Book Club Series - 1 - Mastery by Robert Greene
Hey there! Welcome to Thoughts Construed. I've recently set myself a goal of writing a 5-page summary for every book I have read. In this post, I'm sharing my favourite passages and the key lessons I took from Robert Greene's book "Mastery."
There exists a form of power and intelligence that represents the peak of human potential. It is the source of the greatest achievements and discoveries in history. You have experienced this state at some point in your life. Your mind becomes completely absorbed in the task before you, and you excel at it.
Most of the time, we live in an interior world of dreams, desires and obsessive thoughts. But in this period of exceptional creativity, we are impelled by the need to get something done that has a practical effect. We force ourselves to step outside our inner chamber of habitual thoughts and connect to the world, to other people, to reality. Rather than distraction, our minds focus and penetrate to the core of something real. This sensation is called Mastery.
Once the task we were focusing on ends, we return to our distracted state and the sense of control is gone. If only we could manufacture this feeling or somehow keep it alive longer… but it seems so mysterious and elusive. The following is all about becoming Masters of our chosen domains and triggering Mastery as much as possible, to live a meaningful and fulfilled life.
This a life-long process of learning, experimenting and failing. The very desire to find shortcuts makes you eminently unsuitable for any kind of mastery.
1. Discover your calling: the life’s task
We’re all born unique. This uniqueness is marked genetically in our DNA. We are a one-time phenomenon in the universe. Our exact genetic makeup has never occurred before nor will it ever be repeated.
The first time this uniqueness expresses itself is during childhood through certain primal inclinations. We naturally find some topics interesting and others not. These inclinations are forces within us that come from a deeper place than conscious words can express.
When we’re born, a seed representing our uniqueness is planted. It wants to grow, transform itself, and flower to its full potential. Therefore, the Life’s Task is to bring that seed to flower, to express our uniqueness, fully, through our work.
“Become who you are by learning who you are” – Pindar, 2,600 years ago. The majority of people never become who they are. They stop trusting in themselves. They conform to the wishes of others. If you allow yourself to learn who you really are by paying attention to that voice and force within you then you can become what you are fated to become – an individual, a Master of your field.
Too often we make a separation in our lives. Work and life-outside-work, where we find real pleasure and fulfilment. Work is seen as a means for making money so we can enjoy that second life that we lead. Even if we derive some satisfaction from our careers, we still tend to compartmentalise our lives in this way. This is a depressing attitude, because in the end we spend a substantial part of our waking life at work. If we experience this time as something to get through on the way to real pleasure, then our time at work represents a tragic waste of the little time we have on this earth.
You must see your career or vocational path more like a journey with twists and turns rather than a straight line. You begin by choosing a position or field that roughly corresponds to your inclinations; and over time, you will find a niche opportunity that perfectly suits you. You will recognise it when you find it because it will spark that childlike sense of wonder and excitement, it will feel right.
Strategies for finding your life’s task
Two strategies you could use to find your life’s task:
1. Return to your origins – the primal inclination strategy
In order to master a field, you must love the subject and feel a profound connection to it. Your interest must transcend the field itself and border on the religious. The childhood attractions are hard to put into words and are more like sensations – that of deep wonder, sensual pleasure, power and heightened awareness. To find your inclinations, think back to your childhood and look for these signs:
- Strong reactions to simple things.
- Activities you loved doing over and over without getting bored.
- Subjects/topics that made you especially curious.
- Actions that made you feel powerful.
2. Occupy the perfect niche – the Darwinian strategy
Working in a field that attracts thousands of people will wear you out as you struggle to get attention and play the political games. You’ll spend so much time at these games that you’ll have little time left for true mastery. We’re attracted to such fields because we see others making a living. We are not aware of how difficult such a life can be.
The game you want to play is different. Find a niche that you can dominate. It is never a simple process to find such a niche. It requires patience and a particular strategy. In the beginning you choose a field that roughly corresponds to your interests. From there, you can go in 1 of 2 directions:
1. From your chosen field, you look for side paths that particularly attract you. When possible, you make a move to this narrower field. You continue this process until you eventually hit upon a totally unoccupied niche, the narrower the better. In some ways, this niche corresponds to your uniqueness.
2. Once you have mastered the first field, you look for other subjects or skills that you can conquer, in your own time if necessary. You can combine this added field of knowledge to the original one, perhaps creating a new field, or at least making novel connections between them. You continue this process as long as you wish. Ultimately, you create a field that is uniquely your own.
In either direction, you have found a niche that is not crowded with competitors. You have the freedom to roam, to pursue particular questions that interest you. You set your own agenda and command the resources available to this niche. Unburdened by overwhelming competition and politics, you have time and space to flourish your uniqueness.
Make sure to avoid the false path. A false path is generally the one we’re attracted to for the wrong reasons – money, fame, attention etc.
2. Submit to reality: the ideal apprenticeship
In the stories of the greatest Masters, past and present, there is always a phase in their lives in which all of their future powers were in development. This part of their lives, a largely self-directed apprenticeship that lasts some 5 to 10 years. The principle is simple and must be engraved deeply in your mind: the goal of an apprenticeship is not money, a good position a title or a diploma, but rather the transformation of your mind and character – the first transformation on the way to mastery. There are 3 essential steps in your apprenticeship, each one overlapping the other:
Step 1: Deep Observation - The Passive Mode
When you enter a career or new environment, your main task upon entering this world is to observe and absorb its reality as deeply as possible.
The greatest mistake you can make in the initial months of your apprenticeship is to imagine that you have to get attention, impress people, and prove yourself. These thoughts will dominate your mind and close it off from the reality around you. Any positive attention you receive is deceptive; it is not based on your skills or anything real, and it will turn against you. If you impress people in these first months, it should be because of the seriousness of your desire to learn, not because you are trying to rise to the top before you are ready. There are 2 essential realities you need to observe in this new world:
1. The rules and procedures that govern the success in this environment i.e. “this is how we do things here”. You must pay attention to these and observe them, but what is of more interest are the rules that are unstated and are part of the underlying work culture. They are often a reflection of the character of the person at the top.
2. The power of relationships that exist within the group: who has real control; through whom do all communications flow; who is on the rise and who is on the decline.
Your job is not to moralise about the politics or complain, but merely to understand them, to get a complete lay of the land. You are not there to change the culture. Later, when you have attained power and mastery, you will be the one to rewrite or destroy these same rules.
This step is critical because:
1. Knowing your environment inside and out will help you in navigating it and avoiding costly mistakes. Your knowledge of every detail of the environment gives you a piece of information that will help your survival and success.
2. The ability to observe any unfamiliar environment will become a critical lifelong skill. You will develop a habit of suppressing your ego and looking outward instead of inward. You will notice the details in every encounter that most people miss because they’re thinking of themselves. You will cultivate a keen eye for human psychology and strengthen your ability to focus.
Step 2: Skills Acquisition – The Practice Mode
This is the most critical part of the apprenticeship: practice toward the acquisition of skills. Language, oral and written, is a relatively recent invention. Well before that time, our ancestors had to learn various skills – toolmaking, hunting and so forth. The natural model for learning, largely based on the power of mirror neurons, came from watching and imitating others, then repeating the action over and over. Our brains are highly suited for this form of learning. Do things with your hands.
Step 3: Experimentation – The Active Mode
As you gain in skill and confidence, you must make the move to a more active mode of experimentation. This could mean taking on more responsibility, initiating a project, doing work that exposes you to the criticisms of peers or even the public. The point of this is to measure your progress and whether there are still gaps in your knowledge. You’re observing yourself in action and seeing how you respond to the judgment of others. You will know when your apprenticeship is over, by the feeling that you have nothing left to learn in this environment. The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.
Strategies for completing the ideal apprenticeship
Value learning over money
It’s a simple law of human psychology that your thoughts will tend to revolve around what you value most. If it’s money, you will choose a place for your apprenticeship that offers the biggest pay. Inevitably, in such a place you will feel greater pressures to prove yourself worthy of such pay, often before you are really ready. You will be focused on yourself, your insecurities, the need to please and impress the right people, and not on acquiring skills. It will be too costly for you to make mistakes and learn from them, so you will develop a cautious conservative approach. As you progress in life, you will become addicted to the fat paycheque and it will determine where you go, how you think, and what you do. Eventually, the time that was not spent on learning skills will catch up with you, and the fall will be painful.
Apprentice yourself in failure
Get comfortable with failure. When a machine malfunctions you do not take it personally or become discouraged. It is in fact a blessing in disguise. Such malfunctions generally show you inherent flaws and means of improvement. The flaws of your ideas are only revealed in their execution. You simply keep tinkering until you get it right.
3. Absorb the master’s power: the mentor dynamic
Life is short, and your time for learning and creativity is limited. Without any guidance, you can waste valuable years trying to gain knowledge and practice from various sources. Instead, you must follow the example set by Masters throughout the ages and find the proper mentor. The mentor-protégé relationship is the most efficient and productive form of learning. Choose the mentor who best fits your needs and connects to your Life’s Task. Once you have internalised their knowledge, you must move on and never remain in their shadow. Your goal is always to surpass your mentors in mastery and brilliance.
4. See people as they are: social intelligence
The principal problem we face in the social arena is our naïve tendency to project onto people our emotional needs and desires of the moment. We misread their intentions and react in ways that cause confusion or conflict. Social intelligence is the ability to see people in the most realistic light possible.
In all of your future interactions, try your best to force yourself to take an initial step backward and not get emotional. From this more detached position, focus completely on the people you are dealing with, cutting off your own insecurities and desires from the equation. Exercising this mindset every time will eventually turn into a habit.
To adopt this philosophy, it means complete and radical acceptance of human nature. People possess ingrained qualities and characters. Some are frivolous, vindictive or rigid. There are people like this everywhere, it has been that way since the dawn of civilisation.
To get upset or try to alter them is futile. It will only make them bitter and resentful. Better to accept such people as one accepts the thorns on a rose. Better to observe and accumulate knowledge on human nature. By following this path, you will rid yourself of the naiveté and bring a higher level of rationality to your social relations. In executing this mindset, you will notice how free you are from any feelings of bitterness or anger towards the people you interact with.
“Live and let live… To become indignant at people’s conduct is as foolish as to be angry with a stone because it rolls into your path” – Arthur Schopenhauer.
Final Message
We’re all in search of feeling more connected to reality – to other people, the times we live in, the natural world, our character, and our own uniqueness. Our culture increasingly tends to separate us from realities in various ways. We indulge in drugs or alcohol, or engage in dangerous sports or risky behaviour, just to wake ourselves up from the sleep of our daily existence and feel a heightened sense of connection to reality. In the end, however, the most satisfying and powerful way to feel this connection is through creative activity. Engaged in the creative process we feel more alive than ever, because we are making something and not merely consuming, Masters of the small reality we create. In doing this work, we are in fact creating ourselves.
Although it involves much pain, the pleasure that comes from the overall process of creativity is of an intensity that makes us want to repeat it. That’s why creative people return again and again to such endeavours, despite all of the anxiety and doubt. It’s nature’s way of rewarding us for the effort. If we had no such rewards, people would not engage in such activity, and mankind would suffer irreparably from this loss. This pleasure will be your reward as well.
You must maintain a sense of destiny and feel continuously connected to it. You’re unique, and there is a purpose to your uniqueness. You must see every setback, failure, or hardship as a trial along the way, as seeds that are being planted for further cultivation, if you know how to grow them. No moment is wasted if you pay attention and learn the lessons contained in every experience. By constantly applying yourself to the subject that suits your inclinations and attacking it from various angles, you are simply enriching the ground for these seeds to take root. You may not see this process in the present, but it is happening. Never losing your connection to your Life’s Task, you will unconsciously hit upon the right choices in your life. Over time, mastery will come to you.
PS: I have recently attended my first concert, witnessing Tom Odell at Alexandra Palace in London. For the first time in many years, I stood before true Masters. Feeling the sheer, raw passion that Tom and his band demonstrated was truly humbling and inspiring. Being in front of Masters and seeing their work right in front of your eyes, makes you feel a deep connection, and, for a fleeting moment, truly alive in the present.
You can find the full book on amazon here.
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