Why Learn from Others? How?

The first humans had to learn from scratch. There was no label attached to anything.

Something sounds good? It’s nothing but soothing sound until someone called it- Music.

Someone writes well? Let’s call him a writer.

Oh that guy thinks clearly and his logic makes sense! Let’s call him a philosopher.

Thus labels were created. Infinite potential became infinite fields of study- Infinite labels to achieve.

Now, no one’s good enough. As Jordan Peterson says in his book, “Who cares if you are the prime minister of Canada if someone else in the president of United States!”

South Park complains- Simpsons have already done it! Which implies that there seems to be lack of fresh ideas remaining.

Does this make the world uninteresting? Have we really come to a place where it’s finally boring to live and to learn?

Heck no! Not even close! It’s the opposite. It’s the greatest time to be alive. Even for the creative types.

You see no body creates from the scratch. Creativity is nothing but solving the same puzzle in a different way. We do this by combining existing resources.

Nokia used to make great phones and Sony used to make great cameras.

What did the most innovative company of the century- Apple do? They put camera, phone, web browsing, music everything in one thing, made it easier than others to access those things and called it a great invention. People swear by the name of iPhones. But someone else had already made similar stuff? Haven’t they?

Part 2:

It’s people like Tom Bilyeu who makes me feel like life is a game worth playing. What does he do? He invites people from different fields of study to tell their stories. Writers, designers, entrepreneurs you name it!

Learning is so easy now! Let’s say you want to learn how to rhyme. 2000 years ago you’d have to practice, fail, brainstorm, find a mentor blah blah blah.

Only if somebody else had already cracked the code! What if you didn’t need to rediscover anything? Rather, focus your efforts on learning what’s been already done and then progress further along the way?

Well, now you can! You can find every song ever published by Eminem on YouTube. For free! Who better to teach you rhyming than the God of rap himself!

You want to learn how to build an Artificially intelligent being? What if you wanna learn how rockets work? Or maybe you just want to learn how to cook your favorite dish by yourself?

There’s no limit! Somebody has already cracked the codes!

A solid example of what I’m trying to say:

Are you shy and want to learn socializing? Go google Vanessa Van Edwards. Thank me later.

This amazing woman has dedicated her whole life to crack the social code. She has hired experts, run experiments in the real world through numerous people, has written books and produced videos about it.

What do you have to do? Just learn what she has already discovered! What’s your reward? You’ll get closer to your existing friends and acquaintances, you’ll find more love and spread more joy! You may learn how to deal with toxic people. You’ll make new friends, hold better position in your job, influence your employees… sky is the limit really.

And you don’t have to spend strenuous time and energy on rediscovering anything! The dish has been served already! Just go and eat. You’ll get healthier in a matter of days!

Imagine if we insisted on reinventing the wheel! How dumb would that be? What makes us humans so great is our ability to store knowledge.

If I’ve found something with great efforts, I’ll write it down so that my sons and their sons and daughters won’t have to rediscover! They will build upon it!

That’s how lucky we are! Rabindranath Tagore has already cracked the codes of poetry! Elon Musk has already shown how to pursue an impossible dream and still succeed! Let’s learn from them. Let’s build upon them!

How to Master Something and Get Paid for it.

To master something you have to work regularly at it. You should get a mentor, learn the tricks associated with it and let the mentor correct your mistakes. Don’t forget deliberate practice (to purposefully do the things you find most difficult).

For example, if you want to master how to invest in the stock market, pick up Benjamin Grahams books, read the letters Warren Buffet has sent to his shareholders throughout the years. That way, you stick to one style of investing and you also learn from the best.

But often times this isn’t enough. The field that you get into is so packed with talent that it’s hard to get a job. In that case, a real mentor can be of tremendous help. An insider, who has all the networks needed for your success.

This is what’s missing from Tai Lopez’s videos. But careful analysis of his life shows how mentors helped him not only with knowledge but also networks and resources.

In his book, The Third Door, Alex Banayan tells us the real life story of how Stephen Spielberg got into Hollywood. It was his mentor who made the necessary calls to get him his first job- a 7 years contract for the Universal Studios!

They say, to master something you have to work at it for 10,000 hours. That’s bullshit. There’s no time limit of mastery. It’s also different for each individual person. And it’s different for each individual field of mastery.

To truly master something, learn to practice what you can’t more than what you can. It’s called deliberate practice and it’s what differentiates a good student from a great student. It’s easy to keep doing what you already know and avoiding the hard stuff. This gives you some sense of competence and lets you avoid hardship. But, stay away from this type of behavior if you truly want to be a master.

Now, you may ask, why master something at all?

Well, you may chose not to. It’s fun being a jack of all trades. It’s great to know a little about a lot of stuff, to be able to connect with people from different fields as if you are an insider too. Being competent in different fields of expertise also boosts creativity as it lends you different lenses to view the world with.

But, if you chose to master one thing, while sacrificing your desires for learning everything else, it may reward you immensely. The first reward comes from career opportunities. People who are the masters of one single craft earn a lot of money. Examples of this would be Messi and Ronaldo from Football (Soccer), Warren Buffet- the stock market wizard, Robert Downey Jr. from Hollywood, David Guetta (DJ) etc.

Secondly, it’s spiritually and psychologically fulfilling to devote yourself to one cause.

Third, it enhances focus and lets your mind settle into one thing, which in turn boosts productivity.

Which path did you chose? How’s it working out for you? Let me know in the comments section! See you in the next post 🙂