What would you say is the common denominator of all truly successful people?
What have they done that enabled them to rise above the rest of the crowd?
Why do others give them such respect and admiration?
For sure, successful people are usually smart, motivated, hard-working, and so on, but these aren’t the fundamental reasons for their success. They can’t charge patients or clients for their intelligence, energy level, or work ethic.
What they can charge more for and what serves as the foundation of every wildly successful business venture is MASTERY – an extraordinary ability to do something that others find valuable.
That’s what it boils down to: You have to master something that others find valuable. That means you have to be so good that people talk about you and your work. You’ll have fans. You’ll get sought out for advice. People will pay you premiums for your work.
Does mastering something mean that you have to be the best in the world? Absolutely not, (but feel free to strive for this!). It simply means to become highly skilled in something or acquire a complete understanding of it.
This principle applies to any undertaking in life and business. This applies whether you work for someone or for yourself: If you haven’t mastered something that your clientele or employer finds very valuable, don’t expect much success.
Many people settle for mediocrity and are rewarded accordingly out in the world: mediocre pay, mediocre acknowledgement, and mediocre status.
Mastery, however, shines like a lighthouse in our society. Mastery attracts attention and business. Mastery is instinctively respected and admired by others.
Everyone in the world who has achieved real, honest success has mastered something.
When you watch an interview with a brilliant and successful doctor or business person or artist, you might think, “Some are chosen to create brilliant work, and the rest of us just weren’t born to it. Lucky him.”
What you usually miss from those interviews, however, are the stories of the hours, days, weeks, months, and years of dedicated, grueling practice and perseverance that it took to get there.
And that, in the beginning, when that person was just another face in the crowed, a decision was made by this person: “This is the thing I will dedicate my working life to.” The first step on the road to mastery is to make a conscious decision about what you will master. Do not WAIT for it. Decide. Then focus, focus, focus.
Think deeply about the core demands of your craft. What is needed to advance in mastery of it? What courses do you need to take? Do you have a mentor you can consult? How much time are you able to devote to it?
Also, what distractions do you need to shut out? Distraction pulls us in all directions. The boredom of repetition drives us to other interests. The pressures of culture make us worry we are missing out on something “important” by dedicating ourselves to our pursuit of mastery.
Obviously, you can, and should, have family, cats, dogs, gardens, friends, hobbies and other interests. These are important to a “full” life across the boards.
However, there is a lot of pleasure to be had from becoming a true master of something. So, decide what you would like to be a master of and go for it. All the way. Focus, focus, focus.
And enjoy!
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