Last night was simply… special.

To watch Kobe Bryant’s last game in a Lakers uniform was a transcendent experience that left me with tears trickling down my face as the final buzzer sounded.

For those of you who missed it, Kobe, in his final game of a distinguished 20-year career, scored 60 points, leading his team to victory after coming back from a 14-point deficit in the final 10 minutes.  The crowd was electric, Kobe was exhausted; it was the perfect end to a brilliant career.

I stayed up way too late watching the press conference after the game, but was inspired by a few takeaways that we can all apply to whatever situation our lives and careers have taken us.

He gave it his all.

When asked what fueled him for so many years, passion was the word that kept coming up.  Kobe was fiercely dedicated to being among the greats, and he let nothing come between him and his goal.  Not injury, not soreness, fatigue—he gave every ounce of his energy and dedication every time he stepped on the court.

In a that’s-so-Kobe moment, he recently revealed that immediately after rupturing his Achilles tendon in a 2013 game, after feeling it curl up his calf, he tried to manually roll the tendon back down his leg so he could finish the game.

Even after that injury, he chose to fight to come back the following season even though it would have been a very natural time and occasion to simply retire.

We worked his butt off.

An article I read this week had an interesting revelation:  Kobe was not the most talented player in the league.  He knew it, his trainer Gary Vitti knew it, and both admitted as much.  But what allowed Kobe to rise to such incredible heights was that he consistently out-worked every other player in the gym.

He would show up hours early to practice.

He would stay long hours afterwards honing his craft and his fitness.  He expected others to do the same.

He showed us all that hard work, more than anything else, creates a superstar.  And hard work is something that each and every one of us is quite capable of, regardless of any excuses we come up with to the contrary.

He cautioned everybody listening that 20 years went by way too fast.

Looking back, he wondered where the time went, but he had no regrets.  Sitting in front of the media after a game for the last time, he was able to admit that he was extremely satisfied with his career, specifically because he gave it his all and worked so hard each and every day.

He never wasted a day, never squandered an opportunity to grow, and walked out of the game with the peace that accompanies a job well done.

I’m challenged to apply these same principles in my own life:

To give every day and every moment my full attention; to be disciplined and hard-working, always growing and never settling for the status quo; and enjoying the richness of each moment as it comes, knowing that the moments can pass by way too fast.

Parenting, being a husband, being a business owner.

May we all work hard to be champions…