“Everything that happens to you is a form of instruction if you pay attention.” – Robert Greene, Mastery
After I wrote yesterday’s email…
(Read: This is what mastery looks like. One of my favorites in recent memory.)
…I was reminded of a story from Kobe Bryant, who was close friends with Beyoncé.
As the story goes:
Beyoncé would watch every single one of her shows, from start to finish, immediately after her performance was over…
Studying each moment in detail, searching for opportunities to improve.
Now, keep in mind:
She is performing, more or less, the same show every night while on tour.
So she’s watching the same damn show, every night.
After performing it.
Every night.
Over.. and over… and over again.
Which is precisely the part most of us miss about the road to mastery.
On stage, it looks like fireworks.
But off stage, it looks like relentless, ruthless amounts of repetition.
Months, years, and decades of repetition…
Combined with a merciless commitment to learning, iterating, and improving.
Similarly:
Kobe and Laker assistant coach Tex Winter used to watch tape of every game together.
But not the television feed.
The camera feed:
Including warmups, time outs, half time, dead-ball time, and every other recorded moment, amounting to over four hours of tape per game.
They didn’t just study moves and plays and game sequences, like most teams…
They also studied the energy and body language of players before, in-between, and after every game.
Every game.
All year long.
No stone unturned.
No detail missed.
Now, I’m not saying you should do the same thing.
But I am saying that if mastery is your goal, this is what it takes.
It’s always slow, often boring, and rewards are never guaranteed.
But damn if it isn’t glorious.
- T
P.S. In case you missed it:
Here’s the link to yesterday’s email once more.
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