Mastery

This week I had the opportunity to read the first several chapters of Mastery by George Leonard.  In his book, he talks about three different personalities the dabbler, the obsessive, and the hacker.  It was interesting to evaluate myself in these three personalities, I am sure I have spent my life in all three of these personalities.

The Dabbler- When I was young I think I found myself in this category seeing everything around me as an opportunity.  I still find myself even today looking at a variety of business opportunities and dreaming about how I can make them successful.  I get that fleeting excitement until I did into and see the work involved. 

The Obsessive- I have found myself as an obsessive in business a lot.  I get my mind focused on something and I just can’t let it go.  I have a specific vision about something, and I drive and drive towards it without stopping, analyzing, and seeing other options around me.  I can often focus and force.

The Hacker- When I was young I was always a hacker.  I always looked for every opportunity to get to the end of something in the shortest path.  When I attended Ricks College years ago, I read the entire school handbook. I found in the handbook that if I could take an advanced class I could buy all the prerequisites for just $5 a credit.  It worked great!  I convinced the professors to let me into those advanced classes and I got bad grades but it was enough to buy the lower credits.  The problem is that I never learned what I needed very well.

Later in life I learned more about mastery and the advantage of becoming a master.  I hope to write more about this as I continue my study about mastery. 

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