Mastery Paperback – October 29, 2013

There are countless self-help books--some good, some trite. Then there are self-help books that revolutionize the genre.Robert Greene's Mastery is such a book. It's Greene's fifth book broadly tackling the art of strategy, and like all his books, it's entertaining, educational, densely packed with biographies of powerful and interesting people, and almost completely devoid of fluff.Greene's overarching thesis challenges the conventional notion of "genius" as a genetic gift bestowed upon a handful of individuals--Mozart and Einstein immediately come to mind. To Greene, such a conception of genius is illusory. All "genius," Greene contends, is acquirable, and all masters, regardless of intrinsic ability, go through roughly the same process on their path towards mastery:1) Finding your Life's Task. Greene argues that there's an inner force that guides you towards what you're "destined" to accomplish. Once you discover your Life's Task, throw everything at it.2) Finding an ideal apprenticeship--the time when you hone the necessary skills and acquire the discipline vital to mastery.3) Finding the right mentor. This is the key to a fruitful apprenticeship, enabling you to absorb the master's knowledge and power. Greene cautions that you must know when it's time to sever ties with your mentor and craft your own path in order to prevent remaining in your mentor's shadow indefinitely. The goal, Greene advises, it to eventually surpass your mentor.4) Acquiring social intelligence. Social intelligence is an important theme in all of Greene's books. Quite simply, our personal and professional advancement will invariably stall if we don't learn to read people and deftly maneuver through the labyrinth of others' whims, passions, and ambitions.5) "Awaken the Dimensional Mind: The Creative-Active." This stage involves expanding your knowledge to fields related to your craft, thereby challenging you to "make new associations between different ideas." Greene believes this is a critical step to optimizing your creative output and achieving mastery.6) Fusing the intuitive with the rational. Greene argues that Einstein's discoveries can be as much attributed to his intuition as to his mathematical analysis grounded in pure reason. Practice and intimate knowledge of our field foster the integration of intuition with reason.For each stage, Greene outlines concrete steps to take to achieve these goals, including approaching difficult problems from unconventional angles or altering your perspective, embracing the holistic approach--i.e. utilizing and synchronizing the full range of resources and options your environment has to offer.One of the features that distinguishes Mastery from Greene's two other masterpieces, 33 Strategies of War and 48 Laws of Power, is its greater focus on the biographies of contemporary masters, most of whom are not well known to the general public. Greene delves into the lives of legendary masters like Mozart, Einstein, Goethe, Darwin, and da Vinci, but also of lesser known contemporary masters like software engineer and entrepreneur Paul Graham, animal scientist and inventor Temple Grandin, and linguistic archaeologist Daniel Everett, who cracked the previously thought to be indecipherable language of the reclusive Amazonian tribe, Piraha.Linking the human capacity for mastery to our biology and indeed, metaphysics, Greene writes in a veritably spiritual manner, making Mastery highly compelling and exceedingly motivational.The title Mastery is fitting, since Greene is undoubtedly a master in the art of strategy. It is amusing to hear some of his detractors bemoan the "amoral" nature of his books. Amoral virtues--be it courage, prudence, or temperament--are indispensable to achieving moral ends. A strategically inept well-meaning person will likely fail to achieve any significant good, because he is ill-prepared to deal with endless obstacles that stand in his way. Whereas a person well versed in the art of strategy and equipped with the amoral virtues necessary to overcome such obstacles, has the potential to achieve noble ends.The one area where I could quibble with Greene has to do with the age old debate over the role of nature vs. nurture. Since genetic makeup is a fixed variable outside of our control, it is perhaps pointless to dwell on its role in our development when writing a book about the concrete things we can actually do to better ourselves. Still, I wonder if Greene's unequivocal dismissal of the traditional interpretation of genius as inherent isn't to some extent mistaken. Regardless of how many thousands of hours Mozart spent studying his craft, is it really conceivable that any person of sound mind and body could replicate his success?I tend to think that there is something to be said about intrinsic genius; that there are masters who are born with an uncanny and natural ability to perceive things others do not and cannot, no matter how hard they try. Nevertheless, even if Greene errors in downplaying the role DNA plays in cultivating "genius," it in no way diminishes his strategy for acquiring mastery. Whether all of us can become the Einstein in our field makes little difference. What matters is that we can reach our maximum potential--become men and women in full--by following Greene's blueprint.

Mastery by Robert Greene delves into the life of masters and their road to success and self actualization within their life. The lessons derived from their lives reflect their habits, philosophy, world view and priorities. Each section delves into in depth lessons with mini biography narrative to showcase the real life wisdom it was derived from.Each story was curated from rigorous study and combing to find the most relevant and useful information on Greene's part. The stories build upon each other for each master and there are multiple nuggets of wisdom from each life Robert has selected to use as an example.Roberts Greene's "Mastery" is a masterpiece in itself and a testament to his own pursuit of mastery in research, analysis and writing. Mastery is treasure trove of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding that any ambitious apprentice will appreciate. Greene lays out the path to Mastery in a straightforward yet expansive landscape.Readers can expect to read this book multiple times in their lives. The book is jam packed with guidance and experience invaluable to anyone who is serious about any particular craft. The book serves as a historical account and testament of the true potential of humanity.Within these pages readers will be educated and taught the proper methods and techniques to mastering their field and building powerful legacy as a result.

Like all of Greene's work, this one is dedicated to a subject that we all know, but have never really read about. There are plenty of books on genius, creativity, learning, etc., and how we can develop these things, but there is no book on the subject of why "mastery" is so relevant today.The fundamental idea behind the book is simple: our brains, from thousands upon thousands of years of evolution, are wired to allow us to reach a high-level of intuition -- a deep, creative state of connection to our environment. And even more, the experience of this high-level intuition -- which requires thousands and thousands of hours of practice, experience, and experimentation -- constitutes the height of our potential. It's what gives us ultimate meaning in life.In the book, Greene outlines five essential steps to reaching this state and packs these steps with detailed examples, strategies, and insights. We get to know famous geniuses and creative types -- old and contemporary -- as they struggle on their journey towards mastery.The only criticism I would have of this book is that I don't feel it is the how-to book that Greene tries to make it out to be. It is much more a detailed account of the creative process by which many have achieved mastery than it is an instructional manual on how to actually do so. For example, the insights Greene gives in each chapter, although enlightening, do not present us with specific exercises by which anyone can practice each step in the mastery process. In this way, the book is much more a seed, a hint, of what's possible than it is a detailed program of action. (Greene has hinted on many accounts his disdain for "formulas for success" -- so this criticism may not be a criticism after all).Nonetheless, this book is an excellent read for anyone interested in what it takes to reach genius potential, or for anyone dissatisfied or anxious about the future of their success. Prophetic and inspirational, this is a book you'll want to return to over and over again, as with Greene's other amazing works.