Absorb · Discard · Add

The 7 Masters

Seven teachers to start. One method for all of them.

The 7 Masters is not a ranked list of the greatest people who ever lived. It is a study list, and a method.

I start with seven well-known teachers. I also believe a master can be a discipline — a style you can study the way Bruce Lee studied fighting arts — and that some of the best masters are people most of the world will never search for. The method does not change.

The method, in brief

• Absorb what is useful.
• Discard what is useless.
• Add what is specifically your own.

“Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”

— Bruce Lee

The first seven

• 01
  Mindset
  Bruce Lee

  The method itself, and a life spent refusing to be trapped inside one style.

• 02
  Wealth
  Napoleon Hill

  Desire, belief, and the uses and limits of thinking your way toward a result.

• 03
  Discipline
  Grant Cardone

  Ambition, volume, and what happens when you sort the useful pressure from the noise.

• 04
  Learning
  Jim Kwik

  Learning how to learn, and the practices worth keeping once the stage lights are off.

• 05
  Energy
  Brendon Burchard

  High performance as a set of habits, tested against a real week.

• 06
  Influence
  Tony Robbins

  State, story, and strategy — and the work of deciding what still holds when the room is empty.

• 07
  Principles
  Ray Dalio

  Principles, radical clarity, and what an investor’s operating system can and cannot do in an ordinary life.

• Upcoming
  Nir Eyal

  Attention, habit, and the design of distraction, studied with the same three questions.

Upcoming

Nir Eyal — Attention, habit, and the design of distraction, studied with the same three questions. Upcoming

Styles, and people you may not know

A later essay will treat a style as a master: for example, looking at grappling as a whole and at Helio Gracie’s approach, then asking what transfers and what does not. Other crafts can sit in that same chair.

I also intend to write about people who are not famous — mentors, tradespeople, and others I have actually learned from. I will only name a private person when I have their permission.

If you want the next piece in this study, join the list.