preface

At the end of the summer of 2019, my then-mentor advised me to immerse myself in Kobe Bryant interviews to tune my aggressive preparation for the most high-pressure interviews of my life. Thus, i willingly sacrificed the last weeks (and hours of sleep) of my summer to secure a full-time offer at Centerview Partners. Afterwards, i foolishly assumed that i would thank Kobe in person one day when i became rich & famous—aside: no longer do i aspire to be either rich or famous. It took all of 5 months for that wish to evaporate 😔

I distinctly remember what i was doing when i learned of Kobe's passing. On that fateful day, Jan. 26, 2020, I had been "studying" with some friends in the penthouse Arrupe common room at Georgetown. As a senior firmly in my final semester, i didn't have anything to do that i could reasonably call "studying", so i did what i always try to do when life gives me spare moments: i meditated.

Soon, after closing my eyes and entering that relaxed state, i sensed the pace of my thoughts slowing down. However, at some unknown time during that experience, something changed. Some of my thoughts started saying the darnedest things (or so i thought!). Some, even, whispered: Kobe died... Now, that's a cruel trick of the mind!

I struggled with these logismoi until the time i had set for meditation finished. Then, i opened my eyes and saw my friends sitting in disbelief. Shock colored each of their countenances. One turned to me and begrudgingly said: "Kobe died..."

no way! don't say that!

Kobe died...!

what are you talking about? which Kobe?!

Kobe Bryant passed away...

Immediately, i scoured the internet, searching for some news article to that i could use to disprove such an outrageous claim. But, alas, none existed. All i found were memorials of the man who, unbeknownst to him, forever changed the trajectory of my life. A flawed man, sure, but certainly not more flawed than me. A successful man, definitely, and one who sacrificed everything the world thinks is important to be the best: a modern ascetic, per se.

Kobe helped me summit one of the highest peaks i ever climbed, teaching me how to conquer unfathomable lands. Since i can't thank him in person in this lifetime, i prepared the following commemorative reflection. To remember him, i synthesized many of his quotes within the following section and sub-sections. Additionally, i begin each section with the most powerful direct quote that best captures his mindset.

Note: this memorial almost exclusively focuses on Kobe the basketball player not Kobe the son, the husband and the father—although, he would likely argue that he staked his identity deeply in the latter three aspects.

Kobe Bryant's journey began with a spark of passion for basketball that ignited his lifelong love for the game. It drove him to relentlessly pursue his full potential and become the best version of himself. His life exemplified how continuous growth, resilience amidst adversity and, ultimately, establishing an inspirational legacy depend on deeply loving your craft and steadfastly committing to excellence.

epigraph

His mentality: just seek and destroy. He comes to game and some days he might not even dap you; or, some days he be real quiet, and his jaws get tight...He might miss his first 8 [shots]; but, in the 4th quarter, you better believe that he's that confident that he can shoot the next 5.
~ Tony Allen

Passion and Purpose

I love playing basketball there's nothing like it...the ball when it bounces, the sound that it makes; the smell of a basketball...the strategies, the competition, the camaraderie.

Kobe's competitive spirit and desire to be the best fueled his deep love for basketball, driving his relentless pursuit of excellence and helping him clearly define his entire life's purpose

Loving The Game

Being blessed with the physical tools that I have, I made a promise to myself...that I was gonna work that hard every single day so that when I do retire I have no regrets. The most important thing for me [was] to leave no stone unturned and to get better every single day. If I live that way, then over time, you know I'd have something that was beautiful, but that was my philosophy.

Since Kobe was a child, he wanted to be the best to ever play the game. Even, in high school, he'd show up to work at 5 am but not leave until 7 pm because of his crazy love for basketball. Basketball was his life at the age of 18, and his life was basketball—thus, he knew that no one would stop him. Protect your dreams and your imagination, and the world will become limitless. Passion's spark ignited his love for the game, and the game became so ingrained into who he was that it never left him—even, after he retired.

Teleological Topography

I want to win by any means necessary. I want to be the best—simple and plain.

Kobe's definition of success—relentlessly pursuing his fullest potential and positively influencing others—helped him live an impactful and fulfilling life. He asked himself many questions to figure out what mattered to him in this life. After definitely answering his "what matters?" question, his commitment to improve manifested as doing everything he could to become a better basketball player.

Kobe's passion for the game—his entire life purpose—fueled an unwavering commitment to excellence. His life progressed—though not always linearly—from his environment sparking his passion to ultimately realizing his life purpose because of his dedication. Athletes—in any capacity—initially desire success, setting their sights on the promised land. Then, they overcome challenges, reflecting on where they progressed and regressed before re-strategizing their path forward until they experience triumph.

You must put everybody on notice that you're here and you're for real. I'm here to be an all-time great.

Likewise, i must begin with finding my purpose—my "what matters?"—and fundamentally loving it. Subsequently, i must cultivate a seemingly irrational obsession for realizing it. Then, i must logically progress along The Path, totally immersing myself in pursuing excellence. Your purpose solidifies into a life-defining commitment as unwavering determination emerges. Ultimately, the process joyfully creates a virtuous cycle; for, at its conclusion, it returns you to where you started—your initial spark—with a deeper and more appreciative understanding. Thus, passion transforms from simply loving your purpose to a force shaping your entire life. Understand your values—what's important and what matters to you—and your goals will flow from there.

Work Ethic and Preparation

We have a million and one excuses that we could go to, but we're not gonna make any. They played better than we did in the series. We had opportunities to win it. Next season starts right now. [To get back to the championship], I'll push myself to exhaustion.

Kobe's passion and desire for perfection impelled his unparalleled work ethic, chiefly manifesting as early mornings, long hours and an obsessive attention to detail. His continuous improve needed his meticulous preparation, which undergirded his on-court success and inspired his teammates to elevate their own performance.

Relentless Training

If you're always practicing [and] always working, you can't help but be better than everybody else.

Kobe dedicated himself to diligently improving every day, and he refused to let anyone outwork him. He spent his off-seasons doing everything he deemed necessary to grow. He put in the work day in and day out, so he never felt pressure to cut corners. Kobe understood that making quantum leaps necessitated years—if not decades—of obsessively consistent training, of tirelessly reinforcing strengths and shoring up weaknesses. If you practice more intensely than you play in game 7's, then game 7's will be easy. If you've done something thousands of times, you will not feel nervous about doing it once more. As hard as i believe i can work, i can work much harder than that.

daily sacrifice is the price of realizing my fullest potential

Attention To Detail

People don't really understand how obsessed I am with winning. I don't care about anything else on the basketball court but winning.

Kobe obsessed over the process—even, employing cutting-edge recovery protocols. Already an innate strength, his heightened powers of observation soon helped him manipulate the game and put players—teammates and opponents—in good positions because he could think many moves ahead. He broke game film and timeout feeds down to the smallest details. Of teammates and opponents alike, he'd analyze angles, feet placement, body posture, who's talking and who's not talking, etc. His obsessive attention to detail naturally emerged from that quantity and quality of focus. He tuned into his internal signal and blocked out the outside noise, zeroing in on aggressively setting the tempo. Meaning manifests in the present, so he worked to play from his center.

attending to the nuanced details of my actions as i perform them necessitates an almost jedi-like focus

Global Library

I play to figure things out. I play to learn.

Perhaps, deeply aware of nature as mimetic replicators, Kobe recognized that he needed to surround himself with the best if he truly desired to become the best. He learned through osmosis—he conducted research, he read and he watched documentaries. When questions popped into his head, he never hesitated to reach out to thought leaders and experts because he had to know the answers. Naturally, who he was gave him unparalleled access to industry leaders, but looking stupid for asking seemingly simple questions never scared him. He learned how the best operate and how they think. He studied their cultural background and their communication styles. Literally, the world became his library to help him refine his craft.

Kobe constantly re-assessed his strengths and weaknesses, for he enjoyed continually improving. Once he knew the next phase of his skill development, he ruthlessly focused on that for a certain period of time until he integrated that behavior into his intuition. After establishing his fundamental skill base, he started lifting to get stronger. He listened to his body and responded accordingly. Then, he progressively improved his defensive technique. Kobe diligently sowed good works, acutely focusing on cultivating high-leverage skills until abundantly reaped mastery.

sustaining growing excellence across all aspects requires continuous learning, self-analysis and improvement

Resilience and Mental Toughness

It's a great feeling to know that you set a goal for yourself, and you were able to reach that goal and knock it down.

Kobe's resilience, introspective curiosity and unwavering focus stemmed from his mental toughness, which helped him overcome adversity, learn from failures and maintain focus during high-pressure situations

Overcoming Adversity

You have to dance beautifully in the box that you are comfortable dancing. Everybody's box is different. My box was to be extremely ambitious within the sport of basketball. Your box it's different than mine. Every kid here has their own box, but it doesn't mean that your box isn't as beautiful as mine.

Kobe quickly bounced back from disappointments, reframing difficulties as puzzles for him to solve, and God constructs everyone's puzzle slightly differently. Moreover, his teams always remained in the championship hunt in spite of any adversity they face. Through overcoming doubts that would would crush us—mere men—Kobe exemplified making decisions on your own terms. Work until you perceive pressure as normally as you do breathing. Love your process of putting your puzzle together amidst its concomitant trials and tribulations.

obstacles do not define me—regardless of the headwinds impeding my progress, i will make it

Learning from Failure

I'm not afraid to fail, and I just love [taking the last shot]. It's just an adrenaline rush. Everybody in the crowd stands up, and everybody's waiting to see if you're gonna make this shot.

Kobe maintained a rationally optimistic perspective on losing because such temporary failures clearly exposed certain weaknesses that he needed to shore up. He carefully distinguished failure from disappointment and believed that failure only occurs when one fails to learn from disappointments. Complete failure doesn't exist; it's a figment of your imagination because the story continues.

deciding not to progress and learn transforms temporary failures into complete failures

Mental Fortitude

It's not that difficult for me to just forget about [last year's championship] and move on to the next season.

Kobe overcame his fears because he knew that we ourselves generate our greatest fears. You internally generate most of the pressure you face, so controlling your mind follows from denying the objective existence of these pressures. When your goal's significance exceeds that of your suffering, your mind gives no importance to your suffering. In fact, had he the power to turn back time, Kobe wouldn't use it because each moment means absolutely nothing. Each moment loses its flavor and beauty, which come from it's finality—that it won't come again.

Consistent peak performance—especially, during crucial circumstances—necessitates developing the ability to unwaveringly maintain focus amidst endless distractions. Before starting, lock into that mental space where nothing else matters. Completely focus on the purpose you're trying realize. Compartmentalize your emotions, and focus on what you're doing right now.

Leadership and Team Success

When you're here, the most important thing is winning championships. I don't care about anything else. We don't have to like each other, but you will show up to practice every day and play hard. We will focus and commit to winning; and, if that's the case, then we'll be just fine.

As he matured, Kobe recognized that true success comes from fostering a winning team culture. His evolution as a leader—from leading by example to empowering his teammates and instilling a championship mentality in them—allowed him to foster the culture needed to win multiple titles.

Leading by Example

I don't want to wonder. I want to find out...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.

Work ethic, dedication and peak performance effectively sets the standard, inspiring teammates and elevating team performance. Kobe's preparation begat his confidence, so he never asked himself to do something completely new with the game on the line. However, he demanded that everyone aspire to match his intensity and that they're ready to play with a sense of urgency on every possession. Kobe let his teammates know if they failed to properly prepare. If his teammates showed up to practices unprepared, he felt no remorse about embarrassing them there and then because he knew these same teammates would be prepared when Game 7 of the NBA Finals rolls around.

Empowering Teammates

You don't want to ever limit your imagination or limit what's possible because people may think you're crazy...If [we]—as athletes—don't think it's possible to do these things, how in the world can we inspire people?

As he became more seasoned, Kobe became chiefly concerned with motivating his teammates to get on same page as him. He wondered how he could lead them to ascend to their next levels and, ultimately, how he could carry them to winning the championship. After understanding yourself, you can start motivating your team and maximizing collective success. Helping them find themselves became the ultimate championship.

growing teams requires knowing what it takes to realize their potential

Winning Mentality

You're not making me go. I'm driving this thing, and you just happen to be a person in the way that may get demolished in the process.

Maintaining an unwavering focus on winning championships drove Kobe's decision-making, effort and persistence as he endured challenges. Instead of individual accolades, he wanted to win championships. For example, given his franchise's historic rivalry with The Celtics, Kobe could not be on The Lakers team that lost to Boston twice. However, during the 2010 NBA Finals, his team found itself down 3-2 in the whole series and trailing in Game 7. To win that series, they trustingly dug deep together and solved the challenge in front of them.

Generally, Kobe carried that ferocity with him and tried to instill that mentality—using darker emotions as an offensive weapon—into his teammates. He treated demoralizing his opponents as his personal mission, and he realized that offensive outbursts overcame certain opponents and a defensive emphasize destroyed others. Gain awareness of your shadow because the sky's the limit once you own it.

i have to win to be the best, so here's my personal challenge: avoid becoming one-dimensional

Legacy and Inspiration

Your job is to try to perfect [the canvas of your life] and make it as beautiful of a canvas as you can make it. If you have done that, then you have lived a successful life. You have lived with Mamba Mentality.

Kobe's impact transcended basketball, as he used his platform to inspire others to pursue their own paths to greatness, firmly cementing his lasting legacy

Inspiring the Next Generation

To pay everything that you've learned forward to the next generation to come...that's truly how you create something that lasts forever.

At an early age, Kobe began considering life after basketball because he knew it wouldn't be there for him forever. He spent much time in assessing different career paths that he could pursue after he retired. As he grew older, Kobe strived to use his passion to inspire other people to cultivate their passion so that they could encourage others to do the same. He recognized that we shortchange ourselves when we say that we realize certain goals, so he dreamt of inspiring the next generation of athletes to sacrifice for their dreams. He answered any questions that the next generation had because he felt responsible for proactively promoting a helpful culture.

Lasting Impact

If they can look at my career and say: "He was obsessive about what he did and reached the highest level of his potential"...I'll be very happy.

Kobe wished to be remembered as someone who didn't take a single day for granted. He carried everything he learned from basketball into life, helping him become a better person and friend. The game taught him unselfishness, attention to detail, empathy and compassion—each pushing the boundaries of what it means to be the best human you can be. Embracing personal growth, adapting to new challenges and evolving your approach contribute to developing an enduringly meaningful legacy.

leveraging my successes to inspire others to find and pursue their own passions creates a lasting legacy beyond any accomplishment—athletic or otherwise

Mindset and Philosophy

[You] think i'm going to get close to the top of Mount Everest and just lay down and sleep?

Kobe's Mamba Mentality—his philosophy rooted in relentless pursuing excellence and continuous improvement—fed his insatiable competitive drive, ultimately supporting on- and off-court victories

Mamba Mentality

There's a choice we have to make if you want to be great: we can all be masters of our craft, but you have to make [the] inherent sacrifices that come along with that.

Mamba Mentality reflects wanting to be better every day at whatever you do. It is a way of life because it's a constant search for answers and improvement that builds on top of the ambitious foundation. It begins with becoming aware of life experiences that you can consciously leverage to propel you forward. If i employ The Mamba Mentality, i'll continually chase greatness. However, although i'll continually strive to reach my fullest potential, i'll never actually reach it because it'll always remain infinitely far away. The Mamba Mentality means realizing the best version of yourself every day, so it will be an infinitely constant quest.

Pursuit of Excellence

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, it would eat away at me. I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror.

Kobe epitomized how consistently pushing yourself beyond your limits yields outstanding results over the long-term time horizon. He viewed greatness as an infinite growth curve, so everyday offered him the chance to improve—even, if ever so slightly. His relentless pursuit of excellence consisted of him letting nothing stand in his way. Rather, Kobe used all detraction to become stronger, and he was never finished. If you do anything, do it to the best of your ability—no matter what! If you don't go all the way in small areas, you might start cheating yourself and not giving your all in different areas. You may have talent, but you will shortchange yourself if you don't study your craft to maximize The Abilities God Gave You.

Competitive Drive

It's a competition. My mission is to destroy you...I'm going to keep going until you figure out something else to do.

Kobe loved competing against the best everyday, so he could measure himself. Since basketball is such a direct competition sport, each practice offered him the chance to annihilate his opponents. He possessed the killer instinct, which regularly manifested on-court. The desire to win and prove yourself fuels relentless competitiveness, which drives continuous improvement and peak performance.

within the core of every great man exists a obsessively competitive drive

epilogue

Kobe Bryant deserves to be remembered his contribution to the sport of basketball. During his prime, he scored at will. So he could sit at the same table with his muses and truly commune with them 😏, Kobe challenged himself to win multiple championships although making the playoffs would satisfy most professional players. Ultimately, he won a championship 1 out of every 4 years he played. However, neither his athletic skill nor trophies distinguish him. Rather, his mind and mentality set him apart—far apart!—from his peers.

It was just becoming very confusing. I had to organize things, so I created The Black Mamba. Kobe has to deal with...all the personal challenges. The Black Mamba steps on the court and does what he does...I'm destroying everybody.

Slowly, the conqueror's mentality began taking root in my mind. Like Kobe, i created an alter ego—"Chachy Axelrod"—to handle massively complex projects. Typically, such enterprises entirely stretched my cognitive abilities beyond my raw quantitative and qualitative capacities.

With "Chachy" driving the boat (read: the ark), i trudged from the hallways of community college to the pinnacleof Wall Street in a little more than two years—a crown jewel in my family's legacy...or so i thought.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
~ 2 Corinthians 9:24-25

Perhaps, there exists an achievement more prestigious than prestige itself, more honorable than honor? In my heart's deepest depths, i believe there exists one land truly worthy of conquest. There's one contest in which i can tolerate nothing less than victory. However, achieving a meek and pure heart required a completely new alter ego—hence, i created the tranquil bon vivant: he who, with tranquility, lives well.

Currently, i am walking on the path from pride to humility, and i write as one who hasn't realized any meaningful goals. Instead, i am simply one who glanced up from the dunghill to where i can ascend. To add relevant context, i considered revealing the extent to which my pride reaches; but, to avoid a complete apocalypse, i—the conqueror next door—will not open that...for a few more weeks :)

postface

If i wrote so much for an individual who thus impacted my life, how much more should i expound on the certain fictional characters who influenced my interpretive frameworks—Don, Rocky, Pushpa, Shawn Spencer, Sherlock Holmes?

How much more ought i to commemorate my flesh and blood heroes of antiquity—Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar—conquerors as the world knows them?

Then, how much more ought i to commemorate those who significantly shaped the structure of my beliefs—The Theotokos, St. Maximus The Confessor, St. Isaac the Syrian, St. Nikodemos Hagiorite?

How much more, those who have struggled to guide me to Our Shepherd—Gregory Achen and Anoop Achen?

How about my grandfathers—Jacob Mathews and John Thomas—and my grandmothers—Ammini Mathews and Alice Thomas?

How much more my brilliant brother, Dojay? My magnificent mother, mama? And, my phenomenal father, papa?

surely, the land worth conquering sits closer than you think—closer, even, than next door

quaerite autem primum regnum et iustitiam eius et omnia haec adicientur vobis

Bibliography

• The Mind of Kobe Bryant (bundle) ~ Piotrekz Productions