Think back to a time where you were trying to master some skill (other than game). Maybe it was a sport or a musical instrument, it doesn’t matter what it was. Think of the long hours you put in, the excitement of learning something new. The goal of proficiency and mastery off somewhere beyond the horizon. You knew that it was only a matter of time before it started to get easier. Just a matter of time and practice before you became ‘good’ at it. That desire to succeed, to triumph after others had fallen by the wayside, driving you onwards, driving you to make sacrifices for your passion. It was all you could think about, all you could talk about, it consumed your every waking thought and filled your dreams at night.
Slowly but surely the skills came to you. No longer were you one of the newbies trying to learn and understand. No longer on the outside looking in, yearning to be THAT guy, you were now a part of it all. Somewhere, in the midst of all of it, you became the knowledgeable master, the guy that others looked at in awe, the one that others wanted to learn from. Along with mastery also came a sense of accomplishment. A feeling of satisfaction for what you have achieved. The skill had become a part of who you are and how you see yourself in the world.
Now think back to when you started your journey to mastery. Did you imagine all the long hours of tedious practice? Maybe many hundreds of hours of discomfort and pain, setbacks, and false starts? No, these typically aren’t the things we imagine are part and parcel of learning a skill, and yet there is often no other way to learn. These things also add to our sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. The mistakes, the screw ups, and the failures often are more instructive than the successes.
Sometimes I think of some of the skills I’ve acquired and some of those that I’ve tried to pass on to others. There have been several guys and gals we hired straight out of college for highly technical jobs that they were ostensively qualified to do based on their degree. I gave them the pep talk, informed them that after working in the job for four years they will start to understand the requirements and feel confident in their abilities. Did they listen or understand what I was telling them? No. They wanted to be promoted up the chain right away. They wanted to make 175% higher salary than every other new college grad. They were highly disappointed when I informed them that their highly specialized college course work was not something that most in the field ever got to do, and definitely not something some wet behind the ears graduate will be responsible for.
Most of these grad never wanted to put in the boring work to master the skill. The colleges did not do them any favors either. The colleges didn’t provide them with the skill set to actually do the technical jobs they’re supposedly going to school to learn. Instead they fill their head with theoretical ideas that look good on paper, but are impractical in the world where someone has to pay the bills. They were also so afraid of making a mistake that they were paralyzed with indecision. Few of them lasted very long. No time for the boring stuff, don’t ya know.
