Book review: "Mastery" by Robert Greene

This book is a masterpiece. It's about how to achieve mastery in your work and in your life. I would pay $10,000 to be able to give this book to a 16-year-old me. The lessons of this book could have saved me countless hours of wasted time spent on fruitless activities.

Greene has investigated the lives of dozens of masters, (including the likes of Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Mozart) systematically analyzing the habits, traits, and attitudes that lead to their greatness, and he distills all of them down into principles that anyone can emulate.

He also looked at the lives of unlikely masters, whose achievements seemed impossible given their disabilities and impairments. One such master is Temple Grandin, who went from being an autistic child that struggled to learn language, to being a professor of animal science who revolutionized the field. Greene shows how Grandin overcame the crippling social ineptitude, caused by her autism, that almost destroyed her career. The message is clear: you have more potential than you think you have. If Grandin can transform her life, you can too.

The central message of Greene's book is that masters are not born they are made--and that anyone can tap into the powers that these masters have. There are universal characteristics that all these masters share that can be mimicked by anyone.

This book will inspire you to work harder than you ever thought possible. It will give you faith that prodigious achievement can be had by anyone who is willing to thoroughly give themselves to their work. It also shows you how to find your "Life Purpose," which is the critical step in achieving mastery. This is the single most transformative book I've ever read.