MAKE THE COMEBACK PERSONAL - 2026 MOTIVATION

Summary

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Podcast Summary: MAKE THE COMEBACK PERSONAL - 2026 MOTIVATION

Podcast: Motivation Daily by Motiversity
Episode Date: July 15, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this powerhouse episode, some of the world’s preeminent motivational speakers—Kobe Bryant, Eric Thomas, David Goggins, Jocko Willink, Grant Cardone, Mac Jones, and others—share stories on overcoming adversity, the mindset behind personal comebacks, the critical role of obsession, self-discipline, and the sacrifices required for high achievement. The recurring message: The greatest victories are personal, grounded in relentless self-drive, resilience, and the decision to keep rising after every fall.

Rich with personal anecdotes, quotable wisdom, and direct challenges to the listener, this episode is a rallying cry to make your “comeback” personal—with an unyielding commitment to your craft, your goals, and your core identity.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Adversity as the Catalyst for Growth

• Kobe Bryant recounts his Achilles injury, the emotional aftermath, and how he converted anger and sadness into a drive for perfection.

  “From the anger, then I was sad. And then you say, what am I going to do now?... Control what you can.” (03:09–03:51)

• Eric Thomas: Challenges are inevitable, but rising from setbacks is what matters.

  “You have the power to lose the lead and still come back and win. Get back up.” (04:36–05:25)

2. Obsession, Sacrifice, and High Achievement

• Kobe Bryant & Eric Thomas stress that greatness isn’t given—it's built on relentless work and a refusal to settle.

  “Tired don't mean nothing. Tired is only in the mind… I don't get tired. I'm going to beat you.” – Bryant (05:57)

• David Goggins: Champions must be ready to sacrifice on every level—psychological, physical, social.

  “What are you prepared to sacrifice... that pain you feel, that's a payment, success.” (06:43–07:11)

• Mac Jones: True achievement comes at a cost—early mornings, discipline, and missing out on comforts others enjoy.

  “It's hard when you're young to wake up in the off season at 6am to go train and work out knowing that all your friends are sleeping in and eating pancakes.” (09:29–10:07)

3. Self-Reliance and Identity

• David Goggins & Grant Cardone: The journey always comes back to you—your choices, your discipline, your hunger.

  “Your identity starts and ends with you.” – Goggins (11:07) “It starts and it ends with you.” – Cardone (11:03)

• Kobe Bryant champions self-definition and authenticity.

  “Be you. There's no gimmick, there's no—you don't have to contrive anything. Who are you? Where are you today? What is your story?” (35:54–36:45)

4. The Role of Team and Culture

• Mac Jones emphasizes that individual effort means little without a strong, unified team.

  “I don't care how good any one of you are sitting out there, it doesn't matter unless you got a great team around you.” (20:47)

• Kobe Bryant reflects on holding teammates accountable and not lowering his own standards.

  “I don't deal with people that don't commit at that level, but then act as if they do.” (38:05)

5. Process vs. Outcome & Emptying the Tank

• Grant Cardone & Others: The path to mastery is relentless, repetitive, and often invisible to outsiders.

  “Everyone looks like an overnight success means that the 10 years where they sucked, no one saw.” (25:34)

• Kobe Bryant: The dream is not the destination, but the work itself.

  “Those times when you get up early and work hard... but you do it anyway. That is actually the dream. It's not the destination, it's the journey.” (33:24)

• Grant Cardone: Excellence lies in the difference between mediocrity and greatness revealed only through enduring hard, hard work and shrinking the delay between action and result.

  “The vast majority of business owners work...but they do it the wrong way. And so they get so little for their effort...which is output… volume times leverage. So how many times you do the thing times how much you get for each time you do it.” (26:00–28:30)

6. Finding Fulfillment and Lasting Happiness

• Jocko Willink: Success and fulfillment are different; progress is happiness.

  “Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure… Progress equals happiness.” (41:43)

• Tony Robbins (speaking via Jocko Willink): The inner game—your identity and sustained hunger—is the deciding factor.

  “Self-esteem is earned within yourself, which only comes by doing things that are incredibly difficult.” (43:00)

7. Resilience through Identity

• Mac Jones: Story of Batman’s amnesia—reminding himself who he is helps him reclaim his strength.

  “Remember who you are.” (47:53–48:18)

• Jocko Willink: It’s normal to question yourself and your path, but growth comes from acting despite doubts and reinventing as needed.

  “If everything changes and everything ends, number one, it should make you appreciate what you have right now.” (48:18)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• Kobe Bryant:
  “Control what you can.” (03:31)
  “It became personal with me.” (04:02)
  “Tired don’t mean nothing. Tired is only in the mind.” (05:57)
  “Rest at the end, not in the middle.” (35:31)
• Eric Thomas:
  “You have the power to lose the lead and still come back and win. Get back up.” (04:36)
  “If you work for it, if you’re willing to put in that sweat, that blood and those tears, baby, I’m telling you, you can have what you want, be what you want, do what you want.” (12:02)
• David Goggins:
  “Your identity starts and ends with you.” (11:07)
  “Success is the only revenge. As you expand, they shrink into irrelevance.” (08:02)
• Mac Jones:
  “No matter who you are, there are bumps and hits and bruises along the way. And my advice is to prepare yourself because success and achievement come from overcoming adversity.” (10:07)
  “I just wanted to be my best. The team believed in me. I didn’t want to let them down.” (18:11)
• Grant Cardone:
  “Everyone believes in the American dream until it comes true... People want you to do well, but not better than them.” (24:07)
• Jocko Willink:
  “Progress equals happiness.” (41:43)

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Notable Segments & Timestamps

• Kobe Bryant on Obsession After Injury (03:09–04:28)
• Eric Thomas on Getting Back Up (04:36–05:25)
• David Goggins & Mac Jones on Sacrifice (06:43–07:18)
• Success is Personal (Me vs. Me) (11:13–11:59)
• Work Ethic & Team Accountability (20:47–22:11)
• Hard Work and Process—Cardone’s Rule of 100 (25:33–28:30)
• Kobe on the Dream is the Process (33:24–34:02)
• Rest at the End, Not the Middle (35:31)
• Defining Yourself/Identity & Resilience (47:38–48:18)

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Conclusion

With powerful stories, direct challenges, and no-nonsense truths, this episode distills championship mentality to its core: True comebacks begin and end within. Discipline, obsession, teamwork, and self-belief are non-negotiables, but above all: Refuse to rest in the middle. Take ownership of your journey, work relentlessly, and make the comeback personal.

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“Rest at the end, not in the middle.” — Kobe Bryant (35:31)

Transcript

[Eric Thomas]

Motor versity Family success isn't an accident, it's a habit. And I found the ultimate tool to build that habit. The Mindset Motivation app. Mindset has over 5000 powerful audio tracks including my best speeches and exclusive speeches you can't get anywhere else. It also has game changing new features, the Mindset Alarm where you can wake up to your favorite motivational speech and videos allowing you to finally swap the toxic social media doom scrolling for a feed that actually fuels your ambition. If you are serious about leveling up, do not wait. Search for Mindset Daily Motivation on the App Store or Google Play. Right now your best self is one decision away. Start with Mindset.

[Kat and Nat]

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[Paige from Giggly Squad]

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[Kat and Nat]

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[Kobe Bryant]

When I ruptured my Achilles, I knew the severity of the injury, and I didn't know if I was going to come back from it. Like, this is it. Like my career could be over right now. You know, I went home and I was just really 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 then from the anger, then I was sad. And then you say, what am I going to do now? I mean, it's just. It's an obsessiveness that comes along with it. You want things to be as perfect as they can be. Understanding that nothing is ever perfect. But the challenge is try to get them as perfect as they can be. And what can you do? It's in your control. So control what you can. You're not as good as Magic Johnson. You're not as good as Larry Bird.

[Jocko Willink]

You're good, but you're not as good as those guys.

[Kobe Bryant]

You know, I had to listen to

[Jocko Willink]

all this, and that put so much wood on that fire that it kept

[Kobe Bryant]

me each and every day.

[Jocko Willink]

I'm trying to become the best that I can.

[Kobe Bryant]

It became personal with me.

[Mac Jones]

Tough life.

[Eric Thomas]

That's what life is. Life is gonna always be tough. But just remember, it's up to you to carry on. Remember you owe you something. Continue to believe that we all have desires and dreams. Make your dream a reality.

[Kobe Bryant]

You look for any kind of messages that people may say or do to get you motivated to play the highest level.

[Eric Thomas]

You have the power to lose the lead and still come back and win. Get back up. If you don't get up when a count is at nine, you don't want it enough. I've had many rejections. I had many doors slammed in my face. But I didn't give up. I didn't quit. And neither should you. I know you're bleeding, but get up. I know it hurt, but get up. I need you in this moment to get up and try again. Every word I say, the sound of a comeback. You have this innate ability, this instinct on the inside. That you can come back from anything.

[Jocko Willink]

Good times create weak people. Weak people create bad times. Bad times create strong people. Strong people create good times.

[Eric Thomas]

This comeback is personal because I owe it to myself.

[Kobe Bryant]

It's like Muhammad Ali once said. He goes, it's hard to beat a guy when he's got his mind made up to win.

[Eric Thomas]

And can't nobody stop me but me. That's how bad you gotta want it.

[Kobe Bryant]

Tired don't mean nothing. Tired is only in the mind. You tell yourself you're tired, you're gonna be tired. I don't get tired. I'm going to beat you. I'm going to let you know I beat you. I'm gonna want you to reconsider your professional life choice.

[Eric Thomas]

My father, who raised me, his thing was, son, you may not be the best, but leave everything on the floor. You put 120%. I'm just asking you to do 120. Like every day when you come in, 120. You gotta want it so bad. You gotta give all of yourself to get it. You gotta be obsessive.

[Mac Jones]

Because I didn't grow up with things

[Eric Thomas]

being handed to me.

[Jocko Willink]

I had to work hard, I had

[Mac Jones]

to dedicate myself and I had to be determined. And I was.

[David Goggins]

The bottom line is that if you're talking about beating everybody else on the planet to a thing, what you're actually talking about is what are you prepared to sacrifice psychologically, physically, existentially, relationally, socially, in terms of your self esteem, your confidence, everything, right? All of that, that pain you feel,

[Mac Jones]

that's a payment, success. You must be willing to shoulder that pain to get success. And success is something that's a very

[Jocko Willink]

lonely path in this world.

[Eric Thomas]

Because few are willing to make that

[Mac Jones]

down payment of pain, that futurement of success, a better life.

[Kobe Bryant]

Very few are.

[Eric Thomas]

So if you want to be the top, you gotta move different.

[Mac Jones]

There wasn't a lot of smiley faces with me out there. There wasn't a lot of smiley faces with Michael Jordan. There weren't a lot of smiley faces with Kobe Bryant. There weren't a lot of smiley faces with Tiger Woods. Even when I watch sports today and see these guys on the range, like, they're all buddies. And I'm like, that's not the killer instinct. That's just not. I don't think Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson were trying to be friends with anybody. I think they were going out there on a mission. And if there was someone in their way, they had to crush them.

[Eric Thomas]

There's never any doubts in my mind because I'M the best in the world. Even though a lot of you don't

[David Goggins]

like to hear it.

[Eric Thomas]

I just, it's fact. I'm the best.

[David Goggins]

You know what I mean? I.

[Eric Thomas]

Sometimes I don't want to believe in myself, but it's the truth. I'm the best.

[Pablo Torre]

You can love me, you can hate me.

[Grant Cardone]

I'm not here to make friends.

[Eric Thomas]

I'm here to win.

[David Goggins]

At the end of the day, even Alexander, one of his famous quotes is, I have met the enemy. It is I.

[Jocko Willink]

Right?

[David Goggins]

And although that is one element of an enemy that's great, we need that. Michael had it, Brady had it, Kobe had it. But there's a crazy psychologically, you can call it, you know, psycho competitor that they're constantly in the search of recruiting their next enemy. It's like, you know, life is boring. If I don't have my next target, you know, I'm almost, you know, bad for myself. If I don't have the next target, the next enemy, and if I choose it the right way, then I'm able to bring out a side of me I've never seen before. Success is the only revenge. As you expand, they shrink into irrelevance. As you get louder, no one can hear them. You don't beat them. You cast a shadow so big no one can see them to begin with.

[Mac Jones]

And that's what it comes down to.

[Grant Cardone]

Like, what are you willing to sacrifice

[David Goggins]

at the end of the day?

[Grant Cardone]

You know, people don't understand the level of sacrifice it's gonna take. And there's been moments where I realized that I compete because I wanna win.

[Mac Jones]

I love winning. I love being the best in the world.

[Kobe Bryant]

I've sat many times trying to find

[Mac Jones]

the balance of what I want within all this.

[Grant Cardone]

If I was losing, I wouldn't be competing.

[Mac Jones]

I'm here to win. It is hard. It's hard when you're young to wake up in the off season at 6am to go train and work out knowing that all your friends are sleeping in and eating pancakes. It's hard when you're on your way to practice weighed down with all your gear and it's 90 degrees out and all the other kids are at the pool or at the beach. No matter who you are, there are bumps and hits and bruises along the way. And my advice is to prepare yourself because success and achievement come from overcoming adversity.

[Eric Thomas]

When the rest of the world says no to you, you say yes. To yourself, you say, yes, I believe. You say, yes, I can do it. You say yes, nothing can stop Me,

[Kobe Bryant]

if you want to be a great player, if you play every single day, two, three hours, every single day over the course of a year, how much better you get? Most kids will play maybe, you know, an hour and a half, two days a week. It's not going to get it done.

[David Goggins]

You have to be obsessive.

[Eric Thomas]

You have to be obsessive. You have to be addicted.

[Jocko Willink]

You have to be disciplined.

[David Goggins]

The key there is you.

[Jocko Willink]

Everyone else is looking for others, other individuals to do stuff for you. Stop looking for help from everybody else.

[David Goggins]

Okay?

[Grant Cardone]

It starts and it ends with you.

[David Goggins]

Your identity starts and ends with you.

[Mac Jones]

Every day is an opportunity based on your choices, on how you look at things, the choices you make every day. That is what you are in the mirror today.

[Eric Thomas]

From the captain to the cashier, there is more in you. Stay at home father, stay at home mother, lawyer, doctor, hygienist, author. I don't know who you are, where you're from, but there's more in you that becomes a part of who you are. That changes how you think. That changes how you move. That changes how you behave. If you could become an executor, if you could execute. I'm talking about learn it. I'm talking about put it deep within. Not you hear it.

[Grant Cardone]

You have to realize that there's always work to do.

[Mac Jones]

And you want to be the hardest

[Eric Thomas]

working person in whatever you do.

[Grant Cardone]

And you'll put yourself in position to be successful.

[Eric Thomas]

Muhammad Ali said, suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion. Because he knew that the training wasn't killing him. The training was making him. It was for forging him in fire. I got to trust that nothing out there can stop who I am inside. You got to stand on your faith. You got to stand on your strength. You got to stand on who you are. I will rise again and I will push. I will be the victorious one. I will conquer. Listen to me. If you work for it, if you willing to put in that sweat, that blood and those tears, baby, I'm telling you, you can have what you want, be what you want, do what you want are. You hear me? Don't give up. Don't give in. You hang in there. You hang in there. Because if you quit right now, you ain't gonna never see it. You ain't gonna never get it. But if you hold on, baby. But if you hold on, if you hold on, everything you dreamed of, everything you envision, everything you work for, it's coming. If you work hard, you can't have it. It ain't nothing you can't have, you deserve it. It ain't nothing you can't have if you're willing to work for it. Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, how much more can you take? What tried to kill you only made you stronger.

[Mac Jones]

So what are you waiting for? You have greatness within you.

[David Goggins]

I was born David Goggins. David Goggins wasn't good enough. He was a scared, bullied, abused kid who struggled in life. And that kid, whenever something got tough, no matter how hard I trained, no matter how ready I was, whenever something got tough for me, David Goggins, the real David Goggins, would come out and he would quit. So I realized this over a period of time. So I had to build Goggins. And in that process, that's where I get better. You get to face a lot of young man. You got a long journey ahead of you because you're going to find out that while your dad did a lot of to you, you're gonna have to make it on your own. Because this world we live in is tough. It's tough. It will beat you down. The world in the life that we live in is the ultimate competitor. The world's tough. The world's tough. It will try to take you out. It will. It will find your weakness and it will just hammer you. So it's time to get back to work. Get back to work. Stop hearing yourself talk, get off the podcast, don't be on social media too much, cut out all the noise, get back to the mental lab, because that's where the knowledge came from.

[Mac Jones]

It is hard. It's hard when you're young to wake up in the off season at 6am to go train and work out knowing that all your friends are sleeping in and eating pancakes. It's hard when you're on your way to practice, weighed down with all your gear and it's 90 degrees out and all the other kids are at the pool or at the beach. It's hard to throw, catch, block and tackle and hit kids when they're way bigger and way more developed than you, only to go home that night bruised and battered and strained, but knowing you have to show up again the next day for just the chance to try again. But understand this, life is hard. No matter who you are. There are bumps and hits and bruises along the way. And my advice is to prepare yourself, because football lessons teach us that success and achievement come from over overcoming adversity. I remember being downstairs for like the fourth round, and that came and gone and the fifth round, you know, was

[Grant Cardone]

coming and going, and all these other

[Mac Jones]

guys were getting picked, and it was hard. I remember taking a walk with my dad and mom around the block. Sorry about that.

[Grant Cardone]

It was just a tough day, you know.

[Mac Jones]

You know, finally, when the Patriots called,

[Grant Cardone]

I was so excited, you know, I

[Mac Jones]

was like, I don't have to be an insurance salesman.

[Kobe Bryant]

You know,

[Mac Jones]

all those experiences that we think are the hardest things in our life end up being the best experiences in our life. Because if you approach it with humility and you look inward, they become the best opportunities for growth and learning. Because I developed this work ethic in high school, and I realized, man, if I want to be good, I gotta. I gotta wake up in the morning, I gotta do the extra work, and I gotta show up when other guys aren't. And I've got to learn. I've got to continue to be open to learning, to be successful at anything. The truth is, you don't have to be special. You just have to be what most people aren't Consistent, determined, and willing to work for it. Integrity, purpose, determination, and discipline that it takes to be a champion in life. No shortcuts. It was a. It was a tough battle for me. It was a tough go. It was tough in high school. It was really tough in college. If I want to be the best, I got to beat the best. And this is where the best start. Said I wasn't the prodigy. I learned about work ethic. I learned about resilience. I learned about gaining the trust and the respect of my teammates and coaches. I learned about how to dig deep within myself a long way from home without a ton of support to still try to find a way to succeed in this situation that I really wanted to be in because it was the best for me anyway. Focus on what you can control. Focus on what you're getting, not what anyone else is getting. Go out there and treat practice like no one else does. And I did that every single day. I didn't care about going to all these different places and doing those things. I just wanted to be my best. The team believed in me. I didn't want to let them down. What's the choice you get to make every day to wake up and say, all right, this is where I'm going to focus my time and energy? How disciplined are you to maintain that routine over a period of time? And I think that will determine your level of success. Be proud of that man that wakes up every day and does the best that he could do with his priorities.

[David Goggins]

Did you Always have an absolute killer instinct where I'm going to show you. I'm going to prove the way to see what I'm going to do. I'm going to kill this guy when we face him. Was it always like that when you were in high school or that kind of developed later on?

[Mac Jones]

Yeah, I think it developed over a period of time. And I think there was a work ethic that was in me, but I was never, I would say, like a prodigy. I didn't have the arm that could throw the ball 80 yards. I didn't have the speed that Michael Vick had. I didn't have the size that a lot of guys had. But I did have something inside of me that no one could see from the outside. This level of discipline that I could accomplish, something that was really important and really special. I wanted to be a great football player. If I was going to be a great football player, I wanted to compete against these other guys, and they were all better than me. Don't worry about all these things are out of your control. Focus on what you can do. Focus on the two reps. You got your tired body, that unmotivated mind, and get out there and do it anyway. And the mindset is me versus me. It's no bullshit. It was all about not making excuses.

[Eric Thomas]

It was about how do we and get it done.

[Mac Jones]

I was so motivated to be the best I could be that it wasn't. I wasn't motivated to be the starter. I wasn't motivated to win the Super Bowl. I just was motivated to give my best, do the best with the opportunity I got, and to never let my teammates down. Those were my motivations. I think you wake up every day and hopefully you can look at yourself and say, did I give it my best? I wanted to be the best I could be, period. That's all I wanted. I just think winning Super Bowls was the result of a lot of great process. Like, my view is like, you can't control the outcome all the time, right? Like, the ball's gonna bounce the other team's way, like, shouldn't always go your way. So you get motivated by the loss, losses. You stay motivated through the winning. What you can control is your process. You can control those intangibles. You can control the work ethic, the consistent discipline, your attitude, your culture, how much you care. All those things are in you. They just need to be drawn out of you. And really, when you're in that position that you feel like you're got those pretty well under control, then you Start passing those on to the other people that you're working with that are parts of your team. Because I don't care how good any one of you are sitting out there, it doesn't matter unless you got a great team around you. You know, you could be great. You probably are great. You need a lot of other great people to support you. It takes so many people to get to where we get in our life. Yeah, I was there doing some of the work, but couldn't have done it if I didn't have them. When I was a quarterback, I was just playing quarterback. Yeah, it was me, the person, but it was. It was me, the quarterback that was out there because I was doing a job. I wasn't the father, I wasn't the dad out there. I wasn't, you know, the husband out there. I was the quarterback out there on the field. I was the quarterback. When I went to work, nothing was going to get in the way of that. You've got to create a lot of different emotion to. To. To heighten your sense of awareness and focus. Like, for me, anger was good.

[Paige from Giggly Squad]

Good.

[Mac Jones]

Anger was good because it was motivating. The more I could create an enemy, the more I wanted to go out and kill those guys. Now, I knew I was going to kill them physically, but, man, if I could just. What did they say, you know, and

[Eric Thomas]

what did they look like?

[Mac Jones]

Do they disrespect me at all? Those are little, little, little things that can get me right in the emotional frame of mind that when I run out on the field and I said, let's go, it was really, let's go kick some ass. That's what we were doing. This is the moment right now. Let's get to work. The fundamental belief is I'm giving myself to something greater than myself, something greater than me as an individual. If I look at that journey from where I was as a kid, I had my passion parents that were in my life to support me every step of the way. I had my junior varsity football coaches, my throwing coach and mentor. I went to Michigan. I had Coach Carr challenge me to say, those who stay will be champions. So I stayed. But don't think that you're going to have a lot of success if all you do is care about yourself. You don't work that hard. No one's that accountable. But in the end, what does culture mean to me? Do we care about each other and do we care about what we're trying to accomplish? Most people just care about themselves. Well, that's a lot That's a lot of consistent discipline. It means that you got to do a lot more right than wrong. It means that you got to make a lot more good choices than bad choices. It means you have to be more disciplined than not disciplined. Physically, mentally, emotionally. All those little things add up. The man in the glass, that's the one that motivated me. He's the guy I was accountable to. Nothing that anyone did took away from me. The only person that could take away from me is me.

[Grant Cardone]

Everyone believes in the American dream until it comes true. And I remember because what had happened was everybody. When I. When I was sleeping on the gym floor, right? Like, you know, I was the. I was the underdog. You know, my clients were all like, oh, good for you. You know, you're going after your dream. They'd see my blanket and my pillow in the corner of the gym, and they knew I was sleeping there. And it was evident, you know, I lived there, and that everybody was like, pro me. And then people come in, they sign up, like, I'm going to. I'm going to support you, right? And then within nine months, I had hired people, and I had a manager. And I pulled up, and I remember I walked in the lobby, and all the same. The same people were like, oh, boss man's here. Oh, you're. You're not too good for us now, right? And I remember being so jarred by the experience, and I was like, you guys rooted for me. And I was like, and now I did what you said you were rooting for me to do. And that was when I realized that people want you to do well, but not better than them. The reason the goal isn't coming at you fast enough is because every person you've seen accomplish the goal, you only see it the moment they accomplish it. And the reason that it hurts so much when people are like, must be nice. Oh, that happened overnight is because every time you fail, no one cares and no one sees. But when you finally win, people take notice.

[David Goggins]

Discredited.

[Grant Cardone]

But it's the only time they notice is when you actually win. And so, to even further reinforce the point, the fact that everyone looks like an overnight success means that the 10 years where they sucked, no one saw. And so the fear that you have about people noticing the fact that you fail is ridiculous, because they're barely going to notice when you succeed. The difficulty with personal development and entrepreneurship is that you don't know when the end is coming, but you still need to fight. And the only certainty that I can give you is that it's the same thing that every other person who got through that period went through. But I think the thing that everyone who's, who's listening lacks is the context on how hard, hard work is not in that it's complex, but just in that it's a continuous and unending focus on one thing and noticing the details that separate mediocrity from greatness. And if you're like, I don't know what the difference between those two things is, that is the opportunity that hard, hard work reveals. And most people expect that is hard work because that's the hardest they've worked. Not the amount of hard work that is required in order to get the level of outcome that they say they want or that they expect. And until you get great, because as soon as you get great at one thing, you realize just the tremendous amount of hours and work that it takes to be great at one thing. And then there's this, oh, moment that I can express personally, which is you realize there's so few things that you can be great at. And then the discipline comes down to saying, what are the two or three things that I can be really good at in my life? Because it will take me five to seven years to be exceptional at this one thing. I am, okay, being a beacon of relentless hard work. And that's the never ending cycle of excellence. Oh, I just have to figure out what to do when I wake up every day. There's only one voice I have to listen to. And so then it's like, just do it for me. Yeah, we need to be reminded more than we need to be taught. It's one of my favorites. There have been so many times in my life where I knew I needed to do something. And then I filled all this extra time not doing that thing. And then the moment I did it, I was like, wow, that took way less time than I thought it was going to take. And not only that, it took way less time than it took me to delay to actually get to this point. And if I had only started with just doing what I was supposed to do, I could have done four or five other things that I was also supposed to do by this exact same point. Waking up and then trying to shrink the time between when I wake up and when I start working, and shrinking the time between one task and the next task. Like, you don't need to take 30 minutes of getting ready to start working. Like, you can just start working because as soon as you get into it, you start pulling the thread and you're like, oh, here it is. And all of the time that I was getting ready to work, I was just using up my best brainpower time on things that truly don't move the needle at all. The vast majority of business owners work a fair amount of. They just work on the wrong stuff and they do it the wrong way. And so they get so little for their effort that they wonder when they're at home empty handed in bed, why isn't this working when I am working. But if you define work at least the way I do, which is output and in order to get output it's volume times leverage. So how many times you do the thing times how much you get for each time you do it. And so that is the do you work smart or do you work hard? It's you do both. You do as many reps as you possibly can and you are, you do it with the most leverage possible. So If I make 100 phone calls, the leverage that I can have there would be how skilled I am. So if I make a hundred calls I might get 10 times more. And so I worked more, I had more output than somebody who has less skill. But the only way you get skilled is by working more. And so it's this virtuous cycle of doing more and getting better and then you get more for what you do. I talk about the rule of 100 on steroids, which is something that I learned from a guy who owned 13 or 14 really successful gyms. And he called it open to goal. And he said, yeah, yeah, he said my managers work open to goal. And I was like, what does that mean? It's like so they work open until they hit their goal. And so sometimes that means they hit their goal by noon and they can cut out. Or that means that they have to go from 5am until midnight that night because that's how long it took them to hit the goal. And so I've seen this across a lot of high achievers across domains. So like I'll keep shooting free shots until I hit 100 free shots. I will run until this happens. I will practice my presentation until I do zero mess ups, right? Or whatever that that output is that you want for quality or quantity. And the more times you do what is required to get what you want, the more times you get what you want. When no one's watching, I work harder than when they're watching. Thinking about it like that has given me this persistent and ever present scorecard or third party that's like no one's watching, which Means now you have to work, because otherwise you're full of shit. And so it's this continuous reinforcing cycle of me and other me holding the whip behind me to see how much I can take. But with each lash of the whip that I take, learning that I can take it and continue to trudge on as long as you keep going, you bear witness to yourself of what you are capable of. And I find that incredibly satisfying in the trenches of misery, when you have to go through it. Hard work is the goal. And so it's not like work hard so that X, because as soon as you have a so that, then the X is the thing. But if the goal is to work as hard as we possibly can, then the only real output we have is who we become along the way. Then it's something that I can win or measure myself against every day, in real time, throughout the day, which is, how hard am I working? Because that is the goal. Because I know that when I look back on my life, the days that I loved the most were days when I had nothing left in the tank. And so then the goal becomes to empty the tank. Not what. Where I drive, but just to drive the car as hard as I possibly can. And that means that in the beginning, it's just straightaways and just seeing how high I can rev the engine. But as I become more advanced, it's like, all right, when. Now we've got turns, and then it's turns in elevation, and then it's turns in elevation without guardrails because we have risk. And so when I think about how hard I want to work, the interesting thing about that is that the only person who can judge you on your success is you, because you're the only one who knows how much left in the tank you really had. There's this huge time delay between when we start behaving in a way that a winner behaves and when we start winning. And the problem is that the bigger the mountain you're trying to climb, the bigger the W you're trying to get, typically, the more delayed it is. The lag, yeah, between when you start behaving like a winner and when you start being a winner, and most people don't get the fast enough feedback loop to know that they're on the right path when they are taking these first steps in the right direction because they have this really big goal, but they forget that with that really big goal comes the even longer delay that it takes to get there.

[Kobe Bryant]

Those times when you get up early

[Jocko Willink]

and you Work hard.

[Kobe Bryant]

Those times when you stay up late and you work hard. Those times when you don't feel like working, you're too tired, you don't want to push yourself, but you do it anyway. That is actually the dream. That's the dream. It's not the destination, it's the journey. And if you guys, if you guys can understand that, then what you'll see happen is that you won't accomplish your dreams. Your dreams won't come true. Something greater will.

[Jocko Willink]

It's a, it's amazing thing about passion.

[Kobe Bryant]

If you love something, if you have a strong passion for something, you would go to the extreme to try to understand or try to get it. Whatever you have a love for, if you have to walk, you will go get it. If you have to beg someone, you

[Jocko Willink]

will go get it.

[Kobe Bryant]

I don't think you guys understand how present you guys were with me. You know, you guys were there with me at 5:30 in the morning when I was running the track and I was midway through my workout and I didn't know if I could make it through. And I thought about the expectations you guys have for me and you have for our team. And it pushed me through, it got me through those eight hundreds and four hundreds and one hundreds at 5:30 in the morning. So I thank you. We're not on this stage just because of talent or ability. We're up here because of 4am we're up here because of 2A days or 5A days. We're up here because we had a dream and let nothing and stand in our way. If anything tried to bring us down, we used it to make us stronger. We were never satisfied, never finished. We'll never be retired. My high school English teacher, Mr. Fisk, he had this beautiful quote and it read, rest at the end, not in the middle. And I took that to heart. I believe there's time for resting at the end, but for me that time is not now. Thank you for this tremendous honor and acknowledging my basketball career, but I'm far from done. My next dream is to be honored one day for inspiring the next generation of athletes to have a dream, sacrifice for it and never ever rest in the middle. Rest at the end, not in the middle. Be yourself.

[Eric Thomas]

That's it.

[David Goggins]

Be you.

[Kobe Bryant]

Be you. There's no gimmick, there's no. You don't have to contrive anything. Who are you? Where are you today? What is your story? Where does that come from? And if you guys can understand that, and I'm doing my job as a Father. Thank you guys so much. I love you, Mamba. Because if you. If you play with the fear of failing, you'll have the pressure on yourself to play, you know, to capitulate to that fear. If you play with the sense of, I want to win, I want to win, then you have the fear of what happens if you don't. But if you find common ground in the middle, in the center, then it doesn't matter. You're in phase by either.

[Pablo Torre]

Right?

[Kobe Bryant]

That enables you to really just stay in the moment, stay connected to it, and not feel anything other than what's in front of you. So I try to just be dead center. You start with, what do you want your game to be? What would make your game most unstoppable or hard to deal with? And now you work backwards from there, and you start building it one piece at a time, one move at a time, one counter at a time.

[David Goggins]

Who would Shaq be if he had your work ethic?

[Kobe Bryant]

He'd be the greatest of all time.

[David Goggins]

If Shaq had your work, he'd be

[Mac Jones]

the greatest of all time.

[David Goggins]

Greatest of all time.

[Kobe Bryant]

By sure, he'd be the first to tell you that for sure. I mean, this guy was a force like I have never seen. It was crazy. You know, a guy at that size, generally, guys at that size, a little timid, and they don't want to be tall. They don't want to be big. Man, this dude was. He did not care. He was mean, he was nasty, he was competitive. He was vindictive. I mean, he was. Yeah, I wish he was in the gym. I would have had 12 rings.

[David Goggins]

He had the work ethic.

[Eric Thomas]

My God.

[Jocko Willink]

Yeah.

[Kobe Bryant]

Wayne, be close if you're lazy, man, I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to deal with you. You don't make me feel dumber. You know, you're going to lower my level. I don't think so. You can go over there. There's plenty of teams in here where you'll fit right in. I don't deal with people that don't commit at that level, but then act as if they do. I don't deal with that.

[Jocko Willink]

I don't.

[Kobe Bryant]

It's real. I mean, I listen. So, like, we used to get into stuff all the time because it was like, you know, he would say, okay, Kobe's not throwing me the ball. And media would take it and run with it and all sorts of stuff. And I'm like, well, bruh, if you were in shape by the time I run down on A fast break and run back and then run down. You're still coming down the first time, bro. Like, what the hell do you want me to do, right? So a lot of our contention came from that. Came from that.

[David Goggins]

And even though he was older, you were still confronting him.

[Kobe Bryant]

You didn't.

[David Goggins]

You didn't care?

[Kobe Bryant]

Oh, I didn't care, man.

[Mac Jones]

Day one, bro.

[Kobe Bryant]

From day one, I. I knew for sure. Rick, Fox, my teammates, they all thought I was absolutely crazy. The day me and Shaq got in the fistfight, after that, they were like, okay, Kobe, you're certifiable.

[David Goggins]

Let's fight.

[Kobe Bryant]

Oh, yeah, fist fight. Oh, I'm not backing down. Listen, either you're gonna watch my ass, or I'm gonna. We're gonna have a night. But, you know, ain't no way, you know, there's a. There's a level of respect and. And for Shaq, too, by the way, that I know.

[David Goggins]

He.

[Kobe Bryant]

He's told me that that day was a big turning point for him because it was like, you know, he's generally used to talking trash and saying what he wants, and nobody really stepping up and challenging him on that. And when he saw me challenge him on that, he was like, this kid's crazy. All right? I can win with that, you know? And so that was kind of the beginning of our relationship.

[David Goggins]

I think that's probably never happened to him. That's probably not something that's common to. To him.

No.

[Kobe Bryant]

I mean, 7ft tall since he was

[David Goggins]

3 years old or something, right?

[Kobe Bryant]

There was. This is all coming back to me right now. It was also a game in Phoenix, my first year we were playing, and he kept posting up, but they kept fouling him. So he kept going to the free throw line. He kept missing them. And so he throw the ball out to me. I'm not throwing that back in there, right? So I kept shooting him, right? So we get in the timeout, he's like, hey, hey, hey, I'm open. I'm like, okay. And so we go out, and same thing. Come. Hey, I'm open. Okay, there you go. Come back in. Hey, dude, you gotta throw me the ball. I said, man, that. Get it off the rebound if I miss, bro. He told him this person, you're 18 years old, man. 18 years old. I must have been out of my damn mind. The story continues. The story continues. So if you fail on Monday, the only way it's a failure on Monday is if you decide to not progress from that, right? So that. So to me, that's why failure is not existing. Because, you know, if I fail today, okay, I'm gonna learn something from that failure, and I'm gonna try again on Tuesday. Those times when you don't feel like working, you're too tired, you don't want to push yourself, but you do it anyway. That's the dream. It's not the destination, it's the journey.

[Jocko Willink]

Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure. Like success is getting what you want. Fulfillment is living what you're made for. Fulfillment and success, they're not even the same universe. People ask me all the time, what does it take to be happy? And I always tell them it's really simple. One word. Progress. Progress equals happiness. If you keep growing, you're going to feel alive. And if you keep growing, you're going to have more to give. It doesn't matter how many statues, Oscars, they give you or Emmys or how much money you have in the bank. We've all seen people had all those things, and I get the phone call because they're depressed or somebody commits suicide in that area. It's really an inner game, and I think that's what's missing for us today. Everybody's focusing on the outside world and how there's a lot of things the outside world you'll never be able to control, you can influence, but you can't control it. This, your mind, your emotions, your body. You have 100% control over what you do with these things. And that's where the game is. One, you win the inner game, then you win the outer game. But a lot of people spent their life trying to win the other game. They won and they're miserable. Someone can tell your whole life you're a piece of crap, but you can say, screw you read between the lines and make your life work. Someone tell your whole life you're beautiful, you're intelligent, you're the smartest person in the world. And you don't believe it, because self esteem doesn't come from what people say about you. Self esteem is earned within yourself. It's esteem for yourself, which only comes by doing things that are incredibly difficult. And then your brain goes, this is who I am. You really got to figure out what you're made for. And nobody knows in the beginning. So you start where you are and you do what's in front of you. Do what's next. And you keep growing until you start to discover, hey, this is my real passion. So identity is the number one thing I work to change with people, to expand it, expand your own sense of who you really are and what you're capable of. And the mindset has to be destroy any limitation and move forward, forward, move forward, move forward. I think passion is the genesis of genius. If you've got enough passion, you're going to find answers nobody else does. But most people run out of fuel, meaning they get tired, they get exhausted, they get burned out. They get, you know, the law of familiarity. They're around something so much, they take it a little bit for granted. And I've managed to see something in myself that I found in every great leader that I've ever respected. And that is I value intelligence immensely. But I know really smart people can't fight their way out of a paper bag. Pragmatically, right? What I see is the one common denominator of people that are successful over a lifetime is the sustained hunger. Hunger is the number one factor. You need to be good at pattern recognition. And that's what gets somebody strong at anything. I mean, you look at, you know, why is Amazon doing so well? He realized one pattern was valued over anything else. Convenience, right? If you look at Tom Brady, friend of mine, he's got pattern recognition like nobody else. At 43 years old, he's able to do things no one dreamed could be done. He's got more super bowl rings than any team see. What do they see that none of us see? What's the pattern? Then? You gotta learn pattern utilization. It's one thing to see, it's another thing to use it. And then if you're good after a while, you get to pattern creation. It's like if you learn to play the piano, most people play other people's music. And then there's a point you've learned so much that you're able to create really comes down to anyone can learn anything if it's important enough to you. So it's like, my drive is not just for me, that wouldn't be enough. Because it's easy to meet your own needs. It's not that difficult. But if you can find something that you care about more than yourself, your daughter, your son, your family, your. Your business, your mission, your community, whatever it is, that's really the secret to energy and vitality and strength and really learning. One of the things I want to do with people during this challenge is take things that seem so complex and make them so simple. So you do it, get it. Really simple things you can do right now to change your life. You can go to experience it that day, and then you get momentum. Day one, day two, Day three, day four. And all of a sudden, now what used to be hard to do is easy to do. And I think for anyone. You gotta understand, anyone can learn anything if you can just break it down to its simple core. And that's what I try to do most. And I'm just not willing to settle for a life without passion and aliveness. That's just like, there's so much to learn, there's so much to grow, there's so much to give. And I'm wired to grow and give. And I think anybody gets wired to grow and give is going to have a really fulfilling life. It doesn't matter what you choose to do do, you're going to be alive. A year ago, people thought we were coming out of, you know, we got vaccines now, and we're coming out of COVID and it's going to be all over now. People are excited. But now, after going through two years of this, there's a lot of people now that no longer have a compelling future. Like, you know, people talking about New Year's resolutions. Most people don't even have one because it's like they never followed through anyway. Right? But at least they had something to look forward to. They're starting to get into learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is when something is so bad over and over again, you start thinking the problem's permanent. No problem is permanent. Or you start thinking the problem's pervasive because I haven't handled my finances, my whole world's over. Or because my relationship's bad, my whole world's over. Your life is bigger than that. My goal right now is to shake that up for people. People need a new perspective, and you can't do it by just sitting and thinking. You got to move your body. You got to change your energy and your focus. But if I get you into a higher state of being mentally, emotionally, physically, then all of a sudden you start remembering who you are, and you start coming up with answers that you never even thought were possible before.

[Mac Jones]

The idea of remembering who you are is something incredibly powerful. There was a Batman cartoon where he gets amnesia and he gets put in,

[Pablo Torre]

like, a camp, basically work camp, and

[Mac Jones]

he can't get out, and he feels stuck and weak and, you know, afraid. And then something happens. I don't remember what triggers his memory. And he remembers that he's Batman. Just in remembering that he's Batman, he then takes the actions to fight his way out. Look, I know it's a cartoon, but that has always resonated with me. And whenever I'm feeling anxious about something, I always tell myself, remember who you are.

[Jocko Willink]

But you're really talking about the most important concept in lasting change. Identity. We all define ourselves in certain ways. So you start where you are and you do what's in front of you, do what's next, and you keep growing until you start to discover, hey, this is my real passion. And it can change. People go for five, six, seven years, and then they usually question their business, their career, their. Their body, their relationships. And then one of two things happens. They change direction and feel renewed, or they go, no, I got a great deal here. What the hell is wrong with me? And they recommit and they get stronger. But that's life. And if you don't grow, I don't give a damn how much you got going for, you're going to be miserable. I think as early on I realized, you know, one of the things you have to understand about life is everything changes and everything ends. And that kind of sounds heavy on the front end, but it's a truth. If everything changes and everything ends, number one, it should make you appreciate what you have right now. And then my view is what's next is always better if I make it so. It's my job to make it so. And I think that's how we have to navigate. But most of us, most of us have been conditioned not to take a risk. People ask me all the time, what does it take to be happy? And I always tell them it's really simple. One word. Progress.

[Pablo Torre]

Hey, this is Pablo Torre from Pablo Torre finds out. And today I want to talk to you about Boost Mobile. In sports, there's always pressure to chase the next big thing. But sometimes the smartest play is sticking with what's already working for you. Boost Mobile gets that if your phone is running fine, you should not have to buy a new one just to get a better deal. Bring your phone to Boost Mobile and get unlimited wireless for just $25 a month. Forever. No contracts, no price hikes. Visit Boost Mobile. Unlock your phone. $25 forever requires customers to remain active on the Boost Mobile Unlimited plan.

[Kat and Nat]

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[Paige from Giggly Squad]

Experian Hannah, I just Venmo'd you for dinner.

[Pablo Torre]

Obsessed.

[Kat and Nat]

I'm spending it right now in the lip gloss that's been sitting in my cart.

[Paige from Giggly Squad]

What do you mean, spending it right now?

[Kat and Nat]

You can instantly spend your balance with the Venmo debit card or when you pay with Venmo at checkout.

[Paige from Giggly Squad]

Stop. Say more.

[David Goggins]

More.

[Kat and Nat]

Exactly. The more you do with Venmo, the more you get, like, earning up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash get the Venmo debit card or checkout online. Venmo Stash Bundle Terms and exclusions apply. Max $100 per month. See terms at Venmo Me Stash terms. Venmo Checkout not available at all. Merchants the Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank NA.