Book Review
Robert
Greene’s best-selling book, The 48 Laws of Power, fascinated me no end
when I read it about two decades ago. I found the book in the capacious library
of the erstwhile Sawan Public School, Delhi. Greene struck me as a ruthlessly
pragmatic person who knew exactly what he was dealing with. I was never
interested in power, but the book taught me all I wanted to know how people
acquire power and how power works. Greene brings us real examples, and a whole
of lot of them from all over history, to teach us the intricacies of power.
When
I stumbled on another book of his, Mastery, I ordered it without a
second thought. The book is sheer delight. Once again, Greene gives us the
lessons of mastery through real examples. We meet in this book Leonardo da
Vinci and Albert Einstein, Henry Ford and V S Ramachandran, and a score of
other persons who were masters in their fields. We learn profound lessons from
these masters.
Each
one of us is unique and has a unique role to play on this planet. Greene calls
it our Life’s Task. You are meant to accomplish a particular task in the time
you are given here on earth. How to identify that task and accomplish it like a
master? This is what the book will teach you.
Most
people just float through life doing very ordinary things: follow a profession
for the sake of regular income, marry and bring up a child or two, grow old and
die. Aren’t we missing something vital? We are. We fail to be the masters we were
meant to be.
How
to observe and understand the world and your role in it? That’s one of the
first lessons we learn from this book. Then it goes on to teach us the need for
a mentor. “To learn requires a sense of humility,” says Greene. We have to
humbly submit ourselves to the “people out there who know our field much more
deeply than we do.” We learn from these masters their knowledge and experience.
The
part which I loved the most is about social intelligence. I have been an utter
failure in this regard and hence Greene’s lessons came to me as revelations.
How to acquire social intelligence? Greene suggests four strategies: Speak
through your work; Craft the appropriate persona; See yourself as others see
you; and Suffer fools gladly.
The
last two parts of the book enable us to look at the ingredients of mastery
itself. Obviously, mastery is not an easy thing to achieve. The book offers no
short-cuts. It shows you concrete examples of great masters who slogged day in
and day out to reach where they did. What Greene does is to show us some
strategies that the great masters employed successfully. They show us the way.
We have to do the walking.
I
found the book very inspiring and would recommend it to anyone who is interested
in carving a niche for himself in this dull world of quotidian tasks.
I haven't read this one. I am sure I will like it. Must check this out. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure.
DeleteI read Mastery with lots of reservation. After all, I've read so many self-help and enlightenment sort of books before, so what could be new in this one right?
ReplyDeleteWell, there were plenty. It offers plenty of examples so it's more like a show than tell sort of approach, which I appreciated. There are a lot of nuggets in it that will allow the reader to reflect on the unifying theme of what Mastery is about. In my case, it was relevant because I have mastered (no pun intended) the jack-of-all trades concept where I flit to one hobby/skill to another, getting bored if I stay on to something for too long. This book showed me why focus and dedication is important to achieve true greatness. I liked this book a lot.
This book differs from the usual self-help ones in that this has a lot of convincing and detailed real examples.
Delete