Be Extremely Good At Something

If you look at the most influential people in the world, one thing they all have in common is that each of them is extremely good at something. So good that everyone knows it.

The people making the most valuable changes in the world are people who dedicated an insane amount of time and effort at getting extremely good at one thing.

The awards that matter are not given by Facebook votes or SMS votes. The Nobel Prize, Grammy Award, Academy Award, Pulitzer Prize, Webby Award, Copley Medal and being in the Forbes List. 

You have to be extremely good at whatever you are doing. And I believe that is where most of us get it wrong. A lot of us are good at what we are not doing. There is a mismatch between our passion and career. So we just give our career the minimum weekday efforts we can afford and pour our heart into being good at something else during the weekend. We don't push past the craft part of our career. We simply do our work like everyone expects and spare our extra energy on something else we love. Many of us don't take our skills to an art level, where we become magicians at what we do and are seen by everyone as extremely good at it.

Then there are those of us who never stick to one career path. We keep changing and restarting the learning cycle. We always building new foundations and never completing any building. Just when we should be getting beyond the average in our field we jump fields. We end up with so many unrelated skills and never rise above average at any skill.

I think the most productive way to work and live is to blend your work and life. Let them not be two never crossing lines. Better to do what you are passionate about, build a career out of it and live a life of harmony. And because you are passionate about what you are doing, you will always put in more effort to become better each day and you'll derive huge satisfaction that will positively impact all aspects of your life. You will become better and better, and soon rise beyond the craft stage and into the art stage. Everything you'll do will become more of art, closer to magic and perfection. People will value you and your work. Recognition and awards will roll in. And the time you spend at work will always be fun time.