Mastery: What is it really?

 

On Mastery

Back in the early part of the twentieth century, Andres Segovia was considered the greatest Spanish guitarist of all time. He continued to perform and record until 1977 when he was 84 years old! In addition to performing, he also was a dedicated teacher of the guitar method he made famous.

The Maestro

After retiring from performing, he began teaching younger players his technique on a full-time basis. One day, a group of students showed up at his studio for their lesson. As they’d arrived a few minutes early, they were able to sit and listen to the master finishing up his own practice session. The students were amazed at his still formidable skills.

When he finished Segovia opened the door and invited the students in. One of the students asked him why he continued to practice so diligently at the ripe old age of 90. (He lived to be 94.)

Segovia replied, “Because I’m beginning to see some improvement.”

I love this story because it illustrates, perfectly, the notion behind mastery.

I’m frequently amazed at people who think they have nothing to learn, especially when it comes to topics on which they are “expert.” Because of their success they believe they have nothing more to gain by opening their minds, seeing other expert’s techniques, asking other folks how they do it.

One of the greatest compliments I ever received was from a man called Bill that I considered a mentor. (He was my boss’ boss.) I was a raw sales trainer with all of a year’s experience and he happened to drop into a class I was leading. The subject had to do with the fundamentals of audio equipment and my boss was a stickler for people learning the theory behind the equipment; they even had to pass a written exam before being certified to sell.

Anyway, I’d learned that the easiest way for people to truly learn something like this was to relate it to something they already knew. This analogous technique is very effective for getting knowledge into one’s long-term memory; at least, long enough to pass a test! (This phenomenon is known as the Ebbinghaus Curve – how quickly we forget something after learning it.) The other trainers I’d been watching had a bunch of stock analogies that they could use for most of the class. I had been stealing them, too, as they made sense to me.

At the same time, we had people coming to class for whom the old analogies weren’t applicable as they were younger or of a different social stratum or had alternative interests. As a result, I had begun asking people their hobbies, interests, and fascinations as part of the class. This allowed me to come up with new analogies on the fly that more closely matched the students.

Bill watched me in action that afternoon and came up to me on a break. He congratulated me on the way the class was connecting with what I was teaching and then he said,

“The way you asked some of them what they were into to come up with an analogy just for them was inspired! I’m going to add that to my bag of tricks. Thanks!”

This was a guy who had been teaching adults for over 30 years and he learned something from me?!? It was at that moment that I realized that, if I were smart, I’d keep learning for the rest of my life.

Is a master someone who is highly skilled at something? Sure! And one aspect of mastery is being on the lookout for something you didn’t know and making it your own. It’s how they got to be highly skilled!

Open your eyes to the world of Mastery!