https://twitter.com/bpoppenheimer/status/1686845167372763136
When he was 11 years old, Kobe Bryant played a full 25-game basketball season without scoring a single point.
“I was terrible,” he said. “Awful.”
Following that season, Kobe said he took a simple mathematical approach to becoming one of the great basketball players of all time:
“I looked long term, and I said, 'Ok, this year I’m going to get better at dribbling. Next year, shooting. The year after that, creating my own shot.' So forth and so on.’”
“And piece by piece, I got better. When I came back the next season I was a little bit better. The season after that, I was a little bit better.”
“It was piece by piece,” he repeats. “It was the consistency of the work. The consistency of the work: Monday, get better. Tuesday, get better. Wednesday, get better.
Do that over a period of time—three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years—you get to where you want to go.”
“It’s simple,” he said. “It’s simple math.”
Takeaway 1:
In “Atomic Habits,” James Clear writes about the simple math of consistent work:
“Here’s how the math works out: if you get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.”
If you get thirty-seven times better year after year over a period of time—three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years—you'll get to where you want to go.
It's math.
Takeaway 2:
The billionaire Dharmesh Shah was once asked, what is your biggest strength? “My biggest strength,” he said, “is the ability to distinguish between skill and talent. I don’t let the lack of talent hold me back.”
In just about every interview I’ve listened to, Shah talks about the importance of distinguishing between skill and talent:
Skill is the ability to do something. Talent is the rate at which you can acquire the ability to do something.
If you have a talent for basketball, for instance, that means you will get good at basketball faster than someone who doesn’t have a talent for basketball. If you don’t have a talent for basketball, that means it will take longer to get good at basketball than it would if you did have some talent.
For most things in life, more important than talent is the ability to look long term, to consistently put in the work, as Kobe said, “over a period of time—three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years.”
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“If you do the math on this...If you obsessively train, two to three hours every single day, over a year, over two years, over three years—you make quantum leaps, man.” — Kobe Bryant
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