and Clinics we do those things and but also through storytelling right how can you how can you share stories with the rest of the world that challenges

them to look internally and and to learn things like process and learn how to navigate the sense of self and all these things how can you infuse that into entertainment in a way that pushes our culture and our society forward you know those are the questions that I'm really really intrigued by and that's where we'll focus on ladies and gentlemen one of the greatest of all time Kobe Bryant thank you thanks so much thanks everybody at Ted X Mamba out thanks everybody for joining us today I hope you enjoyed your time time mamb mentality tell

your friends thank you very [Applause] much