The biggest thing I learned from being in the special forces is the decision-making process and also the willingness not to give up. You need to have a certain mindset. I call it a positive mindset.
People often confuse a growth mindset with being flexible or open-minded or with having a positive outlook - qualities they believe they've simply always had. My colleagues and I call this a false growth mindset.
I think success is a relative term. If you're a caveman, success is capturing an elephant. Success is achieving better than the norm. Success is being exceptional. It's exceptional reputation, exceptional income, and exceptional respect.
I'm all about your mindset, being focused, staying positive, being optimistic, and knowing that these are all aspects of my life that I love and enjoy.
American exceptionalism? Exceptional at what? Waging wars against innocent people for fake reasons? Exceptional at what? Being addicted to pharmaceutical drugs that have people's minds wasted? Exceptional at what? Eating more junk food and becoming the most obese nation on Earth?
To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail.
If I was an exceptional human being in Detroit, then I saw no reason why I couldn't be an exceptional human being in Mississippi. In Hattiesburg.
One thing that America is objectively exceptional at is overreacting whenever anyone accuses them of not being exceptional.
I struggled in London for a very long time. 'Be prepared to struggle a lot' - it's a European mentality. The American mentality is positive and 'You can do it' and 'Everything's possible.' In Europe it's an older, more realistic way of thinking. You feel like you're having to prove that you can do it.
That's really the biggest thing, being happy in an organization that supports you and helps you grow and a city that supports you and a training staff.
The General Public is a statistical fiction created by a few exceptional men to make the loneliness of being exceptional a little easier to bear.
Of course there are exceptional circumstances, and there is exceptional talent; but, unhappily, exceptional talent does not always win its reward unless favoured by exceptional circumstances.
Exceptional results arrive only when exceptional people put in exceptional effort. It never arises by accident or good fortune.
As far as practice, I get those mental reps. I don't have to physically be out there. It's just a mindset and a mentality.
I think confidence is very important, as well as a positive attitude; you should never give up; just maintain a positive mentality whenever you perform; you should go for it.
Kobe was, other than my parents, he was the reason why I played sports. Just his mindset, the Mamba mentality.