What makes someone fulfill their potential?

What separates the mind of Leonardo Da Vinci from you and I? Is it some secret that he possessed, some “magical morning routine” or an AI hack that allowed him to do 5 hours of work in 5 minutes? These examples expose how funny it is that those practices and phrases have made it into our daily lives and dialect. Because in reality Da Vinci’s genius is much more concrete in a way of thinking and action than it is any one trick. Surprisingly his way of thinking is much simpler than you think.

First Da Vinci surrounded himself with people who he could gather resources from and grow alongside. He was an apprentice at an art workshop at 14 years old. This experience led him to learn how to refine his skills from an early age. This is our first tenant of Da Vinci’s success, and something that Robert Greene has pressed again and again, mastery. In order to be truly great at something you must master it, and in mastery you gain the sense of achievement. This is not to mean that one can jump from point A to B without the work in between, rather it is quite the opposite. Mastery exists between those two points, because you cannot master an outcome, rather you can only master your inputs. Mastering your inputs is the process of never ending self improvement, and this is what Da Vinci was great at. It was the process of collecting meaningful skill and proficiency at things, going through cycles of feedback to get better at something. This is mastery, it is not an end goal, it is always what is in between two points. By knowing this first tenet we can gain insight into our own lives, we can be relentless in our action and mindset, two things that are much more powerful than any tool in today’s world.

This brings us to our second tenet of action, Da Vinci himself said “it had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things”, showing that great people are the ones that go forth regardless of uncertainty. Action is not going forward in the absence of fear, it is pushing forward regardless of it, creating the material of mastery. This material is built like a muscle, the more you go forth in the face of uncertainty, the more you train your capacity to fail. And when you have a high capacity to fail, you can do anything.

Our third point is one that we have heard many times before, you must be passionate about what it is that you are doing. This is cliche for a reason, because it is true, but it doesn’t give insight on “how to be passionate”. Passion should come naturally, and yet it doesn’t, it is still attached to feedback loops because you must overcome struggle in order to be truly passionate about something. Yes there is a through line that connects you to your deepest passionsregardless of whether you are happy, tired or in between, and that is obsession. We all know the feeling of being completely enthralled with the work we are doing: the hours pass like nothing, we forget to eat. You must follow your obsession, absolutely, because those moments of absolute focus, are the moments that make up the substance of life. Nobody goes all in on make believe, so if you feel like the thing you are doing is not making you passionate, do something else! Da Vinci did what he did because he wanted to, and he believed his work pleased God.. Take a moment today to think about these tenets, and do not compromise on the things that matter to you.

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