Once, in a moment of apparent weakness, the dean of the college of engineering invited me and some other students to his house for dinner. We were all sitting in the study talking about school when I said something that, in retrospect, seemed to be the dumbest comment ever.
"Learning is painful," I said.
Before the reverberation from the last word faded from the room, I wished that I could vacuum the words from the air. Instead, they just hung in the air like the humidity in Houston. The room fell silent and Dr. Woodson looked at me as if I had just passed gas. I meant what I said, but the words didn't come out as eloquently as I had imagined in my head.
What I meant to say it that it isn't easy to read page after page, chapter after chapter of engineering text as dry as rice cakes wrapped in cardboard. I just didn't mean to say it so bluntly. But that's how I felt.
That's why I was so intrigued to read Daniel Pink's latest book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. In the book, Pink argues that the conventional approach to motivating ourselves and others with purely monetary rewards is outdated and not as effective as it once was. Instead, he says, decades of research shows that the things that motivate people today – once a certain level of financial security is reached – are autonomy, mastery and purpose. Those who have the freedom to do the job the way they see fit, have a desire to get really good at something, and have a sense of greater purpose are far more productive than their counterparts who are prodded along by a controlling boss using the proverbial carrot and stick.
But the best part of the book is the chapter on mastery. In it, Pink argues three important points about achieving mastery. The first is that mastery is a mindset. He says that there are basically two types of people in the world; those who believe that intelligence is a fixed quantity – that you're either born with it or you're not – and those who believe that people have varying amounts of intelligence, but that it can be increased with work. He likens it to physical qualities; some people believe intelligence is an attribute like height, and some believe it's more like a muscle that can be developed. The distinction is extremely important, because your view of intelligence plays a major part in how much you effort you put into developing your skills and mastery.
His second point is that mastery is an asymptote, or something that can be approached but never fully attained. Pink relates how the French painter Paul Cézanne's best work came towards the end of his life because he always strived to get better and better. Those who realize that you never fully realize mastery continue to drive for it.
Lastly, Pink says that mastery is a pain. There it is! Take that, Dr. Woodson. Mastery is painful. Pink quotes psychologist Anders Ericsson: "Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the results of intense practice for a minimum of 10 years."
Pink goes on to say, "Mastery – of sports, music, business – requires effort (difficult, painful, excruciating, all-consuming effort) over a long time (not a week or a month, but a decade). Sociologist Daniel Chambliss has referred to this as "the mundanity of excellence… Whereas the importance of working harder is easily apprehended, the importance of working longer without switching objectives may be less perceptible…in every field, grit may be as essential as talent to high accomplishment."
In many of the training seminars I teach, the hardest part is getting through the drudgery of working through Ohm's law and the power formulas. But they are so important to understanding the true nature of electricity that you really need to master them before you can really understand more advanced topics like phase angles, three-phase power and harmonics. Those who stick with it are more apt to demonstrate a certain level of mastery in their field.
Since my college days it seems that the work gets less and less tedious and more and more enjoyable. I may never achieve mastery, but I'm going to have fun trying.
