I love this book, along with Robert Greene's other works. I learn something new every time I return to it. I come away with new strategies and points to research. Mastery in particular takes a look at the key phases of your journey in pursuit of mastery, as well as the principles thereof. He uses real world examples both old and new to illustrate each step and principle. Robert has an amazing skill of weaving principles with illustrative examples. If the only non-fiction I read for the rest of my life was Robert Greene, I'd be cool with that.
Key Takeaways
Memorable Quotes
Rating: 10/10
I took away 10+ actionable and illuminating principles and pieces of advice. I see no downsides to reading this book. The time it takes to read and digest is well worth it. I'd recommend it to anyone trying to excel in their life.
Key Takeaways
- You can't achieve mastery in your field by following the same steps as those ahead of you. You must learn from the best, but you then must adapt what you learn to your own unique path and situation.
- There are three key parts to mastery:
- Identifying your calling – self discovery
- Apprenticeship – absorb and learn from other masters
- Exploration and Mastery – develop and exercise your rational intuition
- To make your own mastery, pursue the blue ocean strategy – make your own corner of the world that you can master.
- Develop social intelligence – learn to see people as they are. This will allow you to avoid pitfalls and traps as you navigate the journey to mastery.
Memorable Quotes
- Think of it this way: There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn. Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done.
- The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.
- People around you, constantly under the pull of their emotions, change their ideas by the day or by the hour, depending on their mood. You must never assume that what people say or do in a particular moment is a statement of their permanent desires.
- In the future, the great division will be between those who have trained themselves to handle these complexities and those who are overwhelmed by them -- those who can acquire skills and discipline their minds and those who are irrevocably distracted by all the media around them and can enver focus enough to learn.
- We are 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 these realities in various ways. We indulge in drugs or alcohol, or engage in dangerous sports or risky behavior, 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.
- The passive ironic attitude is not cool or romantic, but pathetic and destructive.
- It is in fact the height of selfishness to merely consume what others create and to retreat into a shell of limited goals and immediate pleasures.
- The conventional mind is passive - it consumes information and regurgitates it in familiar forms. The dimensional mind is active, transforming everything it digests into something new and original, creating instead of consuming.
Rating: 10/10
I took away 10+ actionable and illuminating principles and pieces of advice. I see no downsides to reading this book. The time it takes to read and digest is well worth it. I'd recommend it to anyone trying to excel in their life.