Father Time was winning the battle of his body — but it wasn’t winning the one in his mind. 

At age 34, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant still believed he was 19-year-old Kobe, fast, athletic, able to leap tall buildings, dunk on anyone and score at will. 

But now his body couldn’t leap, hurdle, explode or do things that seem so easy years ago. The game he loved, the game he dominated seemed harder and harder. The end of a majestic career was near.  

Some nights, the old Kobe showed up, some nights he didn’t. He just couldn’t be the “Old Kobe” night after night. So, when the realization of the end was the end, he retired at 38 years old. As Anais Nil once said, “Sometimes, we reveal ourselves when we are least like ourselves.” 

Kobe loved the game so much; he wasn’t going to let father time win. So, then Kobe took his talents to another arena, one in which jumping and shooting wasn’t necessary, and he continued to dominate. Father time won in one area, forcing Kobe to win in another.   

Kobe understood his greatness knew no limits, he could find success in other ways. What separates those who understand how to defeat father time, and those that don’t centers on our EGO. From ego comes a great sense of power, a tidal wave of believing the world revolves around our greatness. And our greatness can only come from being on a certain stage. And when ego enters the conversation, logic disappears.

More importantly, through our ego comes a powerful force that craves the attention, the recognition, the fanfare. We all know, there is great power in being a dominating player or leader. 

There's an old saying: All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. However, holding power doesn'talways corrupt. What “real power” always does is reveal. From the revelation comes our true character allowing everyone to understand our true intention. We become narrow minded when we don’t recognize the need to pivot and use our talents in other ways. When a leader doesn’t allow ego into the conversation, the quest for power is gone. 

Kobe gave basketball everything he had each day and then shifted his talents to producing. Father time has boundaries, we don’t. 

And as we understand the removal of ego allows us to live a full life without boundaries, we destroy father time. Just like Kobe. 

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