How to Become a Master at What You Do

Mastering a skill is important. It is essential if you want to become the best in what you do. I believe anyone can be a master if they are committed to it.

And if you want to be successful whether it is in your business or career, you need to learn how to master it.

But, where should you start?

I want to share a fascinating lesson I learned from Russell Brunson.

Russell shared in one of his books, Expert Secrets, that anyone can become a master at what they do, and shared a story told by Dean Graziosi.

Here’s what Dean said…

“You know how, when you watch an amazing comedian perform onstage on a late-night talk show, every joke he tells lands perfectly?

You find yourself wondering, “How is this guy so funny?” But what you don’t realize is that over the last 10 years of his journey to become a comedian, he would write out 10 jokes, go to the closest dive bar, stand up on stage, and deliver his jokes.

He probably watched as one or two of the 10 jokes landed, and the rest bombed. He would then go back home, take the 2 jokes that landed, and write 8 new ones. The next week he would find a new place to perform, deliver his 10 jokes, and find out that only one of his new jokes landed.

He goes back to his apartment and starts the process over again, doing this week after week, year after year, until he’s found his 10 jokes.

Now he’s ready. That’s when we get to see him, after he’s perfected the material, when he stands up and lands every joke on the biggest stage in the world.”

Quoted from the book written by Russell Brunson, Expert Secrets.

That’s what you need to do to master your craft.

You have to keep trying until you get it. Just like the story Dean told Russell, there is no such thing as a born master.

Every master was once a beginner. We all started somewhere.
Russell Brunson isn’t born a genius marketer, he made himself into one.

Steve Jobs wasn’t a legendary entrepreneur, he crafted himself into one.

Muhammad Ali wasn’t the best boxer, he made himself a champion.

Do you know what’s my favorite quote from Ali?

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’”

Muhammad Ali

Every extraordinary person you know was once a beginner. They all started somewhere. They take their journey and master their crafts.

What about you?

What do you do every day to master your craft?

If you want to be successful in life and in what you do, you need to learn how to master your craft too.

And here are some tips to help you become a master in what you do…

1. Create Your Framework

The first thing you need to do is to create a system for mastering your skills. Just like the standup comedian example given by Dean Graziosi, he started with 10 jokes and keep testing.

Do you know how Jeff Goins, the New York Times best-selling author becomes a successful author?

He started as a blogger. He then publishes every day on his blog. Some days he wrote and published so-so articles. And some days he wrote and published great articles that attract readers.

Eventually, he becomes so good that his work spreads, and his audience grows so big. He decided to write an e-book and sell it to his subscribers.

The e-book was well-received and eventually, Jeff turned his e-book into his first published physical book, called “You Are A Writer”.

It is an inspiring book you should read if you are a blogger or dream of becoming a writer.

And you have to do the same.

You have to create a framework or a process to practice your craft so that you can become a master at what you do.

• If you are a blogger, you should blog every day to find your voice.
• If you are a violinist, you should practice every day to master your skill.
• If you are an internet marketer, you should work on getting traffic and improving your conversion rate every day.
• If you are a chef, you should cook every day to master your cooking skill.

These are some of the processes that you need to master to become the best in what you do. These are the frameworks that will make you extraordinary.

2. Test Your Framework

Of course, you can’t just do or practice without improvement. You need to deliberately practice for improvement.

I bet you heard about the 10,000-Hour Rule that was made famous by Malcolm Gladwell through his book, Outliers: The Story of Success.

But it is not just 10,000 hours that you need to put in. You need intentional practice to improve your craft.

Let me give you an example from Angela Duckworth. She shared in her famous book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, about deliberate practice.

Angela mentioned that you can’t just put in the hours and expect to become the best in what you do.

Angela has been running and jogging for years, but she didn’t become as fit and as good as an Olympian. She has acquired more than 10,000 hours in jogging and running, so why is she not an Olympian?

Well, it is because she runs and jogs to exercise, not for improvement or to become a champion.

There are a lot of people who work at the same jobs for decades, but they didn’t become experts in their field. The same principle applies.

You want to put in the 10,000 hours, and at the same time, you want to deliberately or practice intentionally to get good at it.

For instance, you can’t just run every day and hope that you will become as good as Usain Bolt. You have to train and purposefully practice for improving your running skills.

That’s the difference between someone who learns to master his craft and someone who just works.

Do you get that?

3. Throw Away What Doesn’t Work and Improve to Get More Success

The next thing you want to do is to adopt what works and throw away or improve what doesn’t work.

Years ago, I learned from a great internet marketer named Ryan Deiss. He said about this concept called, “Starve the ponies, feed the stallion.”

When Ryan advertised on Facebook, he used many ad copies. And he found out some of his ad copies work and some don’t.

Hence, he then “starve the ponies”, which means he shut off ad copies that don’t work, and “feed the stallions”, where he scaled the ad copies that work.

This concept is the same as throwing away what doesn’t work and double down on what works.

Just like the story of the comedian, he wrote 10 jokes, found out 2 of them work and the rest didn’t. He then changed the 8 jokes that didn’t work and write 8 new ones. He threw away what didn’t work and create new ones for testing.

The same goes for what you want to achieve in life.

When you set a goal and you fail to achieve it, change your tactics, but don’t throw away your goal.

“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”

Alexander Den Heijer

4. Repeat and Practice Until You Mastered It

The last tip is, of course, to trust the process, repeat, and practice until you mastered it and become the best in your business or career or any dream or goal you desire.

As I said earlier, champions were not born, and every master was once a beginner. You can’t become a master overnight. You have got to go through the process.

The process is what makes you a master. And if you skip the process, you will never get to master the skill or the craft.

We all know that a caterpillar will transform into a cocoon before it turns into a butterfly. But what happens if you skip the cocoon phase?

Here’s the story:

One day, a man saw a small opening on a cocoon, which he waited for hours to watch the cocoon struggled to force its body through the little opening.

But suddenly, it stopped moving and looked like it was stuck. And so the man decided to help the butterfly by cutting open the cocoon using a pair of scissors.

Once he cut open the cocoon, a butterfly came out, with a swollen body and shriveled wings. The man thought the butterfly would fly, but it didn’t. The butterfly was unable to fly with its tiny wings and swollen body.

What happened was that when the man cut the cocoon to help the butterfly, he accidentally made the butterfly skipped the natural process of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly to its wings.

The butterfly may seem like it has to struggle to break through the cocoon, but it is a necessary process to grow and strengthen its wings.

And if it skips the process, it can’t fly and will eventually die.

The same principle applies to our lives and everything we do.

We can’t skip the process. You can’t become a multi-millionaire without mastering the skills and knowledge.

If you get rich through luck, like winning a lottery, but you don’t have the skills and knowledge to manage the sudden wealth, you will eventually lose it all.

The same goes if you want to build a successful business.

You can’t skip the process and look for shortcuts to build an empire. A business will crumble without a strong foundation, just like a building.

If you want to become successful, you have to learn to master the craft.

A caterpillar turns into a cocoon and then to a butterfly through a process called metamorphosis. And that’s what you must go through as well, metamorphosis.

You have to learn to develop the characters, the habits, and the mindset to become the right person worthy of success.

This is how you learn to master your craft and become the best in your field.