Beyond the Court: Kobe Bryant's Business Legacy and Success Beyond Basketball - Essay Sample

Introduction

Kobe Bryant was an American professional basketball player who played for the Los Angeles Lakers and helped the national Basketball Association team to five championships during the tears 2000-02 and 2009-10. After graduating from High School, Bryant decided that he was qualified to join professional basketball and thus opted foregoing college and join the NBA because he was a talented Kobe Bryant was selected in the 1996 draft, and he quickly gained progress and showed his merit playing with the Lakers which made him be selected for the NBA All-Star Game in a period of just two seasons making him become the youngest All-Star (Britannica, 2020).In the early stages of his life, Bryant was coerced to share roles with the Lakers star player, who was popular as well as highly talented, known as Shaquille O'Neal. At the early stages of his career, the two did not have a great relationship, but they found a certain sense of success under Phil Jackson's leadership, who had become the Lakers coach in 1999. Just like in sports, in business, the relentless work ethic of Kobe has enabled him to propel 20 years into the NBA and also helped him in transforming himself into a business Mogul and Oscar-winning filmmaker as well as an author (Fenno, Miller, & Hussain, 2020).In 2014, Kobe created Kobe Inc. with grand plans of developing brands that were intended to append the sports industry.

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Their Accomplishments (In Business and Sales)

Bryant is one of the most successful athletes in the history of football to also emerge victorious in the business world as well as sales. There are a number of reasons which could dictate the success which Kobe Bryant has able to amass over the years in the business front. Beyond the court, Kobe diversified his career by breaking into the investment world even before he could have left the NBA in the first place. It was in 2013 that he made his first accomplishment by co-founding venture capital firms by the name Bryant Stibel alongside web.com's founder, Mr. Jeff Stibel. The business was quite successful because the company was able to branch out as well as expand in terms of the overall asset as well as capital for the entire organization. This goes to show that Kobe was a visionary investor who had an eye for not only sportswear gear, but also a mind to venture into the investment business.

In addition, this company went ahead to define Bryant as being more than a founding partner, but also as a creative visionary who was primarily concerned about steering the company's goals and visions forward. After retiring from the NBA, Kobe Bryant had the mentality of helping other individuals, and therefore he offered to venture into business in order to reach for the level of satisfaction that he wanted while serving others. At one point, he mentioned that he had found the core of what he was doing as love and what he was doing he understood it is the responsibility of a leader and his personal job in order to enhance the mood of people around him. His accomplishments in the business world are an indication of such attributes.

Why Kobe was an outstanding Sales Person

Kobe is an outstanding salesperson because, as it has been established, he is a visionary investor who had an eye for not only sportswear gear, but also a mind to venture into the investment business. Most sportspeople have invested heavily in commodities which exemplifies sports as well as other gears that are related to sports, but Kobe went out of his way and decided to diversify in other areas apart from the aspects of sports.

There are several NBA players who have attempted and failed in business, while others have established lucrative successes but in the course of their careers as well as after retirements (The New York Times, 2020). Just like many NBA players, Bryant did not find his retirement from basketball as the end towards his career but a beginning of a new life chapter where he will conduct business that will be void of the basketball career that he had left behind. He figured that if he retired from the NBA, he would venture into business and become just as successful, and that is what he went ahead and did.

Inner Innovations and Success

Apart from the Investment Ventures, which Kobe has established, he has also gone ahead and founded a media company known as Granity Studios, which enabled him to produce one of the Oscar award-winning short animated films known as dear basketball (Willis, 2020). When he established this company, he spoke about his deep desire to get into the entertainment industry even though this particular dream was cut short after he died in a plane crash.

One of his most significant investment yields and Innovations still remains the sports drinks company body armour in which Kobe Bryant purchased a 10% stake in the year 2014 for about 60 million U.S. dollars. The sporting drink was later purchased by Coca-Cola, which made Bryant's share to shoot up to 100 million in terms of value, and it is still counting to date. All of the capital assets, when combined with the over 328 million dollars in terms of career earning, Bryant's wealth is probably going to continue growing even after his time untimely departure.

Some Failures that Caused Them to Grow

Even during the days when he is to be a player before his retirement Bryant was usually more significant than basketball because from the early days, he attempted to make music and occasionally tried cameos on television as well as movies, but he was not as successful (García-Hodges & Atkinson, 2020). He always seemed to be living on a planet that appears different from other players, and his vision was to still create something of himself, even if it meant being without the NBA. It is for this reason that Kobe Bryant went ahead to challenge himself to return back on TV after accomplishing so much on the NBA FRONT because it was his initial dream before joining basketball and failed but then wanted to make a comeback that was worth the while (Lynn, 2020). The lessons from his past failure must have been a motivating factor for him to return to television as an actor and not as a basketball player.

The desire and willpower of being successful are also what has made Kobe Bryant be so successful in business, and especially his charisma and overall mood of engagement are what made a lot of people relate with him on many fronts and thus create success for his business. Failure is a crucial part of any business to be successful without which there is no mode of learning, and therefore, failure is inevitable for any kind of success in business. Kobe Bryant understood this, and when he failed in his first attempt in film, he came back again after many years of being away from what he actually loved and grew it into a success as well.

References

Britannica. (2020, September 4). Kobe Bryant. Retrieved from Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kobe-Bryant

Fenno, N., Miller, D., & Hussain, S. (2020, January 26). Kobe Bryant built a business empire extending far beyond basketball. Retrieved from Los Angeles Times: https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-01-26/kobe-bryant-businessman-investor

García-Hodges, A., & Atkinson, C. (2020, January 27). Kobe Bryant's business empire broke the mold for retired athletes. Retrieved from nbcnews.com: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/kobe-bryant-took-mamba-mentality-business-world-n1123741

Lynn, S. (2020, January 26). Kobe Bryant Excelled In Business Turning $6 Million Into $200 Million With Bodyarmor. Retrieved from Black Enterprise: https://www.blackenterprise.com/kobe-bryant-turns-6-million-into-200-million/

The New York Times. (, 2020). Kobe Bryant's Death Cuts Short a Budding Business Career. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/business/dealbook/kobe-bryant-business.html#:~:text=Bryant%20Stibel%20has%20invested%20in,Games%2C%20the%20maker%20of%20Fortnight.&text=He%20also%20invested%20in%20Bodyarmor,stake%20to%20compete%20against%20Gatorade.&tex

Willis, Z. (2020, February 10). Kobe Bryant's Most Lucrative Business Investment Set Up His Family For Life. Retrieved from SportsCasting: https://www.sportscasting.com/kobe-bryants-most-lucrative-business-investment-set-up-his-family-for-life/