Ambition and Its Corollaries

Ambition has become suspect in the minds of a lot of people.  The classic stereotype is the self-centered man or woman who claw their way to the top of the corporate ladder stepping upon anybody perched on the other rungs.  Ego, indifference to time-honored virtues, and bullying are all.

This is unfortunate.  Frankly, ambition has gotten a bad rap.  In fact, without it you will not hit any of your goals, whether personal and professional.

Some months back, some friends and I discussed healthy ambition and its importance.. We focused on moving up in one’s career and becoming the best in our chosen fields.  There is cost, effort and sacrifice to do this.  There’s no such thing as a free lunch.  The pursuit of a highly valued station of influence and achievement takes patience, focus and a lot of hard work.  Those who take shortcuts are cheating themselves and are usually found out.

In his fascinating book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else, Geoff Colvin shatters a number of myths about “natural” talent, genius and how pros become such.  These are usually echoed in statements like this: “Well, Tiger Woods was born to play golf.  He’s a natural.”

Here’s something you may not know. Tiger Woods and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart both had fathers who started them on the paths of golf and music from infancy.  Earl Woods had a putter in Tiger’s hands before he was a year old.  Leopold Mozart was an established musician and composer before his son was born.  He set Wolfgang on a very focused and intense vocation in musical performance and composition from childhood.  Neither Tiger Woods nor W.A. Mozart were geniuses in common parlance and legend.  They spent many years mastering their crafts.

Peak performers in any discipline acquire that position through untold hours of deliberate practice.  Not just practice, but focused periods of review and goal setting with specific objectives in mind.  When Tiger Woods goes to the driving range, he doesn’t simply pull out a driver and see how far he can hit the ball.  Instead he might take a five iron out and practice hitting the ball not more than sixty-five yards.  There is much more intense energy and concentration that attends deliberate practice.

Here are some steps that are crucial for you to rise to the top of your calling:

• You must be a lifelong learner.  This means college, vocational school, online seminars, or training at the feet of a master whether a cabinet-maker or a jazz pianist.  It will cost time, discipline, sacrifice, and money.  Make the investment.
• Saying yes also means saying no.  Getting to the top of the classical guitar world meant that a teenage Christopher Parkening was unable to play baseball with his pals as much as he’d like to have done.  His father, Duke, had him executing deliberate practice from the age of eleven.  Up at 5:00 AM to practice before school.  More practice when school was over.  Choosing mastery in an enterprise means you will not be able to say yes to lots of other pursuits simply because of the time and focus it takes to excel in your chosen field.
• You must move past the drudgery curve.  A woman once told the great pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski, “You are a genius.”  His reply: “Madame, before I was a genius, I was a drudge.”  The driving range, the woodshop, the music room are not glamorous environments but it is in such places, over long hours, that one becomes a master.

The world is looking for individuals who are outstanding at what they do.  Mediocrity, for such as these, grates against every instinct inside them.  You are called to such excellence. The sky is the limit.  Focus and move forward.

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Manageable Goals: A Key To Growth

Goals.  How do you hit them?  How do you place them within sane and profitable range?  How do you avoid the extremes of setting the bar too low—and being thus unchallenged and bored—and shooting unrealistically high—and being discouraged and defeated?

Today, one of my colleagues and I were discussing the importance of setting goals that were challenging yet attainable.  My friend told me that when he was an insurance salesman, he and his fellow agents would huddle in the mornings and lay out their sales goals for that particular day.  His buddies would generally shoot for the moon:  “I’m gonna sell ten policies today.”  He would set more modest but sufficiently difficult targets: “I’m going to sell two of this policy and one of that package.”  And he would usually hit the mark, while his co-workers failed to meet theirs and were thus discouraged.

There’s an old adage that says “slow and steady wins the race.”  This, of course, is a nod to Aesop’s famous story of The Tortoise and the Hare.  Through patient plodding, the much slower and ungainly tortoise won the race over the flashy and fleet-of-foot hare.  If you persevere, you win.

This is not to discourage the practice of giving yourself a worthy but difficult task.  But it is important to keep a healthy balance between mediocrity and insanity.  Those who avoid the shoals on either side generally sail on to success.

What are your goals for 1) continuing education—whether at a learning institution or through self-education via reading, listening and viewing, 2) physical fitness and weight loss, 3) strengthening your relationships, 4) improving your vocational skills?  Have you written them down, which is critical to their fulfillment, having engaged your conscious and subconscious mind by doing so?  Have you a process, broken down into manageable bites—“baby steps”—whereby you can meet these destinations?

Here are some of the benefits one derives from setting goals and then meeting them:

• You get the benefit of meeting the goal itself.  If you lose that portly thirty pounds, you feel better about yourself and have become healthier.  If you learn a new skill, you can use that to help others, elevate your station and earn more.
• You receive a boost in self-confidence and self-respect rooted in genuine accomplishment, rather than in aspiration and fantasy.
• You strengthen your goal-attainment muscles because you are encouraged that, yes, you can do this!

Set goals.  Set them high enough to stretch you.  Write them down, with concrete dates and metrics indicating you’ve met them.  Then hit them!

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French, Daughters, and Adventures

I remember going to my future high school as an eighth grader and selecting classes for my upcoming freshman year.  This was an exciting time for a fourteen year old who’d spent the previous eight years in a parochial school, with fairly limited—though profitable—course options.

I spied the foreign language department and its course offerings in the curriculum of Lapeer East High during orientation.  I’d been fascinated by foreign languages, having learned snippets of Spanish, French, Hebrew, and, of course, Latin throughout my years at Bishop Kelley Memorial.  That fascination, along with rumor that the French Department was chaired by a lovely young blonde, was enough for me.  I was in.

Over the next four years, a superficial fascination with language and a pretty teacher turned into a full-fledged love for French and a deep respect and affection for our teacher, Madame Essex.

A few years after graduation, I took my love for French to college and studied it for five semesters there as well.  I even taught it in a variety of settings over the next dozen years or so.  I’ve added other languages to my learning but French was and is my first love when I take leave of my mother tongue.  It is a thing of beauty, discipline and purity.  There’s nothing quite like it.

In a poignant twist of irony, it is now the province—linguistically and geographically—of my daughter Anna, who today moved to the southern part of France near Avignon to work at a school.  My daughter, Emily, is conversant in French as well and I expect she will use it as she pursues her various callings and avocations as well.

It is a delight for parents to watch as their children head off into the sunset or sunrise in pursuit of their dreams, their callings, their fortunes, their destinies.  We miss Anna already—Emily is close by, thankfully—and look forward to seeing her, sooner rather than later would be our preference.  Et j’espere c’est dans le pays de la France.  Mais bien sur!

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Know Your Time

Time is the only inelastic commodity that any of us possess.  We are each allotted 24 hours to the day.  Given the fact that time has an end for all of us, it is priceless and demands we steward it carefully.

Those who make their mark on the universe learn this well, the earlier the better.  I’ve been listening to some outstanding lessons on time management by Brian Tracy.  This material is about a quarter of a century old but is timeless (pardon the pun).  You can drink from the same well here.

A leader advances because he knows his time and that of those with whom he interacts is precious.  So without further ado, here’s some tips that will increase your effectiveness, production and value in the marketplace:

• Arrive early for any appointments.  People will take note quickly that you are a pro, a force in business.  Being fashionably late may be de rigueur for parties and proms but it will destroy you in the marketplace.
• Use early morning hours to get a lot of work done.  Tracy points out that it’s possible to get the work of a typical day done in 3 hours of undisturbed effort.
• Turn off your smart phone.  If it’s important, those trying to get you will leave a message or call back.
• Find gracious ways of economizing or taking leave of people who tend to waste their time as well as yours.  “Hi.  What can I do for you?”  You’re not helping them or yourself by letting them simply drop in to chew the fat when you should be working. Again, this is for business.  Don’t do this with family or friends.
• Keep your workspace organized, free of clutter.
• When making appointments to meet with someone, prepare an agenda on paper, smart phone, PDA or iPad.  Set a definite timeframe for the meeting and announce it ahead of time.  If it’s 30 minutes, end it at 30 minutes and be on your way.  It will speak volumes.
• Write down the contents of phone discussions or meetings.  When meeting with customers, follow up your discussions with an email.  This keeps assumptions crystal clear.  It will save your time and your neck, believe me.
• Remember that really high achievers understand the value of minutes, not just hours.
• When discussing a topic, ask direct and specific questions.  When answering, get to the point.  The only time you should exercise the urge to “Ramble On” is when you’ve got Led Zeppelin’s 2^nd album cued up.

Enough for now.  If you follow these steps diligently, you will see your production increase, your influence grow and your income go north.

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Listen To Your Own Life

What makes you come alive?  You know what I’m talking about.  When a particular subject comes up, you become animated.  Your pulse increases.  Your eyes light up.  Your speech becomes dynamic and dramatic.  People see that something matters  when they look in your eyes and hear your voice.

You can’t hide passion.

One of the most important things I’ve ever heard anyone say is this: Listen to your own life.

This is not psychobabble.  You need to pay attention to what lights you up.  It is a clue to what you should probably do in life to put your own dent in the universe.  Passionate people are far more effective than the complacent and bored.  Passionate people make better art, better commerce, better lovers.   And they’re far more interesting than a thousand people merely getting by, content with mediocrity and playing it safe.

Some time ago, I had an interesting conversation with an even more interesting young man.  He is near and dear to our family.  As he began talking about his love of wildlife and animals, he got excited.  I told him, “Pay attention to yourself.  Do you hear your own voice?”

We are each given different gifts, callings and interests.  You can still the voice of these deposits through fear.  What will my friends think if I want to play the cello?  Can I make a living as a writer?  Do I really want to be a politician—people don’t trust them because they all lie, right?  Listening to these voices will slowly kill something inside you.

The problem is this:  If you stifle who you are and what you are called to do, it will inevitably emerge in a number of different ways, either 1) in inferior forms–like settling for being a technical writer when you’re really a novelist–or 2) in toxic forms.  The depression and frustration that accompany the unfulfilled destiny, like buried nuclear waste, will poison the water table of your life.  And when that happens, you will seek to medicate and mask that pain and discontent with all sorts of unhealthy stuff.  Believe me, I’ve been there.

The next time you find yourself getting excited about some pursuit—creative, vocational or social—pay attention.  Note your own body language.  It doesn’t lie.  If you’re near a mirror, take a look.  What you see is a clue.  A clue to fulfilling your destiny.

Life’s too short to settle for getting by.  You are here for a purpose.  Listen to your life, lock on and pursue.

You and the world will be better for it.

Inspirations

I read an interesting article some months ago about Viggo Mortensen and his influences.  Viggo is an actor of no mean accomplishment and a Watertown native.  He spent a number of his growing up years here in the North Country.  People who frequent neighboring Clayton see him from time to time as he comes back to visit family.

The article was not so much commentary as it was comprehensive lists.  Being a list junkie, I found it fascinating and invigorating.  You can read about it here.

I heard a wise speaker remark once that we are all a composite of the people who influence our lives, whether directly or through their work.  I resonated with this observation and it helped put to bed the nagging urge to “be an original.”

So I thought I would list some of my own, collected over forty-eight years.  I’d be interested in yours if you choose to comment.

I am a Christian man and so the biggest influence, without question, is Jesus Christ.  He is the summit.

I am also a husband, father, son, IT professional, musician and writer.  So here goes:

People:  My wife, Kath.  My daughters, Anna and Emily.  My extended family and friends. My teachers and ministers. My employers and colleagues.

Guitarists:  Phil Keaggy, Julian Bream, Christopher Parkening, Jeff Beck, Alvin Lee, David Russell, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Brian May, Chuck Berry, Andres Segovia, John Williams, Earl Klugh, Larry Carlton, Ted Nugent, Paul O’Dette (lute), Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Slash, Steve Howe, Eric Clapton, Joe Fava, Konrad Ragossnig (lute), Tommy Emmanuel, David Gilmour, Rick Foster, Angel Romero, Wes Montgomery, Jacob Moon, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Anthony Phillips.  And many more.

Music and Artists: Dan Fogelberg, Keith Green, Richard Souther, Elton John, The Allman Brothers, Paul Clark, The Beatles, 2^nd Chapter of Acts, Donovan, Honeytree, Sara Groves, Vineyard Music, Maranatha Music, Hillsong Music, James Taylor, Larry Norman, John Michael Talbot, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble, Jethro Tull, Randy Stonehill, The Eagles, Billy Joel, Kemper Crabb, Lamb, Peter, Paul & Mary, Queen, Simon & Garfunkel, Twila Paris, Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Card, Bob Bennett, Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), Brian Doerksen, Debby Boone, Kenny G, Norah Jones, Andrea Bocelli, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Dave Brubeck, Ralph Sharon, Tony Bennett, Neil Young, Jascha Heifetz, Glenn Gould, Malcolm & Alwyn, Phil Ramone.  And many more.

Composers: Johann Sebastian Bach, John Dowland, Gaspar Sanz, Ralph Vaughn Williams, Erik Satie, G.F. Handel, Ludwig Von Beethoven, Jimmy Webb, Francesco Da Milano, Henry Purcell, Pyotr Illich Tchaikovsky, Domenico Scarlatti, Enrique Granados, Isaac Albeniz, Michael Praetorius, Joaquin Rodrigo, Antonin Dvorak, Ennio Morricone, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Rachel Portman, Felix Mendelsohn, James Newton Howard, John Williams, Mychael Danna, Stephen Schwartz, George Gershwin. And many more.

Film: Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Marlon Brando, Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Johnny Depp, Steve McQueen, Ben Kingsley, Anthony Hopkins, Liam Neeson, Sir Laurence Olivier, James Caan, Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, Steven Spielberg, Gus Van Zandt, Jim Caviezel, Franco Zeffirelli.  And many more.

Writers: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Morris West, Will & Ariel Durant, Viktor Frankl, Chaim Potok, Ralph McInerny, M. Scott Peck, J.R.R. Tolkien, Michael D. O’Brien, William Manchester, Dan Brown, Daniel Silva, Leo Tolstoy, Randy Alcorn, Joel Rosenberg, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Elie Wiesel, Sol Stein, Mitch Albom, Mortimer Adler, Will Strunk & E.B. White.  And many more.

Christian – Protestant: A.W. Tozer, R.C. Sproul, C.S. Lewis, J.C. Ryle, Francis Schaeffer, A.W. Pink, Derek Prince, Jack Hayford, Ravi Zacharias, Chuck Missler, John MacArthur, Robert Shank, Gordon Lindsay, Leonard Ravenhill, David Wilkerson, John Piper, J.I. Packer, Richard Foster, Jonathan Edwards, Eugene Peterson, Gordon Fee, Dallas Willard, Robert Dick Wilson, John Bevere, D.M. M’Intyre, Watchman Nee, John Wimber, Jack Deere, Bill Johnson, Thomas Oden, Edward J. Young, Hobart E. Freeman, J. Barton Payne, Gene Edwards, William Branham, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Smith Wigglesworth, Josh McDowell, Dave Hunt, Chuck Smith, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Ronald Enroth, Larry Burkett, Jack Van Impe, A.T. Robertson, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Charles Colson, John G. Lake, Paul Livermore, Michael Brown, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, John Wesley, Charles Finney, Bill Hybels, John Eldredge, Billy Graham, Jim Elliot, Chuck Swindoll, Charles Spurgeon, Alfred Edersheim.  And many more.

Christian – Catholic: St. Francis of Assisi, Thomas Merton, Francis MacNutt, Louis Bouyer, Karl Adam, Msgr. Ronald Knox, Scott Hahn, Peter Kreeft, Thomas À Kempis, Mark Shea, Romano Guardini, Thomas Howard, Madame Guyon, G.K. Chesterton, Fr. John Hardon, Dietrich Von Hildebrand, Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II), Angelo Roncalli (John XXIII), Raymond Brown, Brennan Manning, Joseph Girzone, John Henry Newman, Karl Keating, Malachi Martin.  And many more.

Leadership and Self-Development:  Jim Rohn, Peter Drucker, Michael Gelb, John Maxwell, J. Oswald Sanders, Jack Canfield, Dean Karnazes, James Allen, Napoleon Hill, Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Earl Nightingale, Dale Carnegie, Warren Bennis, David Schwartz, Zig Ziglar, Warren Bennis. And a few more.

Politics and Economics:  George Will, Henry Kissinger, Abba Eban, Ronald Reagan, John Kenneth Galbraith, John F. Kennedy, George Schultz, Thomas Sowell.  And a few more.

Science and Technology:  Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, E.F. Codd, Stephen Hawking.  And a few more.

Enough for now.  Who inspires you in your talents, work and avocations?

Occupy!

When Jesus wanted to teach something, he usually told a story.  He used the stuff of everyday life in Israel—a country of shepherds—for his parables.  It’s hard to improve on stories for making a point clear.

The longer I live and think about these stories, the more I am struck by how they favor action and initiative, creative thinking and problem-solving.  In one parable, he commends a dishonest property manager for being creative in making for himself a soft landing place with some old clients when he is fired for incompetence.  He regards his initiative and problem-solving, if not his loose bookkeeping.

In one of his stories, a landowner gives portions of his goods to different people with the command “occupy until I return.”

Occupy?

The phrase “occupy” these days is freighted with all sorts of meanings and nuances.  Occupy Wall Street.  Occupied territories.  But what did Jesus mean when he used this particular verb?

His parable paints a picture of the kingdom of God.  And his command is to occupy—do business, be industrious, generate a return on investment.  Those who lazed about and did nothing got it in spades when the master returned.

There is a time to pray and a time to act.  That’s axiomatic.  But there are moments when to be on a kneeler is to miss the mark entirely.  When you are supposed to be hitting the pavement and drumming up business, your act of “occupying until I come” becomes an act of worship, even prayer.  I often wonder if God isn’t waiting for us to be the answer to a lot of our prayers.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I being passive in the pursuit of my goals?  Do you wait around for God and people to do for you what you are really supposed to do for yourself?  As one has said, you can’t hire another to do your pushups for you.
• Am I quick to give up when I encounter resistance in the pursuit of my goals? Sometimes we flag and cave, thinking that “it wasn’t meant to be” simply because the goal we pursue doesn’t come easy.  Stuff that is valuable costs time, effort, money…blood, sweat and tears.
• What would happen if I gave another hour or two a day to the pursuit of my goals?  We tend to plateau in our skills and objectives for lots of reasons.  But one is simply that we don’t give that extra effort to really master a thing.  It is the difference between dilettantes and professionals.  Professionals stay at it until they own it.

Enough now.  You get the picture.  Go occupy.

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Your Constant Companion

“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” (William Shakespeare)

Those of you who’ve been regular visitors to The Upside have noticed that my writing this past Summer has been intermittent at best.  My wife and I are in a new season of our lives, preparing for moves vocational, geographical and social.  We’ve spent the past three months getting our house ready and putting it on the market.  Now for a buyer.

Today marks the first day of Fall.  The autumnal equinox arrived this morning.  It’s a new season in more ways than one.  Fall tends to put people into a more academic frame of mind, if you will.  Our children return to school and people are often eager to learn and grow as the weather begins to chill and the leaves to turn.  It’s always been that way with me.

This afternoon I found myself thinking about what motivates the decisions we make in life.  There are numerous perceived and imperceptible influences that guide us in our decisions.  Some are healthy.  Others are not.

For example, you may have made decisions about where to make your home and your living out of a desire to please others, even those close to you.  You may have taken on burdens simply because you were afraid that if you declined—a boundary mechanism—you would lose favor with somebody.  And then you live with regret and varied degrees of toxic self-disdain and recrimination.

Some years ago, a pastoral colleague of mine shared something with me over lunch.  He told me that the most important book he’d ever read, outside of the Bible, was Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend.  In fact, he refused to marry any couple who came to him for premarital counseling and would not read the book, a requirement for him to solemnize the nuptials.  Yes, it’s that important.

Long and short of the message of Boundaries is this: The most important boundary marker you have at your disposal is the word no.  You simply have to use it.

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and a little ornery, but I now realize that the person I have to live with until I die—every waking and unconscious moment—is me.  Christian Fahey.  And when, to paraphrase Shakespeare, I’m not true to myself…I don’t walk in integrity…I’m not true to my calling, my wiring, my passions for life and vocation, I have to live with me.  My conscience.  My memories.  My misgivings.

All of a sudden, pleasing other people at the expense of doing what I know is right and valid seems hollow indeed.  Life’s too short to be somebody else.

So here’s to moving forward, living in such a way that minimizes regrets and self-doubt.  Here’s to being true to the God-given vision for yours and my life.  Here’s to being true to oneself.

And it will surely follow that we’ll all be more true to others.

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To The Young Skipper

I had been married all of one month in the spring of 1988.  It was then that I hired in as the manager of a full-line bakery here in northern New York.  I was fairly green at the young age of twenty-four.

That first year of reorganizing the bakery was trying and fatiguing.  I learned lots of lessons and made plenty of mistakes.  I was the sole man in charge and my boss, the owner of a chain of bakeries, lived a hundred miles away in the Mohawk Valley.  I saw him rarely.  I was on my own.

One of the early challenges I faced was leading a crew of employees, many of whom were at least ten years older than me.  It was intimidating.  There was plenty of “we didn’t do that when [insert a previous manager] ran this place.”  It goes with the territory.

I was faced with the difficulties of leading with heart, fairness and a strong hand.  I did well some times; other times I blew it.  I would do things differently today, but it is well-known that hindsight is a 20/20 enterprise.

At a mentoring meeting last Spring, we discussed the challenges of being a young leader who has to grasp the nettle and lead—and yes, fire—employees old enough to be our parents.  It is never easy.

What to do then?

The apostle Paul, writing to his young protégé Timothy, commanded him “let no man despise your youth.”  Among other things, that meant that Timothy had been given charge and oversight of a group of people and he was not permitted to duck the responsibility of steering the ship competently and forcefully.

Here are some time-honored principles for leading with distinction:

• Lead by example.  Paul told Timothy to be an example to the people under his charge by the way he lived his life.  You must be the first to do the heavy lifting.  The motto for Israeli officers today is “After me!”  People buy into you and your leadership when you get into the trenches and sweat.  It’s much easier to take directives from a leader with his sleeves rolled up and perspiration on his brow.
• Avoid arrogance like the plague.  Giving people the back of the hand—harsh remarks, constant criticisms with no commendations, sarcasm—will sink the ship and demoralize the troops.  Be humble.
• Treat people old enough to be your parents with deference befitting their age.  Paul told Timothy to treat elders like fathers and mothers.  That makes it much easier when you have to make tough executive choices.
• Don’t apologize for being young.  You got hired to do your job because you demonstrated some level of leadership acumen.  Even if you feel “all at sea” with intimidation, you need not show it.  People respect a man or woman who can make a decision and abide by it.
• Be optimistic and avoid petty shop gossip.  As one of my supervisors counseled me, “In everything you do, be a class act.”

You have the wheel of the ship.  Sail on and prosper!

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Mastery

I watched an interview several months ago with legendary recording engineer and producer Andy Johns (shown in the above photo).  He sat behind the mixing desk for a lot very famous rock and roll albums.  Seminal Led Zeppelin albums (II, III, IV, Physical Graffiti). Rolling Stones (Exile on Main Street, Sticky Fingers, and others).  Plus a host of great artists.  Rod Stewart, Eddie Money, Blind Faith, Joe Cocker.  The list is endless.

In the course of the interview, Andy discussed microphone placement on drums and guitar amps.  I’ve spent a very modest amount of time in recording studios over the past 31 years, not least with the inimitable Peter Hopper, veteran who has engineered over 6000 recordings and worked with the best in the music business.  I must tell you I’ve been highly privileged to see that skilled engineers are a breed apart.

Garage Band® and Pro Tools® can give musicians an incredible palette with which to create.  What these and other technological marvels cannot give is expertise–the knowledge gained by spending years and years behind a recording console.  Knowing which mics to use and exactly how to place them.  It makes all the difference in the world.   Great engineers and producers know these and a thousand other things.  Read Making Records: The Scenes Behind the Music (Phil Ramone & Charles Granata) for a lot more.

What is their secret?  Mastery

We have a cliché we use about people who dabble in all sorts of things: “He’s a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.”  It’s not very complimentary.  There is something majestic and profoundly inspiring when you are in the presence of a master.  Someone who knows his craft cold.  Can answer any question.

To become a master, a journeyman in any discipline takes long years of diligent effort.  You’ve got to love what you do.  As a friend of mine has said many times, “If you love something, it will show you its secrets.”

Here are some things to ponder:

• What do you love so much that you’d do it without pay?  Remember it was Babe Ruth who was overwhelmed by the fact he was getting a salary to play baseball.  A master who made history.  Pay attention to what you do in your free time.  It is a clue.
• Go to those who know.  To learn from the best is both fruitful and incredibly efficient.  To reinvent the wheel is foolish and a waste of time.  Study at the feet of the masters.  I’ve learned guitar from Jimmy Page, Phil Keaggy, Julian Bream and Wes Montgomery.  I’ve studied Bible with Arthur W. Pink, Adam Clarke and Scott Hahn.  I’ve honed my writing with the aid of Strunk & White, Sol Stein, George Will and Chaim Potok.
• Work very hard and never, ever lose your hunger.  Complacency will neuter you.  Coasting will set you back.  Resting on your laurels will make you a has-been.  Seek to learn something new every single day.

Excellence and expertise come at a price.  It costs one’s life but is a sound investment!

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