Mastery by Robert Greene

Mastery by Robert Greene

What makes some people extraordinarily good at what they do? Is it talent, intelligence, opportunity — or something that develops slowly, almost invisibly, over time? In Mastery, Robert Greene explores the long road between curiosity and exceptional ability. Rather than concentrating only on achievement itself, he turns his attention to the process that precedes it: the years of learning, observation, discipline and experimentation that shape a person before the world recognizes what they have become.

Greene draws upon the lives of remarkable figures, including Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein, as well as other artists, scientists and innovators. Their stories give the book its human dimension. Behind extraordinary accomplishments are often periods of uncertainty, intense learning and persistent work that are rarely visible in the finished achievement. What makes Mastery particularly intriguing is the question beneath the stories: perhaps extraordinary ability is not something possessed only by a fortunate few, but something that can be developed through the way we choose to learn, work and think.

Greene's exploration becomes increasingly interesting as he considers what happens when knowledge moves beyond imitation and begins to become one's own. At that point, experience can produce something more elusive — intuition, originality and a distinctive way of seeing the world. But the pleasure of Mastery lies in discovering how Greene develops these ideas through the people he chooses and the patterns he finds among their very different lives.This is not a book to reduce to a collection of motivational quotations. It is an invitation to think about what we might become capable of if we gave ourselves enough time to become very good at something. And perhaps that is the question worth taking into the book:

What would you devote yourself to mastering?