3. Find an Apprenticeship

“… The goal of an apprenticeship is not money, a good position, a title, or a diploma, but rather the transformation of your mind and character.” —Robert Greene, Mastery

The transformation acquired through an apprenticeship is critical to the development of mastery. This apprenticeship is not necessarily a formal one, or one in the traditional sense.

An apprenticeship is the intense focus on learning and growing the passions associated with your Life’s Task.

At first, an apprenticeship is to be treated as if you were an outsider. Do not assume to have any knowledge or skills.

Acquire every piece of understanding you can.

Become structured in your learning, disciplined, and willing to put in every effort to learn.

Go where you can learn the most, and never pick the easiest path.

Finding an Apprenticeship

Greene identifies three steps in an apprenticeship.

• 1. At first, you are passive, observing everything, and “absorbing its reality as deeply as possible.”
  • You almost step out of the picture so you can have a clear view of everything. Understand the unspoken rules in your environment, and learn what the politics are and how they work.
  • These skills of observing and understanding will be used throughout your journey and into mastery.
• 2. After this phase of observing you move into a phase of intense practice.
  • This is where you become so adept at the physical skills of your apprenticeship you can eventually accomplish them without conscious thought. This may take years and will require the utmost resolve and determination.
  • At this point, you begin to critique your own work. You’ve already excelled in knowledge and understanding, and you can now dictate to yourself where improvements are needed.
  • You also begin to find more efficient ways of completing tasks.
  • Consider devoting 10,000 hours of your life to this phase, which correlates with research into mastery.
• 3. Finally, review your progress, looking for gaps to fill, actively experimenting, and always challenging yourself.
  • When you have the feeling that you have nothing remaining to learn in your apprenticeship it is time to move on. You’ve learned how to learn.

Actionable insights

A few notes and actionable insights to keep in mind about finding and embracing an apprenticeship.

• Focus on learning, not earning. When you start your apprenticeship, focus on how you can learn, not how much you can make financially. Accept your initial low position, and always be working to learn and grow. As you gain mastery, you’ll find opportunities to gain a commensurate level of financial abundance as well.
• Never be satisfied with the knowledge you have. Learn and absorb. Spend time with all types of people, and make this experience part of your apprenticeship.
• At all costs, avoid any sense of superiority. Be humble, and open to all learning experiences.
• Stay with it. The process of apprenticeship is exceedingly difficult—but necessary. So work to overcome any challenges that arise, keep learning, and do not quit. Eventually, you’ll go from apprentice to master.
• The apprenticeship process works. When you put yourself in a position to work harder than everyone else to gain skills, you’ll become better than everyone else at those same skills. Pain and struggle can be your closest allies.
• Lastly, learn from failure. Failure is simply a chance to learn more about yourself and your environment. For masters, failure is often the impetus to their ultimate success.