It seems like the entire world is talking about Kobe. The tragic accident that cost nine people their lives, including Kobe and his daughter.

I’m a Kobe fan.

It’s complicated, being a Kobe fan.

He has been accused of something horrible in his past. Like most rich people in the world, he got it to go away without any of us truly knowing the truth, but suspecting a whole bunch.

Kobe is one of the best basketball players ever. I loved watching him compete. I love watching him yell at teammates and seemingly not care if he was liked or disliked because he wanted to win more than anyone else on the planet. I love watching him with his daughters. Maybe the worst thing in his past, made him even a better father and husband (I don’t know).

Kobe is not like you or I. He was a true genius. He was better than 99.999999% of people who have ever played basketball. Most of us aren’t in the top ten percent of anything we do in life. Genius is extremely rare. Most people can’t understand genius. It’s a bit scary and completely uncomfortable from what we are used to.

As I said, it’s complicated being a Kobe fan.

In 2012, Kobe posted this on Facebook about leadership-

So, let’s breakdown the brilliance of what Kobe is saying about being a great leader:

1. Are you willing to make those around you uncomfortable to make them better?

2. Are you willing to push those around so much they might actually hate you at the time?

3. Success is more important, in the end, than being liked. 

4. Don’t tolerate victims.

5. We all have a leadership style that will get us to our highest level, it’s not all the same. 

I mourn the loss of a great basketball player and parent you died tragically with his daughter in a helicopter crash, as he was taking her to play the game he loved. I can’t imagine the heartache of those they left behind. As a father that has done that thousands of times, my own heart aches.

We are a totality of what we do in the world. That’s hard for me to reconcile. Humans can do the most wonderful, uplifting things we can ever imagine, and the most awful, and be the same person. Like I said, life is complicated and I tend to actually like how Kobe viewed leadership.