Sisu Lab

You probably think most of your decisions are yours. But what if your environment is making more of them than you realize? In Habitudes Inc. 002::Design, we move from who you’re becoming to the world you’re asking that version of you to live in. Because most of the time, it’s not your willpower that’s failing, it’s your environment quietly winning. From a bike hanging in the garage like “Italian a...

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your habitudes: the habits and attitudes quietly running the company of your life when you are not paying attention. In this episode of Sisu Lab, hosted by  Dr. Yvann Karamoko , we start a three part run on habits and identity. This first installment is about who you are becoming, not just what you are trying to do. You will hear...

If your boss was supportive, your team was perfect, your calendar was clear, and the money was in the bank… would you actually live differently, or would you just run out of excuses? In this episode of Sisu Lab, we borrow a phrase from economics, ceteris paribus (“all other things equal”), and use it as a mirror for your leadership and your life. Instead of imagining a different boss, a different...

Growth doesn’t happen when you learn something. It happens when you apply it. This finale of the Mamba Mentality series is not a recap. Over eight episodes, we’ve walked through the principles that shaped Kobe Bryant’s approach to greatness. In this closing conversation, we revisit each principle, connect it to the research behind it, and end with a single question designed to help you take action...

Kobe Bryant's last Instagram post was celebrating someone else. His last morning was on the way to coach his daughter. We spend our whole lives building things. Companies. Careers. Platforms. And somewhere along the way we forget that none of it is the real legacy. The real legacy is people. The ones who are different because you showed up for them. The ones who went after something they had n...

My dad taught me something I carry with me every day. Anything worth doing is hard. But there's better on the other side. On April 12, 2013, Kobe Bryant tore his Achilles in the fourth quarter. He limped to the free throw line. Sank both shots. Walked off under his own power. Then came back and did it two more times over the next three years. This is episode seven of the Mamba Mentality series...

Every version of you has an expiration date. Most people live past it. They call it consistency. They try harder at the thing that stopped working. They wait for the results to come back. Kobe Bryant was 18 years old when he started building the version of himself he wouldn't need until he was 35. At 37, on a repaired Achilles, he scored 60 points in his last game. This is episode six of the M...

I came out the womb competitive, and  I haven't changed. There's a healthy version of that and an unhealthy one. The healthy version competes against past versions of itself. The unhealthy version will go to any breaking point to avoid losing. Kobe Bryant was both. This episode goes into what he did with it, from going full speed at a shootaround while his teammates laughed, to walking up...

Kobe Bryant noticed a rim was a quarter inch too low before the game started. He felt it in his shot before anyone told him anything was wrong. That's what happens when you care about your craft at a level most people never reach. This episode is about that level — what it looks like, what it costs, and where your quarter inch is hiding. Anyone can become good. The main things get you there. You o...

Four airballs in this playoff game at 18 years old with the whole country watching. He told the reporter he'd take every one of those shots again, and he meant it. Kobe Bryant wasn't fearless because he didn't feel the fear. He was fearless because he decided the fear didn't get a vote. This episode goes inside that decision, what he did the night it all fell apart, and what any of us can take fro...

Most people use the phrase "locked in" to describe a moment, a good game, a productive day, a night where everything clicked. Kobe Bryant didn't treat it as a moment. He treated it as an identity, something you don't arrive at, something you build. Every day. Before anyone is watching. In an empty arena with 250 shots to make before you're done. In this episode of Sisu Lab, D...

Nobody watched him do it. That was the point. Kobe Bryant didn't become who he was because of talent. He became who he was because of what he did when nobody was watching — the obsessive film study, the workouts at 2am, the preseason preparation most players never bothered with. The Mamba Mentality wasn't a catchphrase. It was a specific set of principles he lived by every single day. This...

This episode is for the person with the idea they haven't started yet. The one that lives at the back of their mind, behind everything else, quietly waiting. It's for the mom running at full speed who still feels the pull of something she hasn't built yet. The person holding onto something safe when they know it's time to leave. The person who can feel the gap between comfortable a...

In 1965, James Stockdale parachuted into enemy territory knowing he wasn't coming home anytime soon. He spent seven and a half years as a prisoner of war. four of them in solitary confinement, with no release date and no timeline. He made it out. A lot of others didn't. When someone asked him who broke, his answer surprised everyone. It wasn't the pessimists. It wasn't the ones who...

My friend Nate ran the Chicago Marathon. A few miles in, someone stepped on his ankle. He had every reason to stop. Nobody would have questioned it. He finished anyway. This is the first episode of Sisu Lab and it starts with Nate's story, because it's the story that started this journey for me. In it, Dr. Yvann Karamoko introduces the idea behind the podcast: that most people don't qu...