The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do

by Jeff Goins

“self-made” man or woman.

No such thing as a self made man or woman.

What you might miss when you first meet Ginny Phang—and this is in no way meant to discredit her courage—is that without the support of a few important people, she wouldn’t have made it.

The Accidental Apprenticeship

After completing the first stage of apprenticeship, the student, who was now called a “journeyman,” could venture out and travel to other cities, working on his own. What a journeyman could not do, however,

Under this system, an apprentice typically worked for a minimum of seven years before venturing out on his own. Then he would spend another few years as a journeyman before finally becoming a master—if he was worthy. The entire process took about ten years.

I think this is interesting: Ten years and Gladwells 10,000 hour rule.

Pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps can only take us so far, and despite what we’ve heard, there is no such thing as a self-made man. We are all products of our environment,

Slide Reach down grab your boot straps and pull up on them. How is that working. Okay reach down and grab you buddy's boot straps and see what happens.

Like Slipping into an Old Pair of Shoes

“I was very lonely during pregnancy, almost suicidal,” she told me. “It was the only time in my life where I couldn’t see beyond twenty-four hours.”

She and her peers had grown up on formula, and as a result, very few Singaporean mothers knew much about nursing.

“What’s a doula?” I asked Ginny. “A birth coach,”

I need to change my office around to make it more conducive to coaching sessions. I don't like the desk between me and them. I don't like the chairs. Maybe this should look and feel like a phycologist office? Or the message therapist.

Multiple Mentors

Or coaches.

Why is it so difficult to find a mentor? To begin with, you’re dealing with people: flawed human beings who each have their own expectations and agendas.

We have believed the myth of the self-made man and have given in to the illusion of self-reliance.

“The teacher appears when the student is ready” is a nice-sounding cliché, but the truth is the student is never ready.

Most of the time, I’ve failed to recognize the importance of these relationships until well after they were over.

As Paulo Coelho writes, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

She may not have been ready for what would be required of her, but she was ready to take action. And that small step made all the difference.

Slide, You may not have what it takes you you take what you have and act.

The Resurgence of Apprenticeship

The studio is called the Illumination Atelier

Atelier is a French word meaning “workshop,” and during the Middle Ages these were the main areas of education for artists.

small workshop is an opportunity to share her passion for not only art but also peace and reconciliation.

Can you imagine a world where school looked more like an atelier and less like an auditorium? In some areas, that’s not quite so unrealistic.

We don’t need more jobs. We need a better way to equip people for what they’re meant to do. In the case of Germany, such a system seems to be creating more jobs than it can handle.

Use Your Environment: The Steve Jobs Strategy

Every place you go, every person you meet, every job you have is a chance to gain greater clarity in your self-education. Life is the classroom, and if you are paying attention, you can recognize the daily lessons available.

Traditional mentors are hard to come by, but you already have access to wisdom and experience, teachers who will guide you in making decisions that will help you find your way.

This is a great quote for you to use in the slide deck. Traditional mentors are few and far between. However, anyone can be a coach and if you make the environment your classroom you can have coaches everywhere. "What is water?"

What friend or former coach would meet you for coffee this week if you asked?

The worst way to get a mentor is to go find one. The best way is to see the one that’s already there.

cofounder of Apple Computer, got his start. His own education was almost entirely informal, beginning with a short stint at Reed College, where the classes were so expensive he decided to drop out after six months.

a calligraphy course, which he later credited for influencing the beautiful typography used in the first Mac.

Rarely do you find all the elements of an apprenticeship in one place. But if you look in the right places and are careful to pay attention, you will find them.

What if you looked at finding your dream as an apprenticeship? Now, what if that apprenticeship did not already exist in some form? You make your own apprenticeship. You surround yourself with the coaches you need to realize your dreams.

From Apprentice to Master

THREE Painful Practice When Trying Isn’t Good Enough

Stephanie Fisher had come a long

her seventh time auditioning for American Idol.

“Terrible. Honestly, you can’t sing, sweetheart.” In the YouTube video that tells her painful story over and over again, Stephanie admitted to being a little starstruck in the presence of Victoria Beckham,

The Myth of Talent

Author of Talent Is Overrated, Geoff Colvin, wrote, “Talent means nothing like what we think it means, if indeed it means anything at all.”5

What advice do we offer such people? Can we honestly stare them in the face and say, “Try harder”?

Maybe it was the kind of practice.

The Effort Excuse

explaining a lack of excellence with that very excuse: I gave it my best. This became my default shrug-it-off response

AT least I tried, nope that is not good enough.

According to Dweck, most people adhere to one of two mind-sets: the fixed mindset or the growth mindset. With the fixed mindset, people are born with a certain number of finite abilities and cannot exceed those abilities.

More Than Mindset

The term deliberate practice was first coined by K. Anders Ericsson,

According to Daniel Coyle, author of a book called The Talent Code, the right kind of practice is a process of repeated tasks that end in failure. You fail and fail and fail again until you finally succeed and learn not only the right way to do something, but the best way.

This is what he calls “deep practice,”

What does it take to develop the habits that lead to excellence?

How do we not just answer our callings but master them?