Choosing Mastery

When are you going to decide to master your craft?

I recently read news about Japan’s century old companies being divested and sold to private equities due to the fact that the current generation of stewards do not have anyone within their families interested enough to lead their companies, or at least keep the skill that was passed on for decades, into the future. There are a lot of skilled people in Japan, who by circumstance, have been born into a craft, wherein they have no choice or they have been exposed enough and brainwashed enough in their childhood to choose to master the craft the family is known for.

I remember having eaten in a kaiseki place in Yamazaki town near Osaka. The 6th generation chef is operating the restaurant with his 4th generation aunt. They told us that everything has changed except for how the miso was served. He has been involved in the business ever since he was a child. The skill was passed down to him so he had no choice but to be really good at it.

For some, learning a craft begins at a certain level of interest. They pick such skill because to them, it is much more stimulating and entertaining than the other. Seeds of interest are usually placed during play, in school, while travelling, in quiet moments of enjoying a book, or during chit-chats with acquaintances.

Wherever this skill was stumbled upon, it will keep on burning until it becomes a personal dilemma. A good dilemma of choosing whether to go to the next level of mastering the craft or just keep it as a side-hustle or hobby.

Frankly, it is a difficult decision to make to choose to master something because of two main reasons:

1. It is uncertain.

2. It involves sacrifice.

3. 
   

Especially in the case of mastering the craft of trading, it would require surviving the “grind” or the day-to-day management of risk and execution, as well as the management of one’s psychology. It would also challenge you to survive multiple rounds of zero-sum games. And the funny part is, it doesn’t matter whether I tell you or not, to not play this zero-sum game. Your ill-equipped emotions will lead you to it. That is how challenging it is.

There is that constant battle against loss of belief in the craft. On a daily basis, even when markets are closed, there is energy-consuming constant effort to stay focused and to continue learning and improving.

Mastery is like completely crossing a mountain. You climb from the bottom to the top, learning all the things that suffering has taught you. Then, going down the mountain to unlearn things you learned to be able to simplify or customize the system for you. You will need to sacrifice everything, even your ego that was uplifted when you learned everything, to be able achieve mastery.

In a game that is infinite like the stock market, one cannot battle with something finite. The market continually attacks us through the grind, giving us outcomes that inflate and deflate our egos. And the only thing that will outlast short-term gratification or even short-term dejection is the mindset of mastery. Choose and believe that you are here for the long haul because the mastery of this craft is the ultimate purpose that will complete who you are.