NBA star Metta World Peace says Kobe Bryant taught him that someone else is always working harder

He arrived at 8 a.m.—what he considered early—and Bryant wasn’t mid-set or cooling down. He already leaving.

“He was all showered up. He was done,” the 46-year-old recalled. “And I thought I was working hard!” 

The next day, he went back at 5:30 a.m. to catch a firsthand glimpse of just how far Bryant was willing to go to be one of basketball’s greatest players, including five NBA championships, 18 All-Star selections, and the 2008 MVP award, which he received the year before World Peace joined the team.

The takeaway? High performance is relative. No matter how early you start or how many hours you put in, someone else will be willing to do more.

Or as World Peace put it: “There’s always somebody out there working harder.”

Success is simply years of hard work that have compounded

For World Peace, the lesson wasn’t just about training. It was a reminder that success, on or off the court, is built through patience and daily consistency.

“I started playing basketball at eight years old. I went pro at 19. Then it took me another 17 years to become a legend,” he told Fortune, adding that he took that mindset into his new career as an entrepreneur. The sports star recently teamed up with former Boost Mobile CEO Stephen Stokols to launch a $100 million sport-tech venture fund, Tru Skye Ventures.

“So when I got into entrepreneurship, private equity, venture, and when times got tough, I just told myself, well, it took me 10 years to actually become a pro,” he explained.

“I retired at 35 years old, so I said it’d take me 10 years to get this off the ground, and then also, then if I want to be a legendary it’s going to take another 17 years.”

When the going gets tough or momentum stalls, he keeps that mantra to be patient in his “back pocket.” It’s been just over a decade since he retired from basketball, and that patience is beginning to show returns. “Now, here we are, competing against the Michael Jordans of business the space,” World Peace beamed.

Work-life balance is a lie, the NBA champion and Tru Skye Ventures CEO agree

That same long-term mindset also shapes how the former basketball player views work-life balance. He doesn’t believe in clean separations between the two, or in the idea that high performance can be neatly contained within office hours. He even opted to bring his kids to work, including to a recent CNN interview.

And it’s something he and his business partner, Stokols, firmly agree on.

“I don’t give a s— about work-life balance,” the CEO, founder, and investor joked on stage. “I think it’s a tough balance because at the end of the day, if you’re a startup—and I started my own company—there is a certain level of passion and work you have to put in. It’s more than a 9-to-5.”

Despite increased desire for work-life, with Gen Z workers even willing to walk out on firms that don’t provide it, that reality is something Stokols is upfront about.

“When you’re recruiting, you’re trying to be honest about the fact that this is not a 9-to-5. I might hit you up on Slack or text you at 11 p.m.”

For Stokols, rejecting work-life balance isn’t about working endlessly, but about working deliberately. He insists you won’t catch him texting out of hours unless it’s urgent, and tries not to waste energy on superficial problems, reserving focus for the ones that actually matter.

“You can sit there and lie in bed, lose three hours of sleep thinking about a problem,” Stokols said. “And it’s not going to get fixed that night.”

“So sometimes it’s about saying, nothing’s going to happen tonight. I’m going to go to sleep. Get a good night, and then I’ll see if it’s still a problem in the morning,” he added. “And half the time, some of those problems just go away on their own anyway.”