The 3 Stages of Mastery

Everyone wants to be the best. Yet if you're trying to be the best at someone else's game, you've already lost.

How many incredibly talented people do you know who are still stuck fighting for scraps? They're good. Really good. But they're playing a game where the rules were written by someone else, and no matter how hard they work, they're always just another player.

Real winners aren't playing the same game as everyone else. They built their own.

This isn't some abstract motivational BS. There's a clear pattern to how mastery actually works, and it has three distinct stages. Most people never make it past stage two. Here's why.

You're figuring out the basics, understanding how things work, learning the rules that everyone else follows. You're studying the fundamentals.

If you're a musician, you're learning scales, chord progressions, and song structure. If you're building a business, you're studying marketing funnels, customer acquisition, and revenue models. If you're an athlete, you're drilling technique, learning plays, and understanding strategy.

This stage is essential. You can't break rules you don't understand. You need to know how the game works before you can do anything interesting with it.

But here's where most people mess up: they think this stage is the destination. They spend years trying to perfect the fundamentals, believing that if they just get good enough at the basics, they'll stand out. They won't. Because everyone else is doing the exact same thing.

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You've mastered the basics, and now you're studying the people who are actually winning. You're analyzing what makes them different. You're looking for patterns. You're trying to understand the meta-game.

Musicians at this stage aren't just learning songs anymore. They're studying Miles Davis, figuring out why his phrasing hit different. They're dissecting Kanye's production choices or breaking down how Billie Eilish uses space in her music.

Entrepreneurs aren't just following generic business advice. They're studying how specific companies grew. How did Airbnb get their first 1,000 users? Why did Tesla's brand become a cult? What did Netflix see that Blockbuster didn't?

Athletes aren't just running drills. They're watching film, studying opponents, understanding tendencies. They're learning to read the game at a higher level.

This is where you start to separate yourself. You're not just competent anymore. You're strategic. You understand why certain moves work and others don't. You can predict what's coming next.

But, this is where most people get stuck. They become really good at playing someone else's game. They study the best and try to beat them at their own rules.

And they stay stuck forever.

Because no matter how good you get at this stage, you're still playing a game someone else designed. You're fighting for the same prizes everyone else wants. You're competing on the same terms. And there's always going to be someone who's been playing longer, has more resources, or just got luckier.

At this stage, you're not trying to be the best player anymore. You're creating a new game entirely. You're redefining what winning looks like. You're making competition irrelevant because you're the only one playing your version of the game.

Look at Picasso. He mastered classical painting. He could paint realistically better than almost anyone. But he didn't become Picasso by being a better realist. He invented Cubism. He changed what painting could be.

Steve Jobs didn't try to make a better Dell computer. He redefined what a computer company could be by merging technology with design and retail experience. He created a category where Apple was the only player.

Netflix didn't try to beat Blockbuster at the video rental game. They changed the entire model to streaming, and then changed it again by producing their own content. They kept rewriting the rules while everyone else was still trying to optimize the old game.

Virgil Abloh didn't try to become the best traditional fashion designer. He blurred the lines between streetwear and high fashion, creating something that didn't exist before. He made his own lane.

So Where Are You?

Most people are stuck in stage two, trying to optimize their way to the top of a game they didn't create. They're incredibly skilled, deeply knowledgeable, and still losing because they're playing by someone else's rules.

So here's the question: Are you trying to be the best player in someone else's game? Or are you ready to create your own?

See you on the next stair,

Alastair