86 Acquire Skills, Master a Skill
b'To stand out in the world, master a skill. Yes, become the master in a niche! In this episode I want to talk and follow up from last time. Last time I talked about becoming an authority.\\xa0I mentioned that to become an authority you\\u2019re going to have to have some special skill, trade, whatever it is.\\xa0Not only a niche, but you\\u2019re going to have to become a master. That is, you\\u2019re going to have to be that person that somebody admires and other people want to gain your information. That also puts you in an excellent competitive situation when it comes to other people around you trying to do the same things.\\n\\nSet yourself apart by becoming a Master in your niche\\n\\nWhy do you want to do this? Sometimes it might be self-esteem, it might be a feeling of adequacy, a feeling of need that other people have for you or towards you. It may be that you want to escape from the humdrum of your daily life, you want to be something special. One of the least important ones actually is probably money. Yes, you want it, you desire it, you would like to make more, and you\\u2019d like to be more secure (and that last one, secure, is the key). But all those get satisfied by what you do, how you do it, and how well other people think you are doing it, and that you have the confidence because you know you do it well. It\\u2019s not something easy, and it can be overwhelming.\\n\\nSo, what do you do? First of all, whatever it is, deconstruct it. That is: Break it down into pieces so that you can learn parts of it at a time, and commit yourself to realize that it\\u2019s going to take many, many hours, days, weeks, months, whatever, to get to the level you want to be at. That\\u2019s the overwhelming part. You break it down, you put in your time, and you slowly get it into pieces and chunks. The multi-year project of doing a dissertation when I was at Berkeley, it is overwhelming. As you\\u2019re doing it, what you\\u2019re trying to do is trying to break down: How can I get this monstrous thing done? And you have the pressure because you also want to graduate, get your degree, and all that other neat stuff. So, what do you do? You break it down into the parts and the research, and you break that into different pieces. Then even when you get to the writing you do the same thing. When I got to the writing it was little bits and pieces, little chapters or sections that were going to be written, and I would commit to just drive it right down inside two hours, get that one section written no matter how it was, just quickly brain dump it from my notes. Then take a 10-15 minute break, do something else, go back to that section the next day when it\\u2019s gone through my mind, I\\u2019ve refined it, and get it better and better.\\n\\nWhat happens is you\\u2019re breaking these things up, and you\\u2019re looking back on them, saying: \\u201cGee, I had a success. I did that chapter, that one, and that one,\\u201d so that you\\u2019re having repeated successes, and that gets you down to the point that you can master the topic. Why? Because you\\u2019ve had 17, 1700, whatever it is, successes along the path of developing that skill. Visualize yourself actually doing it, that is gain yourself some confidence. As you gain that confidence, make sure that you have that confidence with humility. The reason I say with humility is because realize that things are changing, they\\u2019re always getting better, bigger, faster, whatever, and that humility gets you to learn more and keep on refining your skill. You\\u2019re going to have to weather classes, courses, and all kinds of other things that you\\u2019re going to have to go through in order to feel very comfortable.\\n\\nBest of all, of course, is to find a mentor, somebody that is already truly a master. Because what\\u2019s the key that I tell people open and have said many times? Master what the master has already done. If you can do that, then you\\u2019re well on your way. Questions are really good, and you should feel free to ask questions. Actually a good example, I was a little cautious of this at first and figured: \\u201cOh no...'