Pursuing Mastery

In his book Mastery, author Robert Greene offers a comprehensive discourse on the process of mastery. He writes:

“Let us say we are learning the piano, or entering a new job where we must acquire certain skills. In the beginning, we are outsiders. Our initial impressions of the piano or the work environment are based on prejudgments, and often contain an element of fear. When we first study the piano, the keyboard looks rather intimidating—we don’t understand the relationships between the keys, the chords, the pedals, and everything else that goes into creating music. In a new job situation, we are ignorant of the power relationships between people, the psychology of our boss, the rules and procedures that are considered critical for success. We are confused—the knowledge we need in both cases is over our heads.

Although we might enter these situations with excitement about what we can learn or do with our new skills, we quickly realize how much hard work there is ahead of us. The great danger is that we give in to feelings of boredom, impatience, fear, and confusion. We stop observing and learning. The process comes to a halt.

If, on the other hand, we manage these emotions and allow time to take its course, something remarkable begins to take shape. As we continue to observe and follow the lead of others, we gain clarity, learning the rules and seeing how things work and fit together. If we keep practicing, we gain fluency; basic skills are mastered, allowing us to take on newer and more exciting challenges. We begin to see connections that were invisible to us before. We slowly gain confidence in our ability to solve problems or overcome weaknesses through sheer persistence.

At a certain point, we move from student to practitioner. We try out our own ideas, gaining valuable feedback in the process. We use our expanding knowledge in ways that are increasingly creative. Instead of just learning how others do things, we bring our own style and individuality into play.

As years go by and we remain faithful to this process, yet another leap takes place—to mastery. The keyboard is no longer something outside of us; it is internalized and becomes part of our nervous system, our fingertips. In our career, we now have a feel for the group dynamic, the current state of business. We can apply this feel to social situations, seeing deeper into other people and anticipating their reactions. We can make decisions that are rapid and highly creative. Ideas come to us. We have learned the rules so well that we can now be the ones to break or rewrite them.”

Eventually, Greene lays out a three-step sequence on the path toward mastery.

Step 1: Apprenticeship

The first step to attain mastery is the apprenticeship phase. We have to admit what we don’t know and seek out a master to learn from. This isn’t easy. It’s called humility, and it strikes at our pride.

Step 2: Creative-Active

We begin to apply what we know in the reality of the world. This gives us a chance to test the theory of what we have learned and what we think. It’s the learning-by-doing phase.

Step 3: Mastery

Stay focused long enough, hone the right skills, put in enough time, and you can attain mastery. It’s true mastery, not the illusion of mastery created by our warping and twisting to satisfy our egos.

In some schools of thought, going through this process embeds two treasures in a person. One is the skill in whatever they have mastered. In some cases, this skill can a person earn a living. In other cases, it will help them create nice things or do something well. The second treasure is the values the process instills. Characteristics like humility, patience, perseverance, industry, and fidelity are some traditional values cultivated by the process. In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey says these character traits were the focus for success until the 1920s. He wrote,

“…almost all the literature in the first 150 years or so focused on what could be called the Character Ethic as the foundation of success - things like integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justic, patience, industry, simplicity, modest, and the Golden Rule…The Character Ethic taught that there are basic principles of effecive living, and that people can only experience true succes and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.”

The hardest parts, according to Greene, are avoiding the temptation to shortcut the process or quit at the stage of “good enough.” Elon Musk once said running a business is “like staring into the abyss and eating glass.” You might say they are describing the same thing. Whether it’s running a business or mastering a craft; solving the hard problems is the hard part.

Young or old, understanding this approach can be helpful. It’s never too early, or too late, to decide you are going to pursue the path of mastery. Hopefully, the content library on this site can help you understand the basics of some traditional crafts. From there, you can reach out and connect with people who can guide you down the rocky road of craft mastery.