Study: Mastery—Skill, Character, or Luck?

Week 5:

How Do You Find Your Passion and How Do You Pursue It?

...how I’ve addressed that question over time is rather than thinking about the passion, free yourself up to think about a portfolio of passions and the task is to marry that portfolio of passions to the opportunities in front of you.

What’s in front of me or what’s proximate? What opportunity can I create facing that direction? Forget ultimately where I go. Look right in the foreground, what’s there? How do they sync up with my passion? How do they sync up with the passions that I have today? 

...you know the biggest issue is not choosing between a right answer and a wrong answer. That’s easy The hardest thing to do in life is choose amongst right answers. It’s the issue of optimization. Optimization will drive you crazy.

My career makes no sense at all in the windshield. It only makes sense in the rear view mirror. 

Most Entrepreneurs are Not Rock Stars: At an existing company:

• Make an impact.
• Leverage a scaled platform.
• More resources. More support.

However:

• Misalignment can dominate
• Scale can constrain
• Resources can’t be recruited]

Spreading Happiness

There were four areas where she might invest in the business: 1) improving financial management; 2) increasing sales and marketing efforts; 3) investing in inventory; or 4) adding design capability.

A Hero's Journey

...You'll discover your gift is something easy. Because it is easy, to you....think of the last time you lost track of time while doing something. Something that you would practice merely for the sake of practice alone. Something that could become a lifelong discipline that you’re committed to master. If you find one of your precious God-given gifts intersects with finding great joy, you’ll be very close to the call.

...the most important of all: satisfying a deep, burning need in the world. A calling must serve others. It must matter to you. So I ask you, what need today calls out to your heart? Where is there injustice or opportunity that you just can’t resist? What problem do you feel as if you were put on this earth to solve? There you will find your calling.

This brings me near the end of our journey to the paradox; it’s not about you, it’s all about you. It’s not about your happiness. You see, a hero’s journey isn’t easier than a fool’s errand. You’ll have even more setbacks and more battles because the stakes will be higher. But you’ll fight those battles and be more satisfied and fulfilled because you’ll make a difference. It’s all about you because using your gifts to change the world will change you in the process and you will realize you serve a force in the universe that is far bigger than you are. Here’s one more glimpse into your future. Somewhere along the way – if you choose the hero’s journey – you’ll give up measuring yourself against others.

...If you’re on a hero’s journey, the stepping stones you set will be yours. And eventually they will lead you to the gift of gratitude.

...you will find that your greatest horror in life isn’t failure, but waking up at fifty or sixty years old and realizing you’ve wasted your life.

Lord Acton: “A wise person does at once what a fool does at last.” 

SUMMARY

This week I have learned that when choosing my path I need to match opportunities to passions. I have learned that there is not just one passion destined to take me on my entrepreneurial path and that I should avoid ultimatums. I have learned about my true fears, my guard rails, and other things to avoid on my path. I would love to be able to set my own stepping stones so I think I need to list my passions:

I am passionate about motherhood, music, nature and ornamental plants.

My passion for motherhood makes me very anti-abortion and drives me to want to pursue Child and Family Advocacy.

My passion for music helps me write songs and drives me to want to learn the guitar.

My passion for nature and ornamental plants gives me a desire to landscape and create floral arrangements.

I'm not sure that my passion for flowers and music satisfies a deep, burning need in the world. I think I can make a difference in my small town but worldwide probably not. 

Lastly, I've never been very confident in my ability to become an entrepreneur but I am confident in my destiny to help and encourage my husband on his path. I like that Mastery' has thus far taught me to approach entrepreneurship the same way an athlete approaches their sport. I loved being an athlete. #PERSEVERANCE

In conclusion, to answer the question, is mastery skill, character, or luck? I would say that it requires all three. Mainly skill and character and what some would call luck, I know is truly divine intervention.