Keynote: Kobe Bryant Moves From The Court To The Boardroom

The closing keynote for the DMA &Then conference appropriately saw local hero, retired Laker Kobe Bryant, who has begun to tackle the business world.

The closing keynote for this week’s DMA &Then conference in Los Angeles appropriately saw local hero, retired Laker Kobe Bryant, take the stage at the L.A. Convention Center to be interviewed by Digitas Studios’ chief content officer, Scott Donaton. Bryant has since begun to tackle the business world, with the creation of Kobe Inc. and, most recently, a $100 million VC firm in partnership with Jeff Stibel.

Donaton began by asking Bryant what his thoughts were after his retirement started in April. “I played for 20 years and I had no more juice—I was done,” Bryant said. “I never really thought that I would play that long. I only remember a life of basketball from when I was two-years old. I was introduced to these other things—creative and marketing—through basketball.”

Bryant said that it’s important to challenge yourself to grow: “I can’t think of a better message. It’s dangerous to connect who you are to what you do. In my next stage, I want to be better at what I’m doing now than I was at basketball—and that’s jump-start tech companies.”

Donaton wondered what particular skills Bryant thought best translate from sports to business

“Communication and working with groups is most important,” Bryant said. “Figuring out how to navigate through all that. This is a thing that carries over the most to business. But there is no instant gratification in the business world as there is in sports. You have to find beauty in the process of building and have the patience to see it through.”

Bryant was also quick to note that, for both, being prepared and working hard was of the utmost importance. “My message to the team was simple: No matter what you do, you come to practice ready to work,” he said.

When asked whether he had concerns about succeeding in his new business life, Bryant said, “No, I don’t really think about it. I try to learn from the others who went before me. I will focus on the work and the craft, and time will tell if I am good or not. As an athlete, you have to stay away from things you don’t understand, but you have to build trust with the people who do know.”

“Do you have or have you had mentors been in your life?” Donaton asked Bryant. “I am notorious for cold-calling people and just talking,” he replied. “I just call people I admire and ask them to explain to me how they see their business and how they run their business. Curiosity is the most important thing, I learned leadership from nature. These are lessons that surround us at all times. I research, I read, and I try to connect the dots.

“I’ve always had an itch for marketing and the story, so I was able to start with that. I wrote some and started building from there. I like getting to know the process and the journey. In the end, I want to build a legacy that’s as ambitious as the one I had as a basketball player.”

When asked whether a part of him still has the itch to go back and play, Bryant surprised some of the audience by saying, “Strange, but I have no desire to play. Not even a little bit. I knew it was time to go home when I looked up into the rafters in Sacramento one day and saw the jerseys retired up there from my peers—Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, and others. It was time to go home.”

Bryant ended with a nice—and self-effacing story—about how fleeting fame is: “I was doing something with Taylor Swift, and she was playing at the Staples Center where she was bringing a different celebrity out on stage each night. My kids and I were backstage, and one of them asked Taylor who the special guest was that night. She told her, ‘Well, your father.’ My daughter shot back, ‘Yeah? And who else?’”

Bryant concluded with this advice: “Have a good work ethic—work hard and prepare. Then find something you love to do and do it. I don’t feel like I worked a day in the last 20 years. There was no place I would rather have been.”

Main image credit: DMA