How To Become A Master Of Your Craft : A Lesson From Robert Green

Around the late 1980s, many boxing fans were amazed by the speed and ease with which Mike Tyson knocked out most of his opponents. At one point, his knock-out timing became too short that while some of his fans were still purchasing tickets to watch a ten to twelve round of fight that was expected to last for about an hour or more, the ferocious Mike Tyson had already knocked out his opponent to end the fight in less than one minute. 

Although he was able to knock out most of his boxing opponents in a few minutes or even seconds, the perfection of his boxing skill took several years of dedication to channel his material and non-material resources into one of the greatest wonders ever seen in the entertainment world and boxing history. Being raised in the rough and dangerous neighborhood of Brownsville Brooklyn, and having lived in fear of most people around him, Mike Tyson was able to channel and transform his fear into a level of defensive aggression that manifested into one of the best arts in the boxing world. He once confessed that one of the secrets to his boxing style and strength was that he wanted to be up more than the people around him wanted him to be down. That meant that he had to be more aggressive than all the other people around him were. 

Just like Mike Tyson distinguished his craft by devoting his material and non-material resources to his craft, some other distinguished athletes in history like Usain Bolt, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan devoted several years of their lives to discover, develop and manifest the great performances that may only take a few minutes or hours to deliver. Other effective and distinguished people from different fields devoted several years of their lives to achieve the level of mastery that distinguished them in history. Even the big and enduring companies that have provided some of the greatest products and services through the centuries took several years and even decades to discover, develop and deliver the products and services that distinguished them in the world. And just like the individuals and firms, each individual can also achieve freedom and enduring happiness by devoting the necessary time and resources to discover, develop and manifest their unique gifts to the world. The process of mastery can be compared with the process of growing the cocoa tree, which requires several years of constant manuring, watering and pruning for it to mature and start bearing fruits for many more years to come. And this mastery is the most important element for people to steadily participate and contribute to a growing socio-industrial network. 

Mastery in selling is never accidental

In “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill expressed the necessity of specialized knowledge in a particular field, which enables individuals to focus their energy to a field to avoid being a jack of all trades and master of none. This mastery enables you to make the best product or service you can such that your customer’s experience with your products and services will make them want more, and even bring their friends and relatives to become your new customers. For no amount of shouting, branding, marketing or advertisements can compensate for a bad product or service. 

Marketing and advertisements get you seen by the people, but it is your good product and services that can keep your old clients and still attract you more clients. For word of mouth is both the most powerful marketing strategy and also the most destructive instrument if you do not handle your products well. If the word of mouth from your already existing clients is not bringing in new clients based on their personal experience with your products and services, there is a high probability that it is blocking your new clients. So, you must devote yourself to attain mastery first in your products and services before moving into the next level which is selling or marketing your products and services. Marketing is only the beginning of scaling for the mastery of your craft, your skill or your products. If you lack mastery of the craft, there is nothing tangible to market or scale. And even if you succeed in selling a few pieces in the beginning, you cannot sustain sales if people are not getting their desired satisfaction and convenience from your products or services.

In his book, titled Mastery, Robert Greene showed the step-by-step process through which people can attain mastery in their various fields of human endeavor through devoting themselves to discover, develop and manifest their unique talents, passions and gifts to the service of people in their communities, nations and all over the world. This process of mastery includes discovering your unique calling or specific life’s task, submitting to reality as an apprentice, getting a mentor, seeing people as they are, awakening your personal creativity mind and combining the spontaneous with the rational. We will later use these six steps to show how people can attain lasting freedom and enduring happiness from selling. 

Find out more in the book “Sell Your Way To Freedom” by Ekene Uchenu