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Become a Master Marketer


As with all creative arts, the most effective way to become a master is to imitate the mind-set of masters not just intellectually but emotionally as well.


Or, as the following modern Zen poem has it:




To follow the path:

look to the master,

follow the master,

walk with the master,

see through the master,

become the master.



So, if you want to be a master, repeat the following things until you are one:



1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.



Being a master is lots of fun, but it's a kind of fun that takes lots of effort. The effort takes motivation. Successful athletes get their motivation from a kind of physical delight in making their bodies perform, in pushing themselves past their own physical limits. Similarly, to be a master you have to get a basic thrill from solving problems, sharpening your skills, and exercising your intelligence.



If you aren't the kind of person that feels this way naturally, you'll need to become one in order to make it as a master. Otherwise you'll find your energy is sapped by distractions like sex, money, and social approval.



(You also have to develop a kind of trust in your own learning capacity a belief that even though you may not know all of what you need to solve a problem, if you tackle just a piece of it and learn from that, you'll learn enough to solve the next piece and so on, until you're done.)



2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice.



Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn't be wasted on re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating new problems waiting out there.



To behave like a master, you have to believe that the thinking time of other masters is precious so much so that it's almost a moral duty for you to share information, solve problems and then give the solutions away just so other masters can solve new problems instead of having to perpetually re-address old ones. We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.



Note, however, that "No problem should ever have to be solved twice." does not imply that you have to consider all existing solutions sacred, or that there is only one right solution to any given problem. This is dogmatic. Often, we learn a lot about the problem that we didn't know before by studying the first solution. It's OK, and often necessary, to decide that we can do better. What's not OK is artificial technical, legal, or institutional barriers that prevent a good solution from being re-used and force people to re-invent wheel.



(You don't have to believe that you're obligated to give your entire creative product away, though the masters that do are the ones that get most respect from other masters. It's consistent with a masters values to sell enough of it to keep you in food and rent. It's fine to use your skills to support a family or even get rich, as long as you don't forget your loyalty to your art and your fellow masters while doing it.)



3. Boredom and drudgery are evil.



Masters (and creative people in general) should never be bored or have to drudge at stupid repetitive work, because when this happens it means they aren't doing what only they can do solve new problems. This wastefulness hurts everybody. Therefore boredom and drudgery are not just unpleasant but actually evil.



To behave like a master, you have to believe this enough to want to automate away the boring bits as much as possible, not just for yourself but for everybody else (especially other masters).



(There is one apparent exception to this. Masters will sometimes do things that may seem repetitive or boring to an observer as a mind-clearing exercise, or in order to acquire a skill or have some particular kind of experience you can't have otherwise. But this is by choice nobody who can think should ever be forced into a situation that bores them.)



4. Freedom is good.



Masters are naturally anti-authoritarian. Anyone who can give you orders can stop you from solving whatever problem you're being fascinated by and, given the way authoritarian minds work, will generally find some appallingly stupid reason to do so. So the authoritarian attitude has to be fought wherever you find it, lest it smother you and others.



(This isn't the same as fighting all authority. Children need to be guided and criminals restrained. A master may agree to accept some kinds of authority in order to get something he wants more than the time he spends following orders. But that's a limited, conscious bargain; the kind of personal surrender authoritarians want is not on offer.)



Authoritarians thrive on censorship and secrecy. And they distrust voluntary cooperation and information-sharing they only like 'cooperation' that they control. So to behave like a master, you have to develop an instinctive opposition to censorship, secrecy, and the use of force or deception to compel responsible adults. And you have to be willing to act on that belief.



5. Attitude is no substitute for competence.



To be a master, you have to develop some of these attitudes. But copping an attitude alone won't make you a master, any more than it will make you a champion athlete or a rock star. Becoming a master will take intelligence, practice, dedication, and hard work.



Therefore, you have to learn to distrust attitude and respect competence of every kind. Masters won't let posers waste their time, but they worship competence especially competence in their field of interest, but competence at anything is valued. Competence at demanding skills that few can master is especially good, and competence at demanding skills that involve mental acuteness, craft, and concentration is best.



If you revere competence, you'll enjoy developing it in yourself the hard work and dedication will become a kind of intense play rather than drudgery. That attitude is vital to becoming a master.



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Occupation: Professional Sales Manager and CEO professionalsal
Visit Professional Sales to find out how the professionals do it. Rusty Crayons is a professional Sales and marketing consultant in Melbourne Australia. His interests include writing about what he loves, spending time with his beautiful girlfriend and playing video games :) Favorite quote: Drawing on my fine command of the language, I said nothing. -Robert Benchley Favorite Websites: http://www.professionalsales.com.au http://www.westyswriteup.com

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