Mastering The Sports Mindset (Kobe, MJ, Serena, Wamback, Brady)
EPISODE 28
In the latest episode of the Moonshots Master Series for Members, hosts Mike and Mark dive deep into "The Sports Mindset" with insights from some of the greatest athletes ever. This episode is a goldmine of wisdom and inspiration that will elevate your sports performance and everyday life.
In the latest episode of the Moonshots Master Series for Members, hosts Mike and Mark dive deep into "The Sports Mindset" with insights from some of the greatest athletes ever. This episode is a goldmine of wisdom and inspiration that will elevate your sports performance and everyday life.
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Kicking off the show is none other than Kobe Bryant, who shares his secrets to staying motivated, whether on the court or as a parent. Kobe emphasizes the importance of finding your passion and how it fuels your drive to succeed, a powerful message that lasts for 3 minutes and 3 seconds.
Next, the legendary Michael Jordan takes the mic to remind us that practice is the key to greatness. He discusses how training tools are all around us daily and how relentless work can eliminate fear—Michael’s insights on the significance of practice run for 2 minutes and 37 seconds.
In the "Mindset" segment, tennis sensation Serena Williams reflects on what motivates her and how to turn up the intensity. Her message is concise but powerful: never give up, a mantra that takes just 59 seconds to absorb.
Soccer icon Abby Wambach steps up to the plate, emphasizing the importance of leadership both on and off the field. She reminds us that you need to be a leader on the bench to call yourself a leader on the field. Abby's message of leading from the bench resonates for 1 minute and 54 seconds.
Finally, the show wraps up with Tom Brady, who shares his wisdom on coping with disappointment. He reminds us that every obstacle is an opportunity in disguise, a message that will leave you feeling stronger and more resilient in just 1 minute and 46 seconds.
Don't miss this episode of the Moonshots Master Series for Members, where you'll gain invaluable insights from sports legends that can transform your mindset and drive for success, both in and out of the game. Tune in and level up your game today!
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Transcript
00:00:04:22 - 00:00:29:20
Unknown
Hello and welcome to the Moon Shots Masters Series. It's episode 28. I'm your cohost, Mike Parsons. And as always, I'm joined by Mr. Mark Freeland. Good morning, Mike. Hey, good morning, Mike. Good morning, Moonshots family. Good morning. Listeners, subscribers, viewers and everyone in between. Thank you so much for joining us. Yet again with another episode this time Mike.
00:00:29:22 - 00:00:55:08
Unknown
Episode 28 which is all about sports mindset. Now Mike, this this is a topic that I think you and I are pretty passionate about. I think a lot of our listeners are too. But boy, were you expecting so many crossovers between sports stars that particularly we're going to cover today as well as a lot of the lessons that we've been learning not only in the Masters Series but also on the Moonshot show.
00:00:55:10 - 00:01:26:16
Unknown
Mike is incredible that you can listen to these athletes and this is what we've got for everyone throughout this show. You can listen to athletes and the great athletes. They don't sound like athletes at all. They sound like philosophers. They're like Marcus Aurelius with stoic thinking. So if you're considering yourself someone who wants to do better and let's say you want to do better at work, well, you can actually look to the sports field to do better in the boardroom.
00:01:26:16 - 00:01:53:19
Unknown
And I think it's really a special series. We've played a lot of different shows and examined a lot of different athletes, but we've never put them into a master series. So I'm very excited about this man. Yeah, me too. Me too. Because I think there's so much gravitas that we can learn from from these individuals. And I love that build that you've already done, which is they are kind of stoic, transcend degree.
00:01:53:21 - 00:02:11:07
Unknown
But Mike, I mean, to be honest, I'm ready to blow the whistle and get straight onto the court. How are you feeling? I'm I'm ready to go. Where do you want to start this journey into bringing? One might say the magic from the sports field into the office, into the boardroom. Where do we begin? Well, that's a good question.
00:02:11:07 - 00:02:37:19
Unknown
I think the individual who I think would be a real build and a real exciting chap to be in a boardroom with us would be Kobe Bryant. So let's kick off the show with Kobe telling us why and how he found motivation and how he found his passion. This is a very simple one. And, you know, the Mamba mentality simply means trying to be the best version of yourself.
00:02:37:21 - 00:03:01:00
Unknown
That's what the mentality means. It means every day, you know, you're trying to become better. It's a constant quest. It's an infinite quest. We talk about being passionate, being obsessive, being relentless, being resilient and being fearless. These are the five pillars of the Mamba mentality. So we'll kind of break that down today. The first one is just to be passionate, you know?
00:03:01:00 - 00:03:16:12
Unknown
What is that? Is there is there a is there a moment where you can define your passion for the game, or was it just something accumulated over time? Well, I mean, you know, the passion came from the love for the game. You know, I loved everything about it, like the smell of the ball. You love the smell of the ball.
00:03:16:12 - 00:03:35:04
Unknown
Miss the ball. You know the smell of like brand new sneakers and like the sound the ball makes when it hits the ground sneakers in the gym, you can just see the ball going through the net. Like all those things. I love. And so the passion comes from that because once you have that love, you just want to be a part of this thing all the time.
00:03:35:06 - 00:03:56:19
Unknown
When you when you talk about this love, when does it develop? Were you did you like it when you were five? Or is it something that kind of gradually was too? I was born and I was born to play basketball, you know what I mean? And I played a lot of different sports, but nothing brought me to a sense of of of peace and of escape.
00:03:56:21 - 00:04:11:10
Unknown
You know, that the game of basketball do. Is it an escape when you get on the court? Is that your Zen time? Your your your solitude time? Yeah. Even though it's a team working. Yeah. When I need that escape, it's there for me, right? When I need a friend. It's there for me. When I need to vent. And don't donkey.
00:04:11:16 - 00:04:32:12
Unknown
The mamba is there, you know? So, yeah, the game is absolutely everything for me. When? When you. When we talk about trying to get kids to be passionate, I don't think every kid. I don't think your situation is the norm. Not every kid is knows they're passionate, too. We're five, right? How do kids find that passion there?
00:04:32:14 - 00:04:56:08
Unknown
Well, I think it's because you you you embraced it, right away. I mean, I think as parents, we try to put them in different things. We try to expose them to as many things as possible and then see if there's one thing that connects with them, you know, because if it does, you don't have to tell them to do it, you know, whether it's writing or painting or drawing, you know, if they have that passion, you don't have to tell their go off and do it because it's just fun.
00:04:56:09 - 00:05:17:08
Unknown
You'd rather do that than anything else. So but as parents, it's our job to just expose them to as many things as possible and see which one they gravitate to the most. Yeah, it's interesting because you talk about kids, right? Originally we were talking about you. Now you're talking about your kids and their passions. Do you do you kind of feel that passion for them and say, hey, let's go play some basketball or volleyball or let's go swimming?
00:05:17:11 - 00:05:34:05
Unknown
Yeah, we exposing all kinds of I mean, they play a lot of different sports. They do a lot of things creatively, their own writing and things like that, and designing. And you just sit back and you just watch which one they move to. And then it's our responsibility as parents to try to set them up for success. As much as we all will.
00:05:34:05 - 00:06:01:17
Unknown
Finding passion. This is a topic close to my heart. In fact, I was journaling on this very subject. So talk about coincidence. I was journaling on this this morning and I want to like dive into this with you a little bit because like finding passion, it's something we hear bandied about a lot, but I actually want to like, find the playbook together with you.
00:06:01:19 - 00:06:30:22
Unknown
And I think that the first thing is to assume that you are trying things in life, at work, at home, socially. Finding passion for me is number one. Trial experimentation, right. But yeah, I think that's pretty straightforward. But how do you know? Of all the things that are coming passed, how do you know something that's right for you?
00:06:30:24 - 00:06:57:21
Unknown
Something that could be that I don't want to say. It starts as a passion, but it develops as a passion. So therefore, if you were still with me, what are the early signs that something could be a work of passion for you, something that, you know, you could dive into? Where do you start? Because I think a lot of us are trying to like find the thing right?
00:06:57:23 - 00:07:21:02
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Look, this is really fun. You're right. This this will be a nice little experiment. I totally agree. I think variety experience is the way that you can uncover those things, not only as Koby was saying with his family, but also in yourself. So I'm a firm believer in trying everything. Maybe once, you know, whether it's skydiving, whether it's going for a hike, whether it's running as fast as you can, whatever it is, go out and give it a go.
00:07:21:03 - 00:07:44:13
Unknown
You might be surprised, and I personally have been surprised sometimes in my life when I've tried something and found it really, really enjoyable. And that brings me on to answering your question like, which is how do you know? Right? And the things that I was writing down is there's a couple of different ends to this scale. There's the long term benefit that I think you'd come in with the classic idea of journaling about it.
00:07:44:15 - 00:08:01:10
Unknown
It could be, you know, does it fit over my trajectory of my life? That's the kind of deep end of the scale. But in the short time space that I've experienced, it's the stuff that makes me more curious. I kind of think, okay, well, why is that? What would you mean? I could go out and do this right?
00:08:01:11 - 00:08:24:04
Unknown
What does it benefit me and how does it impact, you know, individuals, the environment, whatever that passion might be. At the same time, if it's curious to me, I'm more likely to tell my friends and those around me about it. So if the activity let's say it's going journaling, maybe it's going for a run, maybe it's going to pick flowers.
00:08:24:06 - 00:08:45:06
Unknown
If it's something that has really caught my attention, my energy, my passion, I might be more likely to talk about it. And if I'm more willing to talk about it, that then tells me, Hey, Mark, you're pretty interested in this. This might be something worth understanding and investigating a little bit more because that's this kind of surface reaction.
00:08:45:06 - 00:09:21:16
Unknown
Yes. To that totally does. So what I'm thinking about listening to that is to try and identify a moment in the day or the week for ourselves and our listeners, which might be a signal that whatever you're doing could lead to being a life's passion. Right? And here are some ideas. First of all, if you're genuine, early excited about doing something like feel like rubbing your hands together, like, this sounds great.
00:09:21:18 - 00:09:49:17
Unknown
This is such an important signal to be aware of like that, like the actual excitement to dive into something. Because I'll tell you what, there are things in my day. Mark, that I'm hardly like jumping for joy down my my gosh, I've got to do that. I know we're going to do it, but hey. All right. So if you are genuinely excited, number one, number two, let's say you were doing something and time goes like that.
00:09:49:19 - 00:10:15:12
Unknown
I think when you lose yourself in the task and then you're like, my God, have I been doing this for an hour? Like what? That's another sign that you're totally ignited by an activity that you forget everything else, right? So I think that's a really good sign. I think another thing that I was, I think is a great signal, right?
00:10:15:13 - 00:10:46:11
Unknown
I want you to imagine that you're doing something between Monday and Friday for work and wait for this. It's not like on a weeknight, but it's on your weekend that you you choose through curiosity or desire or excitement to jump into a so-called work activity. But you don't have a deadline, but you choose to work on it because you've been thinking about it.
00:10:46:13 - 00:11:12:22
Unknown
It's drawing you in. It's like a track to feel like dragging you in and find yourself. Like when I find myself working on something on the weekend, it's not deadline dependent. I'm like, my gosh, this must be my passion because I am. Yeah, I am allocating time out of my weekend to go do this right. This is somewhat right.
00:11:12:24 - 00:11:36:03
Unknown
Yeah. I would even include something like journaling as one of those. And obviously we don't have to talk about the benefits and try and sell our subscribers on journaling because they can pop into our Lost Master series episode to find out more there. But to build on what you're saying then, like if it's something you're willing to do on the weekend, I'd say it's also something that you're willing to do on holiday.
00:11:36:05 - 00:12:02:13
Unknown
Yeah. You know, for example, taking my journal on trips, whether I'm going to if I know I'm going to wait for something, maybe the is getting serviced, I'll take the journal, something that you feel quite attached to and you kind of look forward to a little bit. You realize actually that is going to be a passion, that is going to be something that stays with me for a long, long time, maybe forever, because it feels as though it's an extension of something that I want to go out and do.
00:12:02:17 - 00:12:31:21
Unknown
It's no longer a chore. Instead, it's something that I'm interested in doing, whether it's the weekend on holiday or otherwise. So then if you have that feeling about one thing or a couple of different activities, just try and organize your day so you're allocating more time to those things that create that excitement. And if you use a process like Ikigai, you can work out what you're good at, what the world needs, what you can get paid for, etc., etc. you can do that.
00:12:31:21 - 00:12:58:20
Unknown
And then what you can tend to find is whether it's a hobby or professional or personal, if there are things that make you excited and you pursue and allocate more time at the other side of the passion, as we're going to see from all these amazing athletes is mastery. And this mastery becomes ten times easier to find when you're working on something that excites you.
00:12:58:22 - 00:13:25:05
Unknown
Mark I think it's probably very similar to the excitement that all our members and subscribers feel when they subscribe to the Moonshots Master series. I honestly believe that's true. Mike And as usual, we've got such an eclectic group of individuals that are joining us and becoming masters of their own destiny, as well as masters of all the information that they have in their brains by subscribing to the Moonshots Master series.
00:13:25:05 - 00:13:51:13
Unknown
So please, without further ado, all, welcome Iain, Bob, Kenn, Dietmar, Marjan, Connor, Rodrigo, Lisa and said, Mr. Bond, you're Paul Berg and Kalman, Joe, Christian, Samuel, Barbara, Andre and Chris, Deborah, Lisa, Steven Craig, Deborah Andrew Ravi and Evette, Karen, Raul, Nicola Ingram, Dirk and Harry, all of whom are our annual members. Thank you so much guys, for continuing on the moonshots master journey.
00:13:51:15 - 00:14:21:00
Unknown
Also joining them are Karthik Venkatesh, Marco Jet and Roger Anna Rau, Nimal and James, Diana Wade, Christophe and Denice, Laura, Smitty, Corrie, Angela Bertram, Daniella, Mike and Dan, Antonio, Vanessa, Zakariya, Katie, Austin, Fred and our brand new member, Mike Lawrence. Thank you so much Lawrence, for joining us here on the Master series. It's fantastic to have you with us and I hope that you're enjoying the pathway towards mastery and trust.
00:14:21:02 - 00:14:49:23
Unknown
And I think every time we release one of our Masters series, you don't have to see it just as a podcast with two fine, handsome and intelligent young men. But you can also see it as a practice. You can see it as a regular way to hone the craft of being the best version of yourself. And now, Mark, if we want to talk about practice making perfect, we're about to hear from the Giver, the MVP, the G.o.a.t.
00:14:49:23 - 00:15:12:22
Unknown
Michael Jordan is about to give us a breakdown now, particularly into how training has surrounded him every day and how practice is a way to avoid and put aside fear. This this whole thing about your you practicing. I mean, if you talk to any of your teammates, they would say even if they saw something in a game is like, shoot, you should do so on Thursday.
00:15:12:24 - 00:15:43:08
Unknown
Talk about what they're going to do all day. That's not going to practice with you was like like they had a game instead of a practice. And when I got to the pros with Kevin Locker, you know, when I was drafted, number three, Kevin Larkin used to put me on the starting five. We used to be killing the second five, but he wanted to test me out so we can be, let's say, one eight and it can be 5 to 1 four 5 to 2 against the second team.
00:15:43:10 - 00:16:01:06
Unknown
And you lose, you go, right? He would switch me in the middle of the game to the second team and I'm saying, Well, okay, he's trying to prove a point whom we have bounced back and win the game. Those are all training tools for me. And every day in practice was like that to me. It was a competition.
00:16:01:08 - 00:16:28:05
Unknown
So when the game come, there's nothing that I haven't already practiced. It's a routine, you know, whatever happens in the game now. Okay, I've done this before. Jordan for the win. Good at the buzzer. He's done it again. Was fear failure a motivator? And I never feared about my skills, you know, because I put in the work. Yeah.
00:16:28:07 - 00:17:02:19
Unknown
So how put him away of work ethic eliminates fear. Yes. You know, so if you put forth the work and what are you fearing? You know, you what you capable of doing, what you're not for now out a one. Here's Jordan who's on Chicago Bulls have your app for buzzer game as a member of the Chicago Bulls the last shot what was it shot down six you the Bulls could win it right here.
00:17:03:00 - 00:17:22:23
Unknown
The Bulls could win it. Unbelievable. 13 seconds left Jordan Messi practices if I'm playing in the game. So when the moment comes in the game, it's not new To me. That's the beauty of the game of basketball. That's the reason why you practice the effort. So when you get to that moment, you don't have to think instinctively. Things happen.
00:17:23:00 - 00:17:57:21
Unknown
Jordan That drives fire. Bulls lead 8786. Michael Jordan with 45 points. my gosh. Like on fear, right? You can conquer your fear through practice. And I think this is the thing. Like we are at war with self doubt. This is something I talk about a lot. Marc. We're at war with self doubt, uncertainty and fear of failure.
00:17:58:02 - 00:18:29:13
Unknown
And there's a simple product. It's not easy, but you must face it. Warren Buffett says it just like Michael Jordan said, the king of Wall Street and the king of the basketball court say the same thing. You must face your fear. And it is practice time after time that, for example, much like when I do writing every single day, I put out a post and I write about what I know and apply it to companies in the public.
00:18:29:13 - 00:18:57:06
Unknown
Well, for example, I wrote about the business model of Netflix, and the reason I'm doing that is I'm practicing my skill decoding how a business finds business model fit. And there's a lot of factors in that profits and cash flows and understanding scale, understanding unit economics. So when that comes up, when I'm working with my clients, I am so well practiced in that topic.
00:18:57:06 - 00:19:19:12
Unknown
That's why I write about it. That's me here, the training court, shooting hoops. This is exactly how we can take parallels. And I think too often we we don't realize something that we might go to the gym or to the sports court to train and prepare for a game on the weekend. We should be doing that in all parts of our lives.
00:19:19:16 - 00:19:41:20
Unknown
And it's not just managing your money, it's not just being good at your job. We've even seen Mark that happiness takes practice. You got to work on that like going to the gym. So there is almost this rule of life that practice does in fact make perfect practice everything. And you will find your passion, but you'll find mastery at the end of that.
00:19:41:20 - 00:20:07:02
Unknown
What do you think? Yeah, I believe that becoming and similarly to what MJ was saying there, practice until it becomes a routine. Yeah. Like you say, happiness can be a muscle that you can train. I certainly think the gratitude is the same if you constantly remind yourself and look around, you have your mantras. Yep, you reflect whether it's just internally or otherwise.
00:20:07:02 - 00:20:36:03
Unknown
It doesn't necessarily matter too much as long as you're taking notice of it and taking stock, you do that regularly, it becomes much easier and therefore you get bigger returns. In my experience on that gratitude, I think it's very much I very much agree that the idea of putting down into paper, into work, the skill that you're trying to do, whether it's getting better at communicating with other people, maybe that other person is your partner, your family, or your colleagues or your friends.
00:20:36:08 - 00:21:11:12
Unknown
But just starting very, very small and practicing that little bit more, It isn't necessarily that your skill level, you know, you're not necessarily going to become more eloquent, perhaps, but it's getting more comfortable with that comfort. Yes. So for me, that practice that I've put in, either, you know, with crucial conversations as we covered on the show before, just having them more regularly, maybe getting in touch with others and starting to have put into practice ways of communicating to people, it does become much, much easier.
00:21:11:14 - 00:21:28:18
Unknown
And I think that's down to just feeling more comfortable. And similarly to MJ was saying, when he was on the court, he didn't feel fair because he'd kind of already experienced a lot of the different plays, a lot of the different maneuvers. He knew how his body, as well as his mind are going to react to different stresses.
00:21:28:20 - 00:21:54:02
Unknown
So through resilient training again and again, practice and practice and practice, it really did make him somewhat perfect because he knew how to respond to those different moments. What a call to action for us. my gosh. I mean, and that puts the first two parts of the show together nicely. Look for the signals when you're doing things that light a fire and you get up early to do it.
00:21:54:04 - 00:22:15:05
Unknown
I was working on something recently and I was like waking up at like 5:00 in the morning and starting to think about it in a positive way. So I'm like, I'm just going to get up and work because I'm just so excited about this idea. Similarly, what we learned is once you do find those things that get you excited, that might be there's little opening doors of passion.
00:22:15:10 - 00:22:35:08
Unknown
You've got to practice and you got to practice hard. In fact, if you do it MJ style, you practice hard. Did it on during the week. You practice how to then then you'd play on the week end because nobody's playing as hard as you and then there's nothing to fear. He'll take the last shot and that's why he had six World Championship rings.
00:22:35:10 - 00:23:05:07
Unknown
Now here's what's so beautiful in that journey of practice on those cold winter morning. That's when he attempted to give up all like me yesterday where I was a bit late getting out of the house to run in the middle of summer. And it was like, you know, 30 plus degrees, humid, hot. So we're talking like almost a hundred Fahrenheit belting down hot.
00:23:05:07 - 00:23:38:16
Unknown
Sydney, Australia hot. So it's like it's it's literally almost burning you from the get go. And I was tempted on my run not to run the full tank house. I'm like, I usually do five or seven. I was contemplating, I was contemplating just taking a shorter run, but Mac, what would Serena Williams tell me? Well, look, I tell you what, Mike, why don't we let Serena Williams herself tell us a little bit about what motivates her when she's being on the edge of giving up.
00:23:38:18 - 00:23:57:12
Unknown
You know, I visit hospitals all the time, children's hospitals and these children's cancer, they're dealing with leukemia. They're dealing with all kinds of diseases, but yet they smile. That's really inspires me to realize, okay, you know what? I can be in the darkest of holes, in the darkest of positions, but I know that there's someone out there that I can help.
00:23:57:12 - 00:24:12:17
Unknown
I can change their life. I just never quit. And that's just what I the mantra that I live by. Did you ever doubt yourself yesterday, though? I did. I did. I thought I thought at one point I was not playing well and I thought, gosh, you know, I may as well, you know, think about what I'm going to say.
00:24:12:17 - 00:24:26:04
Unknown
But it was a it was a brief thought. And then I snapped right back and I thought now on the win is for 12 points in a row. Then I thought I'll have to do is breaking, holding, breaking hold. And then I thought there was so many different thoughts that went through my mind. One of them was negative, but and that's normal.
00:24:26:04 - 00:24:49:23
Unknown
I think in life you do have that negative moment, that negative thought. But what's important is that you don't let it overcome you and let it take priority. You let it fall, you let it slide, and you let the positive thoughts come. Don't let it overcome you. Now, Mark, this is so important for us as students. Yes. So ringing a Williams has self-doubt.
00:24:50:00 - 00:25:11:08
Unknown
Serena Williams has a fear of failure. She's literally in the process of winning the Grand Slam and she's having negative thoughts like, I'm not going to be able to do this. So it's okay for all of us to acknowledge and accept if we have negative thoughts, so does Serena. So yeah, all the amazing athletes we've studied all experienced it.
00:25:11:10 - 00:25:43:04
Unknown
But did you notice one thing is she does not surrender to it. She doesn't allow it to take over. So if we know that everybody feels self-doubt, if everybody is a little bit unsure, but those that succeed just don't allow that to stop them, to prevent them, That's why. GOGGINS says, you can't hurt me. That's why Serena says never give up, because it's in those darkest moments.
00:25:43:04 - 00:26:12:00
Unknown
If you just keep going, what you will realize is on the other side is success is good stuff. You just got to stay the course. But isn't it funny and reassuring to hear these individuals know? And obviously we saw MJ as well, you know, 87 to 86 points because he was able to score. These are classic moments. Millions of people are watching, defining their careers.
00:26:12:00 - 00:26:42:24
Unknown
Serena on the court at the U.S. Open. And can you imagine the crushing fear of failure that they must be feeling? You know, Mike, I mean, I probably get that occasionally in my day when I'm worried about the performance of, you know, a little bit of a deliverable that probably nobody would necessarily notice after 24 hours. But instead, those type of things, when I hear from these sports stars that they're able to, you know, whether it's digging in deep or just being a little bit like a duck and letting it flow.
00:26:43:02 - 00:27:05:20
Unknown
Yeah. And not percolate. You know, we've spoken about this before. If you have those similarly to happiness being a muscle, you can train up to be positive. I think that's probably the dark side, which is negativity. If you're allowing negativity to sort of percolate, whether it's in the action moment or day to day, it's more likely that that will have more gravitas and probably more effect.
00:27:05:22 - 00:27:27:23
Unknown
So having this ability to just let it slide and think, okay, well, what's happened is that happened. I've missed a couple of shots. Maybe I've missed the hoop a couple of times. It doesn't matter because what matters is what I'm going to do next. How am I going to react? Exactly. And so I think there's that acknowledgment, Hey, everyone's feeling that.
00:27:28:00 - 00:28:01:07
Unknown
And even after lots of success with life is still teaching us lessons. And this next athlete, my gosh, the greatest soccer player of all. I mean, statistically, men or women's Abby Wambach is right. She is the bomb. She is the one. And she is about to tell us this great story. And it is such an important thing to remember that it's not only never giving up, but she reveals to us there's another idea.
00:28:01:09 - 00:28:36:21
Unknown
Yeah, let's hear from Abby now, telling us a little bit of a lesson around leadership. Rule number two, lead from the bench. Imagine this. You scored more goals than any human being on the planet, female or male, that you've co-captain and led Team USA in almost every category for the past decade. And you and your coach sit down and decide together that you won't be a starter and your last World Cup for Team USA.
00:28:36:23 - 00:29:10:15
Unknown
So that sucked. You'll feel benched sometimes too. You'll be passed over for the promotion taken off the project. You might even be finding yourself holding a baby instead of a briefcase, watching your colleagues get ahead. Here's what's important. You're allowed to be disappointed when it feels like life's benched you. What you aren't allowed to do is miss your opportunity to lead from the bench.
00:29:10:17 - 00:29:42:22
Unknown
During that last World Cup, my teammates told me that my presence, my support, my vocal and relentless belief in them from the bench is what gave them the confidence they needed to win us that championship. If you're not a leader on the bench, then don't call yourself a leader on the field. You're either a leader everywhere or nowhere.
00:29:42:24 - 00:30:21:03
Unknown
And by the way, the fiercest leading I've ever seen has been done between mother and child parenting is no bench. It just might be the big game Wolf pack. Wherever you're put, lead from the bench. my gosh. How good was that? And what is so nice is the capacity to take on what must have been a huge ego blow and turn that into, okay, how can I contribute?
00:30:21:05 - 00:30:47:05
Unknown
Because could you imagine how most of us would have responded, like visibly so publicly being like, yeah, potentially humiliated is one way to take in that to hit, you know, have fallen such a great height and you could have gone wham, where where sat on the bench going. But she was like, let's go Wolfpack. That's strong stuff.
00:30:47:05 - 00:31:09:13
Unknown
Mark Very strong. Yeah. I think for me this is really speaking about ego. You know, there's, there's the confidence that comes with being able to say, you know what, that's okay. And I'll accept it because the team matters more to me. I think there's the pride and the ego that comes from being, you know, disappointed and maybe a little bit humiliated or embarrassed.
00:31:09:15 - 00:31:38:12
Unknown
But I think there's also this deeper lesson, which is you've got to be comfortable enough in yourself to lead others. You know, we've talked about a lot on the show as well as the Master series. You've got to be the best version of yourself to be a good leader. You've got to invest in time and yourself. And I think that this is a great reminder of that, like reminder to all of us that if we want to be that great leader who can lead from the bench, you've got to be a little bit uncomfortable.
00:31:38:12 - 00:31:54:19
Unknown
That isn't something that's naturally going to come to a lot of leaders that I know. It's going to be something that maybe they're going to have to work on. And I think it's wonderful to hear you know, the highest goalscorer of all time. So, yeah, it happened to me, but that's okay because I'm still here and I've bounced back.
00:31:54:21 - 00:32:20:11
Unknown
I think it's such a wonderful little visual story that has always stuck with me. Actually. It's a great, great turn of phrase, isn't it? Lead from the bench. Yeah. And think about it. If she had been. uppity about it and upset about it, and maybe her the support that she wouldn't have given because of that may have led to the team not winning like they needed her in that capacity.
00:32:20:13 - 00:32:44:04
Unknown
And it's hard to see that in the moment if you let your ego go. And it's funny, right, Because their sports is teaching us about the perils of ego. And you'll remember we did a whole show on Ryan Holiday's Ego is the Enemy. I mean, he has a whole book telling us how our ego is. It's a dangerous thing, isn't it?
00:32:44:04 - 00:33:10:08
Unknown
Mark Yeah, Yeah, It's one of those things that for me, Mike has probably informed too many of my decisions over the course of time. And, and it's something that you, I suppose, really start to appreciate when you do reflect, when you start to think what is informing this decision or this behavior of mine. Yeah. And you think, well there's no real impact physically on on anybody else.
00:33:10:08 - 00:33:36:22
Unknown
The only person who probably notices this stuff is me. Yeah. So why am I making it such a big deal? And you're right, I like that build. You've just done that of selflessness. If you were able to put aside your ego, you're able to therefore prove to others in your team, Hey, look, I've done this. Surely you can now go out and do your best as well as I'm doing my best and not being upset, not letting my ego maybe get in the way.
00:33:36:24 - 00:34:13:04
Unknown
Yeah. So I think there's a real story there of inspiration that comes from actually getting put aside for for one of those big matches and instead bringing the rest of the team together because they can see you there leading from the bench, being the cheerleader who's helping them get through it. It's a really inspiring story. So some of what we're seeing here, if we kind of package together what we've learned thus far from these athletes, one is to go out and experiment and look for the things that excite you, because that can lead to the passion, right?
00:34:13:04 - 00:34:39:16
Unknown
So that's kind of building block number one. Then we saw from MJ kind of picking up from Kobe and Jay's like practice, practice like crazy practice, like it's the game, because then the the game gets easier, right? So that's like, that's like a huge build. And then as we go about trying to train and improve and make progress, will be tempted to give up.
00:34:39:18 - 00:35:11:21
Unknown
But hey, if Serena experiences self-doubt, then it's okay that we all might, might experience. Yeah. And then Ebby says, when those times of hardship come and where you're maybe not the number one or you get overlooked because it happens to us all, embrace that as an opportunity. Now, if you were briefing me on how to be an executive or how to be a startup founder, the themes of make sure that you're passionate about what we're doing.
00:35:11:24 - 00:35:34:08
Unknown
Find part of our business right that you can be passionate about to know your stuff and practice your stuff, right? So if you've got a big presentation, maybe rehearsed five times, we talk about doing that all the time. Maybe you don't get the sales right, maybe can't get the product right, Don't give up, Keep testing and learning and ask yourself how to improve.
00:35:34:10 - 00:35:57:19
Unknown
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Right. And there will be times where maybe you are not the leader, the CEO, the superstar, but maybe it's time for your colleagues in the business to do so. So look at that, Mark. I mean, it is ridiculous. We are literally taking these sports lessons and we can just change sports field to the boardroom, right?
00:35:57:21 - 00:36:42:19
Unknown
Or from the office to home. And those lessons are mirroring perfectly. It's incredible, isn't it? Isn't it strange that it is so transferable? You know, these real A-list individuals top of their game in their own respective very, you know, arguably quite niche spaces. You know, not all of us are NBA superstars. So these individuals who are in these really small niche, narrow areas are able to prove, again, this importance of commitment, of ownership, of working as hard as you possibly can to be the greatest version of not only yourself, but maybe even the greatest player of all time.
00:36:42:20 - 00:37:11:06
Unknown
You know, we've already had four fantastic individuals, MVP goats who are proving to us that this is the case. I find it it's once again one of those fantastically surprising and inspiring areas to dig into. I think because that commitment really does remind us just how much you have to dig in the amount of work that we've, you know, looked at with Elon Musk going up against, you know, not only astronauts, you kind of shot him down.
00:37:11:07 - 00:37:32:08
Unknown
Yeah. Childhood hero. Exactly. All the inspiration and all the challenges that he's kind of come back from. It's kind of the same. You know, we're all going to run into those moments where it's going to be hard and it's going to really push us to the edge. And who better than sports individuals, sports stars to teach us about mindset?
00:37:32:10 - 00:38:02:19
Unknown
my gosh. It's it's really incredible. So, you know, I look at all of these sports and they are truly, truly great. And you could say exactly the same for our next and final clip, because what he was able to do was to be unquestionably the greatest of all time in his sport. He did it in two different teams.
00:38:02:21 - 00:38:29:14
Unknown
That's crazy. And he did it in the biggest team sport, the national football League, NFL, American football, gridiron, whatever you want to call it. So do you realize, Mark, how rare it is for a team to win two Super Bowls back to back because there's so many moving parts now? You have five guys on the court, right, in basketball, 11 in soccer, in American football.
00:38:29:14 - 00:38:53:12
Unknown
You've a full team for offense and defense. Then you have special teams. I mean, you just need to look at the sideline. It's like there's hundreds of people are in fact, you could get them together to even win one. Super Bowl is amazing that Brady has won more Super Bowls than any other. So I think it is only appropriate, only appropriate that we hear from him as our last clip.
00:38:53:12 - 00:39:21:13
Unknown
What do you reckon? I totally agree, because although he's won arguably some he's accomplished some of the hardest challenges, particularly in maybe one of the hardest sport to lead from a team perspective. He's also had a couple of failures and couple of obstacles along the way. So let's hear now from Tom Brady, who's actually sadly going to show close the show for us today, telling us about how disappointment can make you stronger.
00:39:21:15 - 00:39:43:15
Unknown
But we all have experiences that we dream about and that we look forward to. And when we get them, they don't always go our way. I learned that as a freshman on the football field just outside of this gym. And again, I learned it as a second year player who finally got a chance to play in college. Unfortunately, I learned it three weeks ago in our loss to the Giants in Super Bowl 46.
00:39:43:17 - 00:40:16:11
Unknown
But we've always been blessed with the support of my family and friends and also with coaches that committed best to me. And with each opportunity came an understanding of the things that it takes to be successful. And often this happens through trial and error, and sometimes through outright failure, because Lord knows I made plenty of mistakes. So whether I was learning through, watching as I did my freshman year, etc., or playing and making mistakes over the course of my career, I've continued to learn to embrace every hardship and to seize every opportunity on and off the field.
00:40:16:13 - 00:40:40:05
Unknown
The owner of my current team, Robert Kraft, has told me time and time again, every bump is a bounce. So when I learned very quickly as a professional was this Your job is always on the line. I'm in a What have you done for me lately? Type business is in all businesses. There are disclosures in investments. It says past performance doesn't guarantee future results.
00:40:40:07 - 00:41:02:21
Unknown
But that pretty much sums up the NFL and they're always going to be younger and hungrier. Athletes competing to take your spot. I got my opportunity when it come. It started. Drew Bledsoe got injured my second year and all of the practices and meetings and time spent on these fields and in this gym and in those classrooms prepared me to take advantage of the opportunity.
00:41:02:23 - 00:41:24:04
Unknown
And ten years later, after great success in my career, I wouldn't change a day in my life. Wow, wow, wow. The obstacle is the way it is. The greatest stoic wisdom. You could listen to that. And you know, if you just changed the voice, you would said it's Marcus Aurelius. You would say, I'm ancient, stoic, or you might think it's Ryan Holiday.
00:41:24:06 - 00:42:00:22
Unknown
The point here is, you know, those things that really do challenge you are the opportunity to be the best version of yourself. And Mark, it took me 20 years of my life before I realized I didn't have to run away from accountability, responsibility and results. I could embrace them. And I hope if anything, that our members have got from this show is that when those obstacles, when the hard times comes, just get comfortable being uncomfortable.
00:42:00:22 - 00:42:39:16
Unknown
It's okay because everyone experiences the self doubt. But what you hear is these athletic greats, these sports greats all turn them into a positive, don't they? Yeah, I think you're totally right. As I think back to all of those clips that we've heard, Mike, I've got to be honest, I think Brady might be the clip that I'm going to take away, this idea of seeing those obstacles as the way as the opportunities to get better, to not only test my capabilities, but also test my boundaries and see where I can react differently, how I can behave differently and how I can get better.
00:42:39:18 - 00:43:12:03
Unknown
I think that's the real takeaway for me. Seeing these bumps as opportunities and being able to bounce off them is these really big call to action to me, which ones stand out for you today. I know we've had five MVP clips. It's like, which child do you love the most? Listen, you know, I would say the two unexpected ones is Michael Jordan saying practice really hard, like practice like it matters.
00:43:12:05 - 00:43:39:06
Unknown
But as well, I love what Abby says, like leading from the bench because how many times do you see something doesn't go right for someone in the office and then they become a grumpy bum, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, look, it's very bongi stand here. You know, the idea of jumping in with your own opinion, not being the loudest person in the room and instead leading, you know, a meeting perhaps from the back seat enables your team to get better.
00:43:39:12 - 00:44:14:23
Unknown
It enables your team to explore new ideas that perhaps you didn't have. So as a leader, being able to step back and and allow that to happen is for the better good of of the business, of the team and so on. So it's quite fun. And exactly as you've already built the idea of connecting entrepreneurs business via this medium of sports stars is so transferable and so clear because I suppose maybe they have to go through a lot of these failures and obstacles like a lot earlier than some of us, because they thrust into the limelight and on the center stage of the world.
00:44:14:23 - 00:44:36:16
Unknown
It's kind of like having your own business is its own personal brand. Yes, but business owners, although I think many of these guys are in pretty big businesses these days. Yeah. Yeah. It's not small anymore. Know. Well Mark, I want to say thank you to you for joining me in learning these lessons for our members and our subscribers.
00:44:36:18 - 00:45:02:23
Unknown
And obviously, we want to thank you, our very members here for show 28 of the Moon Shots Master series, where we learned the sports mindset and it started with Kobe Bryant and learning to find our passion. And then MJ told us it was all about practice of the main fields is in the halls, it's in the basketball courts during the week.
00:45:02:23 - 00:45:28:22
Unknown
That's where we make greatness On the weekend, Serena told us. When those hard times come, we ain't giving up. And when we are put on the bench, it's a chance to lead, according to Abby Wambach. And then as we take a step back and look at all of the challenges of life, they truly are the way they are, the path see obstacles is the way I see being uncomfortable as the new comfort for you.
00:45:29:02 - 00:45:44:04
Unknown
Do this and you will truly be the best version of yourself. And doing this is all made possible by learning out loud together. And that's what we do here with you, our members on the Moonshots Master series. That's a wrap.