Make Yourself A Master

If you would converse with me, said Francois Voltaire, first define your terms.

master n. (1.) a revered leader, (2.) an artist or performer of consummate skill.
(3.) One whose work serves as a model or ideal.

Many people are professionals at what they do. Few are masters. What qualities set the master apart? What aspects of character, what business practices, what habits, what attitudes, what stance, cause a professional to be recognized as a master?

This pastiche is keyed in with no notes, no references. Just my gut. That’s where my views are born. That’s where your views are born. From your core, from your essence, from your deepest feelings. Let’s see if you’re able to agree with my gut convictions. The qualities and aspects of a master are these:

1. Integrity: Without this sterling quality, nothing else matters. I mean being more than as good as your word. I mean living and breathing with bone-deep resolve that if you say it, you live it—regardless of the cost.

This includes your accountabilities to each of your constituencies: These might include, depending on your field, your customers or clients. Or your peers, your subordinates, your superiors in your group. Or your vendors. Each expects value in return for their investment of faith or money or time in you.

2. In-depth research: Do you show up and do standard work. Plain vanilla. If so, you may be competent, yes. Well and good. the world needs you. And you’re not a master! The master goes a step beyond. Maybe many steps. Every time.

A stone mason may be a fine craftsman. Michelangelo was a master. A house painter may be an excellent journeyman painter. Leonardo was a master.

The master customizes, creates one-of-a-kind services or products for each customer. The master bestows a one-time experience on each client—delivers an artistic performance born for the time and place, for the here and now moment. The master takes into account the needs, wants, hungers, attitudes, biases, perceptions, challenges, conditions, stated and unstated, of each constituent.

3. Passion: The master is fully involved, totally present—with the work, the client or customer, the assignment or issue, the circumstances, the mood, the environment, with everything affecting the unforgettable experience shaped and molded for this time and place, for this customer or sponsor.

The master shares far more than words and concepts, ideas and recommendations. The master infuses values and principles, standards and personal philosophy, from his core, his essence, his deepest beliefs and his ideals, into the work, whatever the work may be.

The master delivers more, far more, than a product or a service. The master creates an experience, a memory, an indelible impression that people cannot possibly forget. Like a virus the master invades the deepest recesses of the consciousness of all affected by the work, causes neuron firings, synapses, in the brains—and positive changes in the minds and hearts of everyone present.

The master, with vast empathy for the human condition, intensely aware of the effect of her presence and her work, acts from the soul level. Clients perceive much of the real communication subliminally. The array of impressions released is conveyed by the master’s stance, movements, by the look in his eyes, by the pregnant pause at just the right times. The master engraves memories that cannot ever be erased.

The outcome, when you make yourself a master: Long after people forget your work or your service, they cannot forget you.