Two elements of genius: they spend a ton of time alone and, number two, they have a practiced or trained ability to spend long periods of time focusing on one thing. They beat distraction. That’s why so many great artists had cabins by the sea. I think of Ian Fleming, Goldeneye in Barbados, his home on the sea, and he’d write the James Bond novels in his home on the sea. The sea and ocean gave him the inspiration because nature gives inspiration and he instructed his gardeners, “Do not walk across my lawn that looks out over the sea while I’m writing.” Why? Because even one distraction when you are in flow state could cost you your masterwork. All of the great producers I’ve mentored, they are monomaniacally focused when they focus and the world calls them difficult. “Oh, she’s so difficult.” “He’s so difficult.” No, they’re artists. They know what it takes to produce magic. What it takes to produce magic is you absolutely must find your Menlo Park, which is where Edison would go to do his work
away from the world. Churchill had Chequers. He would retreat to Chequers, his
countryside place in the middle of World War II. He’d smoke cigars in the garden and he would think, and he would create, and he would strategize.
JD Salinger had his concrete bunker where he would go to write. Andrew Wyeth, the incredible American poet. He had Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, a farm in the middle of the countryside. As a matter of fact, when he was at his… people were revering him, he left New York City. He needed to break free of distraction. He went to Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and also his seaside place in Cushing, Maine. That’s where he spent the rest of his life in the countryside on a farm, working his art and next to the sea in Cushing, Maine, doing his paintings.
Do you see? The great ones all divorce themselves from society and distraction and criticism so they can do the real work. So you want to move to eminence through fireproof focus. That just means you’ll get eminent by getting away from the world.
The victims are addicted to mediocrity. They think mediocre thoughts. They allow mediocre influences into their lives like toxic people, like the news and they eat toxic food often, a lot of junk food, artificial food. They often don’t pay attention to where t
hey work so they’re surrounded by messy places, the tools of their trade.
I mean, I’ve always believed, I think of Salvatore Gucci. He said, “Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten.” I mean, cheap is expensive and yet you look at victims, their tools of the trade, the books they read, the way they live, everything is as cheap as possible. They buy the cheapest watch, for example, and it breaks 10 times. So they end up buying 10 times, 10 watches, which costs them more and they didn’t enjoy the beauty of a great watch.
I believe everything around you can lift you up to excellence. As much as possible, surround yourself with the best things you could possibly afford. Even if you can only afford a cup of tea, go to the best restaurant in your city or the best hotel and go into the restaurant and say, “Oh, I’m just here for a cup of tea before my next meeting.”
But be around excellence, be around people having world-class conversations, be around beauty, and that’s how you will raise your standards. So I want you to pivot from any form of addiction and mediocrity to an economy via mastery in your work. You stand for mastery. You do the study for mastery, you get the mentors for mastery. You read the books and listen to the audiobooks and watch the training programs for mastery. You think about mastery, you commit to mastery. You’re in what’s called a talent hub of other people on the path to mastery.
I mean, world-class performers have been deconstructed and one of the things is, whether it was the Brazilian footballers or the Slovakian hockey players, or the tennis champions, or the people owning tech, they were all found to be in talent hubs.
Silicon Valley. You had all these companies in Silicon Valley started because they were people who were interested in technology and all their friends were talking about technology and semiconductors at the right time. That’s why these companies like Apple and et cetera, et cetera, were founded because it was a confluence of people who really interested in one thing.