eConsultant Book Reviews

Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment by George Leonard

Summary

George Leonard has written a powerful book about the need to avoid bottom-line thinking and instead focus on mastery.

Notes

Take any activity and you'll find people performing at four different levels of participation.
1. The Dabbler
The Dabbler's learning curve rises very quickly, meets an obstacle and then drops to zero, since the dabbler gives up the activity and goes on to another; repeating the same curve on different activities.
2. The Obsessive
The Obsessive's learning curve rises quickly, meets obstacles, which The Obsessive tackles by redoubling his effort, getting more books and tools and trying to figure out ways to get better results faster and cheaper, and then burns out in a short while when he finds that the curve is not a straight line upwards.
3. The Hacker
The Hacker's learning curve rises quickly, meets an obstacle or two and then plateaus out on a straight line. The Hacker doesn't consider the need for more instruction or rising above that level. He is content with level reached and plans to stay at that level.
4. The Master
The Master's learning curve rises quickly, plateaus for a while, and with consistent practice, rises again with some regression and plateaus again for a while and so on. The Master knows that Mastery is a lifetime path. The Master enjoys living on the plateau. The Master knows that while he is on the plateau, learning is happening and practice will inevitably raise him to a higher level.

The Five Keys to Mastery
Key 1: INSTRUCTION - get an instructor.
Key 2: PRACTICE - learn to love the plateau and practice for the sake of practice.
Key 3: SURRENDER - surrender to the learning process and the learning curve.
Key 4: INTENTIONALITY - bring all of your willpower and the mental game to the learning.
Key 5: THE EDGE - focus on the fundamentals and the leading-edge.

Check out this blog for more info from the book : Blog : The Five Keys to Mastery

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Book Reviews Index :

100 Simple Secrets of Happy People by David Niven | 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People by David Niven | 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler | Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy | Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi | Focal Point by Brian Tracy | Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen | Gig by John Bowe | It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be by Paul Arden | It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Michael Abrashoff | Keep Your Brain Alive by by Lawrence C Katz & Manning Rubin | Learned Optimism by Dr Martin E P Seligman | Life Strategies by Phil McGraw | Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment by George Leonard | Never Wrestle with a Pig by Mark H McCormack | Please Don't Just Do What I Tell You by Bob Nelson | Rules for Revolutionaries by Guy Kawasaki | The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum Smith | The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success by Brian Tracy | The Brand You 50 by Tom Peters | The Power of Optimism by Alan Loy McGinnis | The Professional Service Firm 50 by Tom Peters | The Project 50 by Tom Peters | The War of Art by Steven Pressfield | The Wisdom of Teams by Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith | Thriving in 24/7 by Sally Helgesen | Time Tactics of Very Successful People by B. Eugene Griessman | Weird Ideas That Work: 11 1/2 Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation by Robert I. Sutton