Kobe Bryant - FEAR of FAILURE - Motivational Video

The most important thing I think for the players that come after me is that they never want to limit their imagination because people may think they are crazy, but if we as athletes don't believe that it is possible to do these things like in the Can we inspire? to people in the world? Well, max, I think the biggest

fear

we face is ourselves. Actually, you know, I think it's... it's nothing external or superficial. I think the biggest

fear

you face is yourself because we all have dreams and sometimes it's really scary to accept the dream that you have and it's even scarier 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, how will you feel about yourself? Kobe, you won the MVP, you took the team to the finals, how do you characterize the season? Well, I mean the goal was to win a championship... It wasn't to win the MVP or anything like that, it was to win a championship, so from that aspect we failed. If I'm going to fall, I'm going to continue on my way. So being brave means going ahead and doing it. It doesn't matter what you do, not for anyone else but for yourself.

I take you to this scene with 20 seconds left. You're down by one. Do you want the ball, do you want to take the last shot? Absolutely. I'm not afraid to fail and I just love it. It's just an adrenaline rush. Everyone in the crowd stands up and everyone waits to see if you're going to make the shot, if you're going to lose the game, or if you're going to win the game. It's just an incredible race. You make big swings and big misses. The same thing happens to me, I'm not afraid at all. Because I noticed that sometimes you look at the defender to observe his expression.

How is that? Yeah, it's uh, you know, you get the feeling from the defenders and it's like, oh man, no, I just can't, no... not tonight, you know what kind of stuff and um, and I thrive off of that. . You love that, don't you? Oh yeah, you love that look of defeat. Oh, absolutely, I'm telling you that you don't play defense better than Reuben Patterson. This crowd is in complete shock! In a timeout I tell my teammates I told them to give me a good picture, you know, what I try to do is just try to be still and understand that things come and go, emotions come and go, it It is important to accept them all and embrace them. all and then you can choose to do with them what you want instead of being controlled by emotion.

You know I have seen players many times, including myself. You know, when I was younger, consumed by a particular fear and to the point where I'm saying, "Okay, no, it's not good to be afraid." You shouldn't be nervous in a situation like this and you just grow instead of taking a step back and saying yes. I'm nervous about the situation. Yes, I am afraid of the situation. Well, what am I? I'm Afraid and then you unpack it and then it gives you the chance to really see it for what it is, which is nothing more than your imagination running its course, you know you're going to have the pressure on yourself to play, you know? capitulate to that fear, if you play with the sense of I want to win, I want to win, then you are afraid of what will happen if you don't, but if you find common ground in the middle, in the center, then it's not like that.

It matters that you don't flinch either right, that allows you to really stay in the moment, stay connected to it and not feel anything but what's in front of you, so you know I try to be in the center when we lost to the in the. The end of South 2008 was a turning point, so when I sat there in the hotel room afterwards I started thinking about that, you know, because it's up to me if I didn't feel like my teammates were aggressive enough, that falls on me and, uh, me. I had to understand what their journey was, how they feel as a person, what they're going through for me, is it that ferocity or that anger, and can I carry that with me now, how do I instill this in the rest of my guys? of my teenagers use the darkest emotions, anger, resentment, frustration and sadness, and they use them as a weapon, they use them as a form of offense.

Some people are probably afraid to tap into that side of them, but it's a very powerful thing once you possess it. themselves then the sky is the limit because they are going to drive themselves and take it out of who they are and all their life experiences and things that have motivated us matter, put your hands on me, don't touch me the rest of the scrimmage you're up 2 -0 what's the story are you not happy or are you just half half a year instead of being happy because you're up too old unfinished work finished work I don't think after we did it we have a bond now that unites us forever forever we have a bond that will never be broken because the lion looked us in the face and we looked back.

I used to ask him what it's like to protect Mike, you know, Mike, I mean black Jesus like. What, so the level of fear that he inspired in others was crazy and, you know, the hype of facing Mike, it was okay, come on, show me like I've been watching you play my whole life, show me how I want to see. Everybody calls you black Jesus and all this other nonsense like you have to show me, man, and I would tell him when I face him we're going to do it, it's everything you don't want to do.

Like what man, you don't know me, man, Michael is a great basketball player, but I'm Kobe Bryant, I came out and we moved on and you know, I think his respect and appreciation for me really grew that day because you saw him on the biggest stage. I didn't shy away from that confrontation I was looking forward to that competition and, you know, when I was 18, my first year, he got the best of me a lot of times, I was there on the next play, you're not intimidating. I'm not going anywhere and I think he saw that level of respect because I think he was the same at 18 years old and that common bond is what I think, uh, you know where our connection was built, who beat you in one. in one, if it ever happened, okay, you once said if you see me in the fight with the bear, pray for the bear, that will still be true when you come back, yeah, the bear is having a hard time, I'm, I am winning. pretty good bear right now it's not, it's not really something that you know as you think about winners or free throw winners and people go to the free throw line and they're nervous about it, what are you really?

Nervous that you unpack it, okay, you're nervous that you're going to miss the shot, so you missed the shot, so what's going to happen? People will be ashamed, you will be ashamed because thousands of people, millions of people will see that you failed. a drink, okay, and then what people are going to say bad things about you, okay, right, and that's how you're looking at it, those things are even important, you know what I mean, if that's my fear, what? What are you worried about leaving? Your teammates are down, okay, have you let them down before?

Well, I'm sure in practice and things of that nature it's still there, yes, you know, so when you can unpack it, you look at it for what it is. It's really nothing, how did you become one of those people who doesn't seem to be afraid of failing? it doesn't exist it doesn't exist what the hell does that mean seriously what does

failure

mean no it's no no no no It doesn't exist, it's a figment of your imagination. Let's use happy endings correctly and then we can relate this to

failure

. Because it does not exist. As you know, everyone talks about it.

Like everyone wants a happy ending right now. Let's get to reality. in a fairy tale it's like snow white has a happy ending she finds the prince no matter what she lives happily ever after well i called him because two months later the fact is they had an argument and he's sleeping on the couch so the point is The point is the story goes on, the story goes on, so if you fail on Monday, the only way it's going to be a failure on Monday is if you decide not to progress from that right, so to me that's why failure doesn't exist, because you already know.

If I fail today, okay, I'll learn something from that failure and I'll try again on Tuesday and I feel like I'm going to try again on Wednesday my brain can't, it can't process failure, it won't process failure, um, because if I have to do it if I sit there and have to face myself and tell myself you're a failure I think that's worse that's almost worse than death ryan again goes to work he falls down again he's struggling as soon as I made the move I knew it I mean it's the Achilles tendon I mean I shouldn't say that's the foot I remember feeling the silence I remember feeling the fear 35 years 17 18 years in the league like that it could be a rap and that's what the silence was like this could really be a man, it was difficult because the Achilles injury is the worst injury for an athlete it's like the worst it's like the kiss of death and when I tore my Achilles tendon I knew what happened I knew the severity from the injury and I didn't know if I was going to recover from it, yeah, in the locker room you were crying, yeah, I mean, I didn't like this, it's like my career could end right now, this injury was Riding Everest for me personally because I knew what the long road was going to be so you know at that point you have to make a decision you have to make a decision it's very difficult because it's a very tedious process and um what I found useful. it was not looking at the top of the mountain because the mountain is so damn daunting, you know that's right, so if you say, okay, I'm going to climb Mount Everest, you're at the bottom of the mountain and you look up. and you go, I'm not going to raise my levers correctly, but if you break them down into sections, you just have one foot in front of the other, step by step, so I choose to focus on one step at a time. and then when you realize you're at the top of the mountain again and that's how I handle all my recoveries, I just focus on the next thing, I focus on the next thing, I focus on the next thing and you know what it's like too time. time flies, time goes by so fast, so when you're sitting here right now dealing with the injury that's a nine-month injury, I can't do that, but when 12 months go by you're going to wish you had because just like that, you go through like that, it what I'm saying, so that's always been my approach, it's just one step at a time, one step at a time and I didn't want injuries to dictate when I retired, I wanted to control that.

Like no, my body, sit down, be humble, you're not, you're not telling me when I'm leaving like I'm going to tell you, yeah, when I'm ready to leave, I mean, it's one of those times, ya You know. I think we all have moments like this in life where it seems like that day will never end. You know, it seems like the moment you're in feels like the darkest moment for you. You know you personally feel the same way I do. I don't know if I can do this again. I don't know if I can go back.

You know, you have to challenge yourself and try to respond well. I want to start by reading something you wrote right after. You're injured, you went on Facebook and posted a long blog, you know what this is, oh yeah, this is so bad, all the training and sacrifice went out the window with a step I've taken millions of times, the frustration is unbearable. anger is rage why the hell did this happen doesn't make any sense now I'm supposed to come back from this and be the same player or better at 35 how am I supposed to do that?

I have no idea if I have the constant Will to get through this. Maybe I should break up the rocking chair and remember the race that was. Maybe this is how my book ends. Maybe Father Time has defeated me, but then again, maybe it's not the right ones. 3:30 a.m. my foot feels like dead weight my head is spinning from the painkillers and I'm wide awake, forgive me for venting but what's the purpose of social media if I don't really bring it to you? no image feels good to vent and let out to feel like this is the worst thing ever because after all the venting, the real perspective sets in, there are much bigger problems and challenges in the world than a torn Achilles tendon, stop feeling feel sorry for yourself, find the positive side and go to work with the same belief, the same drive and the same conviction as one.

The day when the beginning of a new professional journey will begin. Today is not that day. If you see me in a fight with a bear, pray for the bear. I've always loved that quote. That's the mamba mentality. We don't give up. We do not cower. don't run let's hold on and conquer my scariest dreams for me it was a dream where I was on a basketball court the stadium is full I'm attacking the basket and I can't get up from the ground I can't jump like I'm stuck like I'm glued to the ground, I was aware of the fact that I was dreaming, so now I am trying to control my dream.

You can jump through it, you can push it, you can get to that basket and it doesn't matter how hard it is. I tried to make my legs too heavy. I can't jump on you.