The Pomp Letter - Pomp's Notes on Mastery
To investors, I have been reading approximately one book per week this year. Usually I share my personal notes with a small group of friends privately, but I am going to try sharing them publicly each Monday morning to see if they are helpful to you. This past week’s book was Robert Greene’s Mastery. Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here. Hope you enjoy these notes. Book’s main argument:The mastery of a subject has become an outdated idea. Most people associate mastery with genius or natural skill. The truth is that mastery is almost always accomplished by intense focus and hard work over a decade or more. This book explains how to build mastery in the modern world. 9 Big Ideas:💡 Idea #1 — Mastery is not an elusive topic, but rather something that we can accomplish by leveraging the full potential of our brain. Robert writes:
Robert writes later in the book:
💡 Idea #2 — Historical examples of true mastery are usually the product of a long apprenticeship that allows the younger individual to gain knowledge and experience. Robert writes:
💡 Idea #3 — Building mastery is difficult. You must identify your Life’s Task in order to stay motivated and disciplined when things get tough. Robert writes:
💡 Idea #4 — True mastery is not found in the conventional route. You must forge your own path and figure out your niche of expertise. Robert writes:
💡 Idea #5 — Mastery is on the other side of self-doubt, comfort, and general laziness. Robert writes:
💡 Idea #6 — Mastery is ultimately rooted in intuition and memory. We can increase the efficacy of both if we understand how they work. Robert writes:
💡 Idea #7 — Most people simply believe that time spent studying something is good enough, but the truth is that you need high intensity and focus. The quality of the time matters. Robert writes:
💡 Idea #8 — Mastery does not only apply to creative endeavors, but rather it applies to startups and entrepreneurs too. Robert writes:
Robert also wrote:
💡 Idea #9 — The idea of mastery may be changing due to technology and the modern world. This doesn’t mean mastery is not possible, but rather we may need to focus on new things. Robert writes:
Case Study — Albert Einstein:
Memorable quotes:
Pomp’s Takeaways:I really enjoyed this book. Robert Greene does a good job making it entertaining, yet informative and actionable. One of my main takeaways is that mastery takes time. There are many skills that I have been practicing for approximately 5 years. That is only about 50% of the way to the 10 year timeline of intense study that Greene points out is needed for true mastery. Good reminder that we all must stay persistent, disciplined, and obsessed with learning. The second big takeaway was around my daughter. Robert talks about following your interests. My wife and I discussed how we wanted to expose our daughter to different activities and industries early in her life and then allow her to pick what she is interested in. At that point, and only at that point, can my wife and I be helpful in pushing her to develop mastery in her given field. Lastly, the different stories throughout the book reminded me of how powerful it has been to forge your own path throughout history. There is example after example of a well-known inventor, athlete, or musician bucking the conventional trend with the hopes of finding success their own way. This is relevant today with so many people building companies today, whether venture-backed or not, so if you are one of those people…know you are in great company. As I mentioned, this past week’s book was Robert Greene’s Mastery. Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here. Hope you enjoyed these notes. Let me know if you would like me to continue writing these in the future. -Pomp Note: Make sure you are subscribed to receive these personal notes each Monday morning. You’re a free subscriber to The Pomp Letter. For the full experience, become a paid subscriber. |
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