Robert Greene’s Mastery is the cornerstone of an entrepreneur’s education. This fantastic book is filled with dozens of key points of masterful cognition, concisely packed alongside examples from history, both recent and long past. We will delve into the topic of Mastery in a 3 part series outlining a few golden nuggets which are highly necessary for crafting your self-mastery.
The Kinds of Failure.
You have to constantly push and challenge yourself to grow. You may at first be hesitant to do this due to fear of failure, to rid yourself of this you only need to change your view of failure. There are two kinds of failure:
- Failure from never trying something and failing.
- Failure from trying something out.
You will never learn from the first kind of failure, but the second is what careers are made of. You can’t chop down a tree in but a few swings, it will take many swings to chop it down, are the first swings of the ax worthless? No, they built the groundwork that caused the tree to fall, even if they seemed to have no impact, they provided knowledge and experience; two things that can only be achieved from trying.
To achieve greatness in a field you will need to learn the how and what of it, to truly know the ins and outs, the inside of the machine so to speak. Push yourself to learn as much as you can, knowledge is worth more than all the riches of the world. Even if you were to lose everything tomorrow you would be able to return to your original position due to your knowledge and experience.
What you will look to get from others.
People nowadays will only give you soft criticism, they are too afraid of hearting you to really tell you if something is wrong. You must cultivate an environment around you that gives you honest and harsh feedback. Do not lash out against criticism, pool in yourself a sense of humility when putting an ear to others’ thoughts on your work, do not think yourself above their words or that they do not truly understand.
The Seven Deadly realities.
The seven deadly realities are seven flaws that all humans have we must do our best to mitigate them in ourselves and exploit them in others.
- Envy. Avoid letting yourself lusting for the “greener grass” on the other side. Use what you have; you can do wonders from wherever you stand with enough knowledge.
- Conformism. Do not let yourself or others drag you do to their level of work; make your unique way.
- Rigidity. Keep yourself fluid and don’t get suck in your ways, listen to the feedback of others and change accordingly.
- Self-obsessiveness. Remember to tame your hubris, do not let it control you. Don’t focus on yourself and become closed off to others.
- Laziness. It may be easy to get stuck in a mental quagmire, slushing about inside your head not doing or wanting to do anything. It is imperative to be able to escape this thought trap so that you do not waste time and energy doing nothing.
- Flightiness. You must watch your consistency and do not let it waver, no matter the task is you should attack it with the same fervor as always.
- Passive aggression. Do not lower yourself to passive aggression, but let others know you will not tolerate it. It is better to leave a score unsettled then to retaliate.
Click here for Part 3 of our Mastery Series.
Eric Deegear is an entrepreneur, author, therapist, motivational speaker & business coach. He holds a psychology degree and several therapeutic licenses. After creating and applying successful principles in his personal life, he began to utilize his skills professionally to help those looking to change their lives for the better.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the incredible amounts of deep inner work that are required for life and work. Change happens one step at a time with Deegear Coaching.