I was going through emails in my office at the
our Dunwoody - Sandy Springs Center. On my iPad, a decent basketball game between the
Women of Troy and the University of Washington was playing. Out in the Center, my husband was cleaning up a bit. That’s where I was when the game’s announcers broke the news of the death of Kobe Bryant.
I am a big sports fan, following primarily all the sports teams fielded by my alma mater, the
University of Southern California. But the first team I started to follow after we move to the United States in 1982 was the
LA Lakers. I have loved basketball since I was a kid in Cuba. In the US, I finally got to play the sport…badly. I still loved the sport, and loved the Lakers of Magic, Kareem, and James.
After the Showtime Lakers, there was a lull in the dynasty until a young kid out of high school named Kobe Bryant revived the franchise. By this time, I was an adult with responsibilities and such. Still, particularly when we moved to the East Coast, I would stay up way too late to catch the games, marveling at Bryant’s determination and grit.
I have come to believe a few maxims over the years, and one is particularly germane to Kobe and who he reportedly was as a player: leadership is lonely. He pushed himself to excellence, and pushed his teammates along, too. Sometimes that did not work well, and that affected his relationships. I strive for excellence in myself, and take what I hope is a different approach as I push my teams to excel and deliver great service to our Clients. Still, I recognize the truth in that saying, and Kobe proved that he could succeed by demanding greatness of himself. He thus set a standard and strove to get his teammates to deliver their best.
As a fan, I will never forget his legacy on the court. Or where I was when I heard the awful news of his passing. As a business owner, he will be an inspiration for me to work with my teams to be the best we can be for our Clients and each other.