Hey everyone, Daniel here from Next Level Life and welcome to part 3 of our review of
Robert Greene’s book “Mastery.”
If you missed part 2 where we talked about how to find the ideal apprenticeship, you
can find a link to it as well as a link to part 1 in the description below this video
or by clicking on the card in the upper right hand corner of this video.
Today we’re going to be tackling another key part of the ideal apprenticeship: And
that’s the mentor and apprentice dynamic.
I’m going to touch on how to choose the right mentor, as well as a major trap to keep
an eye out for during the process.
Now some of you might feel that an apprenticeship is an old idea, certainly something that was
popular in the past but it’s not exactly the best way to learn today.
Well that’s actually not entirely true.
There is some truth to it, in the sense that how we find our mentors has changed a lot
over the years.
For example, with the internet you don’t actually have to physically go out and find
a mentor anymore.
You can find them online and learn from them through what they say on their blogs or videos,
kind of like what you’re doing now.
And then if you want to take things a little further, and at some point you should, you
can try to contact them and see if you can work with them and learn how they do what
they do a little more deeply.
Because let’s face it there’s only so much that can be written about in a blog post.
Especially when the mentor may not be fully conscious of what makes them so effective
at what they do and so they can’t truly put it into words.
But the main thing that hasn’t changed over the last several millennia is how we, as humans,
best learn new skills.
And that’s by watching others who know how to do what we’re trying to learn and mimicking
what they do, at least until we’re developed enough of that muscle memory ourselves that
we can start experimenting on our own like I talked about in part 2.
And that’s why finding a mentor is so crucial on your path to mastery.
Life is short: You can’t afford to spend a few months trying to learn things yourself
that a mentor could’ve taught you in a few hours.
So when choosing a mentor, especially your first mentors, make sure you’re looking
for one that has a wide knowledge and experience base in your field.
They can train you to think on a much higher level, taking knowledge from many different
points of view in order to form your own opinion than someone who is more specialized can.
Also make sure that they fit your needs.
You don’t want to choose a mentor simply because of their stature or knowledge if they’re
so domineering that you aren’t allowed to explore your own ideas and expand your knowledge
base on your own.
So once you’ve found your mentor and got a basic understanding of the field for yourself,
find a way to get person-to-person access with the mentor, in any way that you can.
Michael Faraday’s story is probably the easiest way to illustrate this process.
Faraday was a famous scientist who contributed heavily to the field of electromagnetism.
However as the son of a blacksmith in the early 1800s this life seemed out of his reach.
In 1800s London, the sciences were mostly restricted to those who had University degrees,
which at the time basically meant those from the upper class.
Eventually Faraday got a job in a local bookstore where he came across a book called “improvement
of the mind.”
This book encouraged Faraday, who had recently become interested in electromagnetism thanks
to another book, to recreate the experiments that had led to the recent discoveries in
the field.
He also began attending scientific lectures where he would take concise notes on the material
presented.
These notes eventually came to the attention of William Dance, who was a member of the
Royal Institution.
Surprised at how concisely Faraday had managed to explain complex topics, he invited Faraday
to attend a series of lectures given by one of the top chemists of the day: Humphry Davy,
who would later become Faraday’s mentor.
Faraday’s knowledge grew quickly thanks to Davy’s tutelage and he soon became an
accomplished chemist in his own right.
He was doing his own independent research but soon an unpleasant reality became clear
to him: Davy was keeping Faraday under his thumb.
Davy had grown dependent on Faraday’s services.
And despite his growing skill, Faraday was still being treated as a mere lab assistant.
Faraday would eventually make a discovery that would give him the reputation he needed
to break away from Davy and become an independent member of the scientific community.
He published his findings, but Davy claimed that Faraday had merely plagiarized his work.
Faraday managed to prove to the community that the findings were his own, but Davy refused
to let the matter drop and even tried to block Faraday’s nomination into the Royal Institution.
Davy would also go on to claim partial credit for later discoveries Faraday made.
Davy seemed to believe that he had created Faraday from nothing and so was responsible
for everything he did.
At that point, Faraday had heard enough, he would never speak with Davy again and would
go on to become one of the most famous practitioners of experimental science.
Remember mentors have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Davy did a great job increasing Faraday’s knowledge and giving him all the tools he
needed to succeed.
But, he also became very dependent on Faraday’s services as an assistant and viewed him too
possessively which led to him claiming partial credit on Faraday’s work.
And that’s always something you want to keep in mind with your mentors.
None of them are perfect.
The good ones will allow you to develop your own style and then leave them when the time
is right.
But others will grow a little too dependent on your services.
They may try to hinder your progress and keep you under their thumb.
And if this becomes the case you’re going to want to distance yourself from them.
So that’ll do it for part 3.
If you learned something from this video and liked what you saw be sure to subscribe and
hit the bell next to my name so that you will be notified of all future updates on this
channel.
Coming up in part 4 we’ll be looking at social intelligence and talking about ways
to see people as they really are.
But until then everyone, thanks for watching and have a great day!