Kobe Bryant says when he shifted from player to CEO he sought to hire curious people and stopped caring as much about how many hours they worked, and started caring more about the quality of their work “I expect excellent work. We all do. I don’t care if you’re here in the office at 6:00 a.m. and you leave at midnight. If the work that you do is average, this is not the home for you.” “Conversely, you cannot be in an office at all and have excellent work, this is the place for you. I don’t really care if you’re here.” “There are a lot of guys that get in the gym and work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard—but then they can’t transition that to 7:30.” “The important thing is curiosity first. I want curious people. People that ask questions, that want to figure things out, figure out new ways to do things. That’s the most important thing.” “Then from that curiosity, having a determination to see that curiosity through. If you figure out this is a particular course of action that we feel like we should be taking, has it been done before? No? That’s exciting to me. Let’s figure it out.”

Joe Mazzulla says his goal as Celtics coach is to be forgotten “If the people around you didn’t do what they do… I wouldn’t do anything. The thing I reflect on the most is… I think you have to be willing to be forgotten. I think that’s kind of my main goal.” “I want to be forgotten about. Because that means after you… It was better. I think that’s what it means to be a Celtic. However long you play, coach, work for the Celtics…” “Your job is to keep it exactly where it’s at or bring it better. You cannot bring it down. If you leave and it gets worse, that’s your fault. If you leave and they win, and they forgot about you, you did your job.” “I talk about that every day with the staff. Our job is to one day be forgotten about because you did your job. It became about something bigger than you.” “It’s a burden and a love for being with the Celtics… But it’s a responsibility. I think we could take that into our daily life. Can I leave it so much better that they don’t remember me because the next person came and was better?”

Drew Brees believes he would not have made the hall of fame if it weren't for a film session in 2003 where Marty Schottenheimer told him to stop making excuses “I’ll never forget a film session in 2003. I was coming off a tough game. As we watched the tape together, Coach asked me the question…” “‘Hey, why didn’t you throw to this receiver?’ ‘He was wide open.’ My response was… ‘I couldn’t see him.’ The tape paused. There was a moment of silence. Coach glared at me and said… It’s your job to see.’” “You reach a point in your career when you stop making excuses. It’s usually a moment or an event where you flip a switch. Or make a very conscious decision. And it becomes part of your being. Coach was right.” “And never again would those words or thoughts come out of my mouth. I would need to find a way to play the game a little bit different. Even if it was in a way that had not been done before.”

Stephen Curry explains how he used gratitude to process being underpaid on his 4 year $44,000,000 deal while winning MVP's and titles early in his career “It’s all intentionality. It sounds so freaking cheesy and cliché because I’m talking about it right now, but this is exactly how I thought.” “I talked to my wife about it right before I signed. I had to tell myself, one, let’s keep perspective here. $44 million for four years.” “More money than my pops ever made in the league. I’d been around the league for 16 years watching my dad play. I knew how far the league had grown from when he played.” “That’s good money. Support my family. Got a lot of security. I just want to be healthy.” “Let’s focus on that, not what you’re leaving on the table or what you could have made. Don’t count anybody else’s money. At the end of the day, when you sign, that’s your decision. You’re going to rock with it.” “I tried to set that foundation for my mindset right then and there. Never renegotiate with myself afterwards. Never second-guess.” “Never come back to that moment like, ‘Oh, I should’ve, could’ve, would’ve.’ Because that’s not how life works.” “I had to be really intentional about it. It sounds so simple and fairytale because it did work out. But I give myself credit that that was the perspective I made sure I had.” “I didn’t want to let anything distract me from what could have been, what I left on the table, or what other situation could have been out there. I was still taken care of. I was still good.”