The Motivational Guru We All Loved

Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk once (in)famously said “I’ve swallowed every piece of gum because I can’t afford to lose that split second of time it takes to spit out my gum” (I’m paraphrasing here but it’s close).

Every now and then I’ll scroll past a clip of someone telling me to stop being a bitch and not to give up. (What if I gave up being a bitch?)

The past two decades have seen a surge in motivational figures with the rise of social media. It may seem like I’m about to downplay these characters but I genuinely enjoy some of their content. No doubt they have achieved more than I have or likely ever will. There’s nuggets of wisdom if you keep an open mind and who doesn’t need someone to scream at you every once in a while to get your shit together? But the truth is as a natural skeptic and pessimist I can never take these gurus 100% seriously. There’s a part of me that finds their dramatic style and advice to just “grind it out” unrealistic and I view it the same way I do watching the Fast and Furious Franchise - pure entertainment and comedy with moments of genuinely great cinema (don’t tell me that ending to Fast 7 wasn’t beautiful).

But there’s one person who had all the traits of a “guru” every time he spoke about his approach to work who is now universally beloved, and undertook perhaps the greatest transformation in his late career and retirement. If you’re under the age of 25 you may only remember his farewell tour but Kobe Bryant was once loved AND hated. He was booed in his hometown as he won the 2002 All-Star Game MVP in Philadelphia. After and during his legal battles in 2003 there were plenty of Kobe haters.

As the Kobe 8 Protro ‘Mambacita’ just released in honor of his late daughter GiGi Bryant who was with him in that fatal helicopter crash, I started to wonder why I had so much admiration for Kobe Bryant beyond just basketball and didn’t cringe every time he told us “he’s going to prove those naysayers wrong”. If you followed Kobe Bryant’s career closely he’s always given us diatribes on how hard he worked and how he approached his craft. On paper, a lot of his quotes and statements can easily be confused with those from other gurus.

This is the man who told us he studied how white sharks hunt seals in South Africa in preparation for Allen Iverson. This is the man who gave us quote after quote about perseverance, leadership, and work ethic. All great qualities but if those quotes were attributed to anyone else I would’ve found it entertaining, a bit corny, maybe inspiring, but definitely over the top.

But somehow I took Kobe Bryant seriously. “Maybe I need to study the ruthlessness of a shark so I can go into my next salary negotiation and impose that level of fear”.

Kobe’s a different guru because other elite, top of their domain athletes ALL told us who Kobe Bryant was. There’s countless stories of Team USA players personally witnessing Kobe Bryant working out early in the morning as the rest of the team arrived back to their hotel from a night out. There’s compilations of his peers telling us the legend of Kobe Bryant was rooted in reality. No basketball player (perhaps maybe Michael Jordan as the lone exception) has as many stories about their work ethic as Kobe Bryant.

Here’s a bunch of people who thrive on competition openly telling us there’s one man who outworked them by such a large margin that they’re willing to admit it. Kobe was so extreme he didn’t make anyone else look lazy, he just made himself seem immortal.

Other gurus tell us how hard they work through their own lens. Hell their entire persona is telling us how successful they are through their blood, sweat and tears while the audience never quite figure out what they do for a living. If we just focus on athletes, most of them will talk about how hard they worked in the off-season, but those stories never quite stood out like Kobe’s did.

Kobe Bryant also told us the work he put in, but so did everyone else. And it’s because of these stamps of approval from the highest level athletes that made Kobe Bryant’s persona and attitude feel authentic. It wasn’t a persona to sell you his next e-book and 3-day course. He personified everything we wish we were. Insanely dedicated to their craft, obsessed with perfection, maximized the absolute shit out of their natural born talent.

I still remember the day Kobe Bryant passed away. I was at Disney World waiting in a 3 hour line and I overheard someone in front of us saying “holy shit Kobe Bryant died”. I never talk to strangers unless I absolutely have to, but at that moment, in that instant, I couldn’t help myself and ask her “Wait, is that true? How?”

Kobe Bryant should’ve outworked death. Not even the grim reaper himself could defeat the Black Mamba. He told us, others told us, and I believed it. We all believed it.