Robert Greene How to be The Master
Author Robert Greene has made an incredible impact on the worlds understanding of strategy, power and seduction. His internationally bestselling books include The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, and The 50th Law, a collaborative project with hip hop mogul 50 Cent.
In his most recent work, Mastery, Greene examines the lives of both historical and contemporary figures such as Charles Darwin and Leonardo Da Vinci, and reveals the steps they took to become masters.
In his exclusive interview with Coli News, Greene describes the personal challenges he faced throughout his own journey to success, and draws from his observations of working with 50 Cent.
Q: What inspired you to write Mastery?
Robert Greene: I had been researching all of these incredibly powerful figures throughout history for my previous books, and I just noticed that there were these patterns, certain things they all did, which can explain their extraordinary success.
It wasnt the fact that they were born with a larger brain or a higher IQ. These were all people who had pursued fields that suited them, that they loved and that they were excited about. So its more of a shared emotional quality as opposed to an intellectual quality. I wanted to show how these people have mastered their fields; I show you in the book how others have reached that point so you could reach that point, too.
Q: How do you define mastery?
RG: Mastery is essentially a kind of intelligence that human beings can reach when we have been working at a particular subject or a field for a long enough period of time that we have all of the elements of what we are learning sort of internalizedwhere weve mastered the complexity of this subject.
Q: Can you describe a time when you witnessed 50 Cents mastery in action?
RG: Hes a very serious guy who is very disciplined and works incredibly hard. I have a chapter in my book, Turn shyt Into Sugar, where I say that masters can manage to turn anything into an opportunity.
There was a particular incident of him showing this quality when his album Curtis was coming out and one of his music videos somehow got released onto the Internet well before it was supposed to be released. The marketing people were all screaming and yelling trying to figure out how to try to stop the video from spreading and do their best with damage control. 50 was the only person there who was completely calm. He didnt panic at all, and said, No, were not going to try to damage control. Thats ridiculous. Were going to work with what happened. Im going to make this into a story.
That was the moment where I thought, This guy is a real leader.
Q: In the book you talk about the apprenticeship stage, creative active stage and mastery stage. Can you explain the importance of the apprenticeship phase?
RG: I want to debunk the idea that you can become an idol through luck or good connections, or that people are just naturally talented. You need to go through an apprenticeship. After you leave college, those are the most critical years of your life. You need to learn skills, learn how to discipline yourself, learn how to work with people, and figure out exactly where your career path needs to endyou have to transform yourself.
Taking it back to 50, before he made it, Jam Master Jay was his first real mentor. And then he got a deal with Columbia Records for his first record. And he thought, This is like my university. Im not going to sit there and be like the typical rapper. Im going to treat this like school. So he went to Columbia everyday. He not only worked on his music, but he also hung around and talked to everybody about the music business and immersed himself in every aspect. Thats the kind of attitude Im talking about. Youre in your 20s, youre having fun, but you are learning everything and you have that intensity and that focus. Thats what I mean by apprenticeship.
Q: What is the creative active stage? And what was that phase in 50s development?
RG: When youre going through the apprenticeship stage, youre learning what other people have done. Youre learning the rules. Youre learning this is how music is composed; this is how the business is run. But slowly youre going to make everything more and more individualized, more personalized. Youre going to take that knowledge and make it your own.
For 50, after he got shot, he was actually more motivated when he found that no record label would go near him. He got together with his friends and put on this mix-tape campaign. He was like this scientist in a laboratory and he said, Im just going to experiment. That was a really critical transitional phase in which he was really creative and some of his most interesting work came out of that. Eminem heard one of those mix-tapes and then Interscope signed him.
Q: How about your own turning points in life? Ive read that you were a writer working in Italy, and that was where you got the idea to write your first book, The 48 Laws of Power. Can you tell us about what happened there?
RG: I had started in journalism, and kind of wandered around Europe, and got into working in Hollywood, and nothing seemed to fit me at all. And then I was invited to Italy to work on a project, which I wasnt really happy with. But the big turning point for me was when I was walking with a friend [a book publisher] on that trip in Venice, and he asked me if I had any ideas for a book.
I kind of improvised, and rambled about how after working in so many companies, and in Hollywood, that Ive seen how the ways people struggle for power are the same ways that people have gotten powerful throughout history. Its human nature. My friend got really excited about the idea, and he said that hed basically pay for me to live while I write the book.
I thought, This could be it. Get rich or die trying. So I was motivated. I dont know how I did it, but I researched, wrote and edited [48 Laws of Power] in two years. I was young and just so motivated and desperate not to be working in magazines anymore that I must have worked in my sleep or something.
Q: What other projects are you working on?
RG: There are two ideas. The first is to write the ultimate book on human nature so you can learn how to read people. The other is to write about how the mind can reach certain sublime experiences that make you aware of what it means to be alive. I have a collection of people in history who have had those kinds of experiences. Im trying to decide between the two which to pursue first.
Author Robert Greene has made an incredible impact on the worlds understanding of strategy, power and seduction. His internationally bestselling books include The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, and The 50th Law, a collaborative project with hip hop mogul 50 Cent.
In his most recent work, Mastery, Greene examines the lives of both historical and contemporary figures such as Charles Darwin and Leonardo Da Vinci, and reveals the steps they took to become masters.
In his exclusive interview with Coli News, Greene describes the personal challenges he faced throughout his own journey to success, and draws from his observations of working with 50 Cent.
Q: What inspired you to write Mastery?
Robert Greene: I had been researching all of these incredibly powerful figures throughout history for my previous books, and I just noticed that there were these patterns, certain things they all did, which can explain their extraordinary success.
It wasnt the fact that they were born with a larger brain or a higher IQ. These were all people who had pursued fields that suited them, that they loved and that they were excited about. So its more of a shared emotional quality as opposed to an intellectual quality. I wanted to show how these people have mastered their fields; I show you in the book how others have reached that point so you could reach that point, too.
Q: How do you define mastery?
RG: Mastery is essentially a kind of intelligence that human beings can reach when we have been working at a particular subject or a field for a long enough period of time that we have all of the elements of what we are learning sort of internalizedwhere weve mastered the complexity of this subject.
Q: Can you describe a time when you witnessed 50 Cents mastery in action?
RG: Hes a very serious guy who is very disciplined and works incredibly hard. I have a chapter in my book, Turn shyt Into Sugar, where I say that masters can manage to turn anything into an opportunity.
There was a particular incident of him showing this quality when his album Curtis was coming out and one of his music videos somehow got released onto the Internet well before it was supposed to be released. The marketing people were all screaming and yelling trying to figure out how to try to stop the video from spreading and do their best with damage control. 50 was the only person there who was completely calm. He didnt panic at all, and said, No, were not going to try to damage control. Thats ridiculous. Were going to work with what happened. Im going to make this into a story.
That was the moment where I thought, This guy is a real leader.
Q: In the book you talk about the apprenticeship stage, creative active stage and mastery stage. Can you explain the importance of the apprenticeship phase?
RG: I want to debunk the idea that you can become an idol through luck or good connections, or that people are just naturally talented. You need to go through an apprenticeship. After you leave college, those are the most critical years of your life. You need to learn skills, learn how to discipline yourself, learn how to work with people, and figure out exactly where your career path needs to endyou have to transform yourself.
Taking it back to 50, before he made it, Jam Master Jay was his first real mentor. And then he got a deal with Columbia Records for his first record. And he thought, This is like my university. Im not going to sit there and be like the typical rapper. Im going to treat this like school. So he went to Columbia everyday. He not only worked on his music, but he also hung around and talked to everybody about the music business and immersed himself in every aspect. Thats the kind of attitude Im talking about. Youre in your 20s, youre having fun, but you are learning everything and you have that intensity and that focus. Thats what I mean by apprenticeship.
Q: What is the creative active stage? And what was that phase in 50s development?
RG: When youre going through the apprenticeship stage, youre learning what other people have done. Youre learning the rules. Youre learning this is how music is composed; this is how the business is run. But slowly youre going to make everything more and more individualized, more personalized. Youre going to take that knowledge and make it your own.
For 50, after he got shot, he was actually more motivated when he found that no record label would go near him. He got together with his friends and put on this mix-tape campaign. He was like this scientist in a laboratory and he said, Im just going to experiment. That was a really critical transitional phase in which he was really creative and some of his most interesting work came out of that. Eminem heard one of those mix-tapes and then Interscope signed him.
Q: How about your own turning points in life? Ive read that you were a writer working in Italy, and that was where you got the idea to write your first book, The 48 Laws of Power. Can you tell us about what happened there?
RG: I had started in journalism, and kind of wandered around Europe, and got into working in Hollywood, and nothing seemed to fit me at all. And then I was invited to Italy to work on a project, which I wasnt really happy with. But the big turning point for me was when I was walking with a friend [a book publisher] on that trip in Venice, and he asked me if I had any ideas for a book.
I kind of improvised, and rambled about how after working in so many companies, and in Hollywood, that Ive seen how the ways people struggle for power are the same ways that people have gotten powerful throughout history. Its human nature. My friend got really excited about the idea, and he said that hed basically pay for me to live while I write the book.
I thought, This could be it. Get rich or die trying. So I was motivated. I dont know how I did it, but I researched, wrote and edited [48 Laws of Power] in two years. I was young and just so motivated and desperate not to be working in magazines anymore that I must have worked in my sleep or something.
Q: What other projects are you working on?
RG: There are two ideas. The first is to write the ultimate book on human nature so you can learn how to read people. The other is to write about how the mind can reach certain sublime experiences that make you aware of what it means to be alive. I have a collection of people in history who have had those kinds of experiences. Im trying to decide between the two which to pursue first.
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my exact thoughts. I've read all of the above and I got that impresson.
