352 pages
In Mastery, Greene lays out a solid foundation of how to become a master of something. This is primarily related to vocation, but I guess you could become a master of nearly anything. The timeless principles in this book should not be overlooked. Much like The 48 Laws of Power, but maybe even more so, this book should be required reading during your senior year of high school. It is more complicated than that, but here is the crux of it all. Mountains of hard work + Even more time and persistence = Mastery. Go read this book.
Two of my favorite quotes:
“Understand: the greatest impediment to creativity is your impatience, the almost inevitable desire to hurry up the process, express something, and make a splash. What happens in such a case is that you do not master the basics; you have no real vocabulary at your disposal. What you mistake for being creative and distinctive is more likely an imitation of other people’s style, or personal rantings that do not really express anything. Audiences, however, are hard to fool.”
“Our levels of desire, patience, persistence, and confidence end up playing a much larger role in success than sheer reasoning powers. Feeling motivated and energized, we can overcome almost anything. Feeling bored and restless, our minds shut off and we become increasingly passive.”
