Often the greatest obstacle to our pursuit of mastery comes from the emotional drain we experience in dealing with the resistance and manipulations of the people around us. If we are not careful, our minds become absorbed in endless political intrigues and battles.
The principal problem we face in the social arena is our naïve tendency to project onto people our emotional needs and desires of the moment. We misread their intentions and react in ways that cause confusion or conflict. Social intelligence is the ability to see people in the most realistic light possible. By moving past our usual self-absorption, we can learn to focus deeply on others, reading their behavior in the moment, seeing what motivates them, and discerning any possible manipulative tendencies. Navigating smoothly the social environment, we have more time and energy to focus on learning and acquiring skills. Success attained without this intelligence is not true mastery, and will not last. Mastery by Robert Greene The model goes like this:
You want to learn as many skills as possible, following the direction that circumstances lead you to, but only if they are related to your deepest interests. Like a hacker, you value the process of self-discovery and making things that are of the highest quality. You avoid the trap of following one set career path. You are not sure where this will all lead, but you are taking full advantage of the openness of information, all of the knowledge about skills now at our disposal. You see what kind of work suits you and what you want to avoid at all cost. You move by trial and error. This is how you pass your twenties. You are the programmer of this wide-ranging apprenticeship, within the loose constraints of your personal interests. You are not wandering about because you are afraid of commitment, but because you are expanding your skill base and your possibilities. At a certain point, when you are ready to settle on something, ideas and opportunities will inevitably present themselves to you. When that happens, all of the skills you have accumulated will prove invaluable. You will be the Master at combining them in ways that are unique and suited to your individuality. You may settle on this one place or idea for several years, accumulating in the process even more skills, then move in a slightly different direction when the time is appropriate. In this new age, those who follow a rigid, singular path in their youth often find themselves in a career dead end in their forties, or overwhelmed with boredom. The wide-ranging apprenticeship of your twenties will yield the opposite—expanding possibilities as you get older. Mastery by Robert Greene No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength.”
Or, as Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” You have to find a way to survive that adjustment period of shock and help others get through it. You have to find a way to limit denial. The place to start is with the opposite of denial: acceptance. If you have the imagination to accept that aliens are invading or that the dead are walking, then you’ll have the imagination to accept that this earthquake is indeed the Big One. The more you can accept that things have changed, the less time you’ll waste on denial and “milling” (disaster-speak for checking in with other people and doing nothing) and the sooner you will take action. If the shit really hits the fan, I’ll take a semi-decent plan right now over a good plan in ten minutes or a perfect plan later. The faster you can accept that everything has changed, that everything you’ve worked for all your life is now gone, the better off you’ll be during the apocalypse. I’m not talking about actually redefining reality; I’m talking about adopting an attitude—“What’s right in front of me?” It’s about looking at what you see without preconceptions. If you start limiting your emergency plans to only what you think is likely, then you’re screwed. The Disaster Diaries: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse by Sam Sheridan Although you must submit to the authority of mentors in order to learn from and absorb their power to the highest degree, this does not mean you remain passive in the process. At certain critical points, you can set and determine the dynamic, personalize it to suit your purposes. The following four strategies are designed to help you exploit the relationship to the fullest and transform the knowledge you gain into creative energy.
Choose the mentor according to your needs and inclinations. The choice of the right mentor is more important than you might imagine. Because so much of her future influence upon you can be deeper than you are consciously aware of, the wrong choice can have a net negative effect upon your journey to mastery. In selecting a mentor, you will want to keep in mind your inclinations and Life’s Task, the future position you envision for yourself. The mentor you choose should be strategically aligned with this. If your path is in a more revolutionary direction, you will want a mentor who is open, progressive, and not domineering. If your ideal aligns more with a style that is somewhat idiosyncratic, you will want a mentor who will make you feel comfortable with this and help you transform your peculiarities into mastery, instead of trying to squelch them. Mastery by Robert Greene Some time ago, an American reporter traveled to Tibet to interview a wise old Zen master. When the two sat down for tea, instead of letting the Zen master do the talking, the reporter began to brag about all the things he knew about life! The guy ranted on and on while the master poured the reporter’s tea. As he endlessly babbled, the tea quickly rose to the rim of his cup and began spilling all over the floor. The reporter finally stopped yakking and said with surprise, “What are you doing? You can’t pour in any more! The cup is overflowing!” “Yes,” responded the wise master. “This teacup, like your mind, is so full of ideas that there is no room for new information. You must first empty your head before any new knowledge can enter.” Be open to new ideas, but do not believe what I tell you.
CA$HVERTISING: How to Use More than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make Big Money Selling Anything to Anyone by Drew Eric Whitman Do one thing, do it better than anyone else, and get paid extraordinarily well for your talent.4/4/2013
Do one thing, do it better than anyone else, and get paid extraordinarily well for your talent.
Choose a niche (e.g., 1960’s Mustangs) and then create a simple site and post related products and services. The easiest way to do this is to contact existing sellers (e.g., car dealers, parts manufacturers/distributors, etc.), negotiate a percentage of each sale consummated to be paid to you as a commission, and utilize their existing content. The riches are in the niches. Do one thing, do it better than anyone else, and get paid extraordinarily well for your specific talent. Test the waters to determine if there’s a market for a particular idea. Offer a meaningful discount or perk to generate initial interest (in this case, a free report). Wait until you have an order. Create the product. Internet Prophets: The World's Leading Experts Reveal How to Profit Online by Steve Olsher The key to getting to being remarkable in anything is to act with the intention of being remarkable4/3/2013
“For a long time, I’ve known that the key to getting started down the path of being remarkable in anything is to simply act with the intention of being remarkable. “If I want a better-than-average career, I can’t simply ‘go with the flow’ and get it. Most people do just that: they wish for an outcome but make no intention-driven actions toward that outcome. If they would just do something most people would find that they get some version of the outcome they’re looking for. That’s been my secret. Stop wishing and start doing.
The 4-Hour Body: by Timothy Ferriss Like Michael Ondaatje writes, “All I ever wanted was a world without maps.”
The English Patient is full of knowledge: We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on my body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography—to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience. Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir by Eddie Huang What is my unique selling proposition or USP? (Why do my clients buy from me—what is it about my product and/or service that distinguishes me from my competition? Do I have more than one USP for different product/service lines or segments of my business?)
Is my USP a consistent theme in all of my marketing and sales efforts? If yes, how, and if no, why not? Briefly describe my marketing program or marketing mix (all the different types of marketing I use and how they interrelate—i.e., sales letters, direct mail, direct sales, personal networking inside, outside my company, industry, marketplace, Yellow Pages, spot advertisements, etc.). What do my clients really want (be specific, don’t just answer “a quality product or service”)? How do I know? Do clients buy from me exclusively or do they also patronize my competitors? What steps can I take to get the main portion of their business (preempt and dominate)? What’s my market potential (universe) and my current share of that market? 30. What does it cost me to get a new client? (If I ran an advertisement that cost $1,000 and I obtained two new clients, my cost would be $500.) Translate this to whatever your acquisition cost is. What is my biggest and best source of new business, and am I doing everything possible to secure this business? What has been my biggest marketing success to date (defined as a specific promotion, advertising campaign, sales letter, etc.)? Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition by Jay Abraham |
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