 Kevin Durant, who's arguably the second best player in the world right now, is also a DMV local. He's on the other side of the Beltway, grew up in PG County. And I had a chance to meet Kevin when he was 15 years old. And I watched him play basketball, I don't know, for maybe five minutes, and a few things became crystal clear to me. One, this kid loves to play basketball. I mean, he is playing his tail off, but he's smiling the entire time. He loves the game. Two, he's fundamentally sound. His shooting technique and his footwork were as pristine as any 15-year-old that I've ever seen. Three, he has a very high basketball IQ. He understood the game on the cerebral level of most coaches. And again, this is at 15 years old. But four, and this was the most obvious, he was rather slight of frame. Kevin used to get really irritated when I'd call him skinny, but if he would stand sideways, you could physically see his heartbeat. Like, he was super, super skinny. And it was obvious to me that that would be the only thing that could prevent him from playing this game at a very high level, would be lack of strength and lack of power. And this worked out perfect for me because that's what I did. I was a basketball performance coach, a strength and conditioning coach. So the thought that what I had could unlock the potential in this young man, I was super excited for an opportunity to work with him. And it took a lot of convincing. Thankfully, I'm very, very persistent because it took a few months of convincing before his wonderful mom, Wanda, let her baby boy come in for a workout. Because at that point, Kevin had never gone through any type of structured strength workout. And I got so excited that I went a little bit overboard because in about 30 or 40 minutes, I had absolutely hammered him. He was laying in a pile on the gym floor. I can remember it like it was yesterday in PG County. Now, for a visual, Kevin was 6'10", 180 pounds at the time. So he was more coiled up like a snake, but he was sweating profusely and his muscles were twitching. And Kevin has always been a man of very few words. He didn't say two words during that entire workout. So I had no idea if he actually liked it or not. So I asked him, and as serious as can be, he said, no, I didn't. But I know this is the stuff I need to do if I want to play in the NBA. So when can I see you again, coach? I remember being blown away that a 15-year-old had the maturity to embrace change like that. That a 15-year-old recognized that not only was he going to have to go through change, it was gonna come with a tremendous amount of mental, emotional, and in this case, physical discomfort. But he was willing to make that sacrifice because he knew it was a requirement to get where he wanted to go. How could I possibly know that Steve Nash led the NBA in high fives, fist bumps, and pats on the butt? Funny enough, there was a research team from UC Berkeley that was conducting an official study. And they wanted to see if showing signs of enthusiasm actually correlated to winning more games. So their research team watched every minute of every NBA game and made a tally mark every time a player gave a high five, a fist bump, or a pat on the butt. Well, the Phoenix Suns were so enamored with this study that they hired a full-time intern to do the same thing just for Steve Nash. Now, just by show of hands, how many of you have had a crappy entry-level job before? Yeah, can you imagine if that was your first job? Yeah, you see that guy over there? Every time he touches one of these big, tall, sweaty guys, we need you to make a tally mark. The very first game that the intern recorded for Steve Nash, he delivered 239 high fives, fist bumps, and pats on the butt. Steve Nash was a furnace of human connection. Now, when we're talking about sport, when we're talking about physicality, it's been physiologically proven that you can actually transfer energy through human touch. You can actually raise someone's game through physical touch. Now, hopefully you realize in the vast majority of your settings, that's not what I'm asking you all to do. I'm not telling you to go back to the offices and start doing this, some of you may, but I don't wanna get in trouble with your HR departments. So what we're talking about now as we translate it, we're talking about emotional touches. We're talking about mental touches. Are there emotional and mental and digital high fives and fist bumps and pats on the backside that you can be giving the two most important groups when it comes to your business, which is your colleagues and your coworkers and your clients and your customers? Are you providing the types of touches that a Steve Nash does and on that type of frequency? Two summers ago, I had an opportunity to do a long distance charity event with Jesse Itzler and Sarah Blakely. Do you guys know who Sarah Blakely is? She's the founder of Spags and until the recent surgeons of Kylie Jenner, she was the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. One of the sharpest human beings I've ever been around and her husband, Jesse, is equally impressive. He's a serial entrepreneur. He's an endurance super freak. He's a speaker and an author. I mean, they make quite the power couple and they invited 70 of us up to their home in New Fairfield, Connecticut to run this race and in the backyard of their home in New Fairfield, Connecticut is a patch of grass and that patch of grass is 85 yards long. So just short of a football field and it's at a 40 degree slope, which is really steep. I don't know if any of you do some inclined work on treadmills, but a conventional gym treadmill only goes up to 15% and if you've ever put it up to 15% to go for a brisk stroll, you feel like you're gonna fall off the back of the earth. 15 is steep. Well, this was at 40 and our task for the day was to run up and down this 85 yard hill at a 40 degree slope 100 times. Yeah, the event was appropriately named Hell on the Hill and that it was. I'm a basketball guy. Basketball is a starting and stopping sport. It's not a long distance endurance sport. So the concept of long distance endurance is something that's always been rather foreign to me and I knew just because Jesse put his stamp of approval on this, I knew that this was going to be a challenging event. I had no idea how challenging it was going to be. At around rep 70 give or take, I was ready to quit. Like I just had enough. I could feel blisters underneath each big toe forming. My knees and my back were throbbing to the touch. Sorry for the visual cause you just ate but I had some chafing going on that was just out of this world and incredibly uncomfortable. And we all have that voice inside of us. It's kind of that proverbial angel and devil and the devil side that says you can't do this. Why did you sign up for this? What were you thinking? Now those of you that know me and those of you that maybe don't know me as well but maybe have gotten a glimpse in the last 60 minutes. I'm a pretty positive guy. I'm wired optimistically. That negative voice does not come out very often but when it comes out, it's loud and it's screaming. And to have that voice come out at rep 70, I was at a crossroads. Well, I was very fortunate that a very good friend of mine also was running and we were on about the exact same pace. He's also a former basketball guy and his name and he often gets booze when we're in the DC area but his name's Steve Wojachowski and he is a Duke basketball icon and he's the head coach of Marquette who I've got going all the way to the elite eight if you guys wanna just know that I said that. And we were on about the same pace and I guess just to commiserate misery, I said, Steve, how many do you have left? And he smiled, which really irritated me and he said, I've got one rep, one rep. There's no way you only have one and then he finished his sentence. I have one rep 30 more times and that is the definition of living in the present moment. You don't worry about the hundred. You only focus on the next rep. All you gotta do is get up and down the hill one more time. You don't focus on your toes and your back and your knees and your chafing situation. You focus on your own attitude and you focus on your own effort. And I'm not very good at math, probably why I became a basketball performance coach but even I know that you cannot get to number 100 until you go through number 71. You have to respect the process and his friendly reminder of those three things is what allowed me to end up finishing. It took me just over four hours of straight running up and down this hill to be able to complete it and the only reason I was able to do it was to be able to stay in the present moment. I can't believe it's been over a decade but back in 2007, Nike flew me out to Los Angeles to work the first ever Kobe Bryant Skills Academy. Nike brought in the top high school and college players from around the country for an intense three day mini camp with the best player in the world and I know some of you follow hoops but I don't know if everyone does so let me paint the picture. In 2007, Kobe was the best player in the game. Michael Jordan, who everybody's heard of had already retired in fact twice at that point and LeBron James is great as he was, he was still climbing that mountain. In 2007, Kobe was that dude. Well, an important fact about me, I've spent my entire life in a basketball bubble. Basketball was my first identifiable passion and I fell in love with the game at five or six years old so I had always heard the urban legend of how insanely intense Kobe's individual workouts were. Well, now that I was on his camp staff I figured this was my chance and this was my shot so at my earliest opportunity I walked up to him and asked if I could watch one of his private workouts. He was incredibly gracious and flashed a smile and said, sure man, no problem, I'm going tomorrow at four and I got a little bit confused because I had just got done looking through the camp schedule and the camp schedule said the first workout with the kids was the following day at 3.30 and Kobe recognized the confused look on my face and he quickly clarified that with a wink and said, yeah, that's four AM. Well, as a room of high performers and high achievers you guys realize there's not really a legitimate excuse in the world on why you can't be somewhere at four in the morning. At least not one that a guy like Kobe's going to accept so I basically committed myself to being there and I figured if I was going to be there anyway I may as well try and leave my mark. I may as well try and impress Kobe and show him how serious of a trainer I was so I came up with the plan to beat him to the gym. So I set my alarm for three AM and the alarm goes off and I jump up and I quickly get myself together and I hop in a cab and I get to the gym. Now, when I step out of the cab it's 3.30 in the morning, it's pitch black outside and yet from the parking lot I can see that the gym light is already on. From the parking lot I can even faintly hear a ball bouncing and sneakers squeaking. I walk in the side door, Kobe's already in a full sweat. He was going through an intense warm up before his scheduled workout with his trainer started at four. Now out of professional courtesy I didn't say anything to him and I didn't say anything to his trainer. I just sat down to watch and for the first 45 minutes I was actually shocked. For the first 45 minutes I watched the best player on the planet do the most basic footwork in offensive moves. Kobe was doing stuff that I had routinely taught to middle school aged players. Now, don't get it twisted, this is Kobe Bryant. So everything he was doing was at an unparalleled level of intensity and everything he was doing was with surgical precision but the actual stuff he was doing was incredibly basic. Now the whole workout lasted a couple hours and when it was over again I didn't say anything to him, didn't say anything to his trainer, I just quietly left but my curiosity got the best of me. I had to know. So later that day at camp I went up to him and said, Kobe I don't get it, you're the best player in the world. Why are you doing such basic drills? And again he was very gracious and smiled but he said with all seriousness why do you think I'm the best player in the world? Because I never get bored with the basics. I never get bored with the basics. Kobe Bryant, the best player in the game of basketball said I never get bored with the basics. And as a young coach for me that was a life changing lesson and that's just because something is basic that doesn't mean that it's easy. If it was easy everyone else would be doing it but as you all know we live in a world that tells us it's okay to skip steps. That tells us it's okay to circumvent the process. That all but pushes us to chase what's hot and what's flashy and what's sexy and just ignore what's basic. But as you all know the basics work. They always have and they always will and the very first step to improving your performance in any area of your life personally or professionally, individually or organizationally is admitting that the basics work. But it's also having the humility to acknowledge that implementing them with consistency is never easy. One of my good friends and mentors and who was kind enough to write the forward to this book that you all have received is Jay Billis of ESPN. And Jay's been a great friend for over a decade now and again for those that don't follow basketball Jay is the face of ESPN game day. He's like the guru of college basketball and you'll be seeing plenty and hearing plenty of him over the next few weeks while we're into March Madness. And Jay told me that part of his job with ESPN game day is he needs to go watch each team practice the day before he covers their game. So he can get some intel and some insight on what the team's going to do and really get to know each of the players and coaches. Well, back in 2010 in early December was going to be a rematch of the previous spring's national championship game where Duke barely escaped beating the Butler Bulldogs. One of the best NCAA finals that we've seen. And this was a very highly anticipated rematch because it's not very often that the two teams that met in the championship played each other in an early season matchup a mere six months later. Well, Jay is a Duke alum. So he decided that he would go watch Duke's practice first and he goes over to Coach K and Coach K is talking to the Duke team and Coach K says we're going to beat Butler tomorrow because we have a distinct advantage. We are bigger, we are stronger and we are more powerful than they are. We are going to beat them because we have the advantage. We are bigger, stronger and more powerful. We will pound the ball down low, we'll get easy layups and dunks, we'll out rebound them and we'll block every shot. We are going to win tomorrow because we have the advantage. Now, Coach K is one of the best to ever blow a whistle. Hall of Fame coach that Jay played for and he's heard those type of talks before. This guy knows what he's talking about. So Jay left and thought, this is going to be a bloodbath tomorrow. Coach K just told them why they're going to win and why they have the advantage. But he goes over to the Butler Bulldogs practice and for those that don't know, Brad Stevens is the current head coach of the Boston Celtics, an absolute basketball savant. One of the brightest young coaches in the game, absolutely brilliant. And he's talking to the Butler Bulldogs and he says, guys, we're going to beat Duke tomorrow because we have the advantage. We are smaller, quicker and faster than they are. We are going to beat Duke because we have the advantage. We are smaller, we're quicker and we're faster. There's no way their big guys can keep up with us. We'll outrun them in transition, we'll get easy layups, we'll have wide open threes, we'll get plenty of steals. We will win tomorrow because we have the advantage. And Jay left that practice and thought, I don't know who in the hell's going to win the game tomorrow because both of these teams believe that they have the advantage. Both of these teams have incredibly high self-awareness to know what it is that they do well and what can be their separator to give them the best chance of being successful. And here's the coolest part, they were both right. They were both 100% right. And I tell you that story because I want that to be the reason that you double down on relationships. The reason why you invest in relationships because again they can't be copied. So your relationships can be your advantage, can be your separator and can be the reason that you will win in whatever business that you're in. And I'll leave you with this thought. I opened up my talk with the Kobe Bryant Skills Academy back in 2007. What I didn't share with you was one of the college counselors there was Stefan Curry. And even for people that don't follow basketball, Stefan's on that level now as a global icon that I think most people have heard of who he was. And if you do the math in 2007, this was after his freshman year at Davidson. This was before he blew up on the scene. This was before anyone knew who he was. In fact, he was so unknown at this camp that the coaches didn't even call him by his name. They called him Dell's son because his dad played in the NBA for a dozen years and was a great long-distance shooter. Yeah, that's Dell's son over there. That's Dell's kid. But what he lacked in physical stature and what he lacked in resume, he more than made up for in a few different ways. But the most impressive of which was at the end of the first workout. See, this was a mini camp. This was two, three-hour workouts a day for four straight days, and they were incredibly intense. At the end of the very first workout, just based on proximity, we had never formally met or been introduced. He said, to me, coach, will you rebound for me? Because I don't leave the gym until I swish five free throws in a row. Swish five free throws in a row. For those of you that have never personally shot a basketball before, let me tell you, that is an incredibly high standard. A swish, by definition, is a perfect shot. It does not touch the rim. It does not touch the backboard. It gets its name for the sound it makes by going nothing but net. It is the standard of perfection. And he would not leave the gym until he swished five in a row. Which means he could swish four in a row, hit a little bit of the rim on the fifth one. It still goes in. He's still mathematically perfect. He's still five for five, but that was not good enough for Steph. He would start over. And if memory serves, it never took him longer than 12 to 15 minutes to swish five in a row. Steph and Curry will go down in history as the greatest shooter that the NBA has ever seen. And it's not by accident. And it's not by luck. And it's not because his dad played in the NBA. It's because he's willing to hold himself to an unparalleled standard. And that is the thought that I'll leave you all with. That the standards that you set today, they'll determine who and where you'll be tomorrow.