The "one key" to mastery lacking in our generation

Long long time ago, before the introduction of the educational system like it is today, people learn skills through apprenticeship. For example, to become a blacksmith, you must find an experienced blacksmith who is willing to take you under his wings and stay with him for 5, 10 or 15 years to learn before you set out on your own.

Same goes for painting, writing, building business, philosophy and so on.

Socrates mentored Plato. The great Leonardo da Vinci learned under Andrea del Verrocchio. Thomas Edison mentored Henry Ford.

But today, this dynamic is changing—which is bad. Due to a lack of patience and with the internet at our disposal, we’re always on the lookout for shortcuts. That is why resources like, “How to become a professional copywriter in 30 days” is the order of the day.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but those shortcuts don’t work—at least not for long.

The only way to become a master in any field is to adopt the old way of learning—through apprenticeship.

One person I know who went deep into this topic is Robert Greene in his book, Mastery. I just finished reading it and here are a few takeaways:

• 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.
• The bring that we possess is the work of six million years of development, and more than anything else, this evolution of the brain was designed to lead us to mastery, the latent power within us all.
• It is the height of stupidity to believe that in the course of your short life, your few decades of consciousness, you can somehow rewire the configurations of your brain through technology and wishful thinking, overcoming the effect of 6 million years of development.
• Feeling motivated and energized we can overcome almost anything. Feeling bored and restless, our minds shut off and we become increasingly passive.
• Anything that is alive is in a continuous state of change and movement. The moment that you rest thinking that you have attained the level you desire, a part of your mind enters a phase of decay. You lose your hard-earned creativity and others begin to sense it. This is a power and intelligence that must be continually renewed or it will die.
• All of us are 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.
• In order to master a field, you must love this subject and feel a profound connection to it.
• No good can ever come from deviating from the part that you were destined to follow.
• You cannot have everything in the present. The road to mastery requires patience. You will have to keep your focus on five or 10 years down the road when you will reap the rewards of your efforts.
• In the end, the money and success that truly last come not to those who focus on such things as goals, but rather to those who focus on mastery and fulfilling their Life's Task.
• When you are faced with deficiencies instead of strengths and inclinations, this is the strategy you must assume: ignore your weaknesses and resist the temptation to be more like others.
• 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.
• When you enter a new environment, your task is to learn and absorb as much as possible. For that purpose, you must try to revert to a childlike feeling of inferiority—a feeling that others know much more than you and that you are dependent upon them to learn and safely navigate your apprenticeship.
• Mistakes and failures are precisely your means of education. They tell you about your own inadequacies. It is hard to find out such things from people as they are often political with their praise and criticisms.
• To learn requires a sense of humility. We must admit that there are people out there who know our field much more deeply than we do. Their superiority is not a function of natural talent or privilege but rather of time and experience.
• Masters are those who by nature have suffered to get to where they are. They have experienced endless criticisms of their work, doubts about their progress and setbacks along the way.
• When it is time to ask for a favour or help, you must think first of appealing to people's self-interest in some way. You must look at the world through their eyes, getting a sense of their needs.
• The greatest impediment to creativity is your impatience, the almost inevitable desire to hurry up the process, express something and make a splash. What happens in such a case is that you do not master the basics; you have no real vocabulary at your disposal. What you mistake for being creative and distinctive is more likely an imitation of other people's style or personal rantings that do not really express anything.

Which of these nuggets resonates with you?