Be the Master

Retired

This book is no longer available for sale.

Be the Master

Fourth Edition

About the Book

This book is retired. Read this article to find out why, and what it's been replaced with.

Wouldn't you rather your life be measured by the number of lives you've helped succeed?

In the Really Old Days, much of our working-class society revolved around Masters, who would take on apprentices and bring them up in a trade. We've mostly lost that kind of education in our everyday lives, and it's a shame. Part of the reason is that, as individuals, we often fail to recognize that we even have something worth teaching and sharing, or because we don't feel we've achieved a sufficient level of success to be seen as "Master" by someone else. That's all wrong. Every one of us has something to offer, and we're more than worthy. Sure, maybe you need a certain level of success in order to carve out the time to help others, but that's a straightforward journey.

That's what this book is all about. It's a way to recognize that you are worthy of sharing what you know. It's a step-by-step, actionable guide to defining and achieving whatever you see as "success." And it's a way of using that success to help other people achieve theirs - and in turn becoming even more successful yourself. Be the Master is the ultimate story of win-win, full of mythbusting, real-world tips, and proofs that you can do this.

You can live in that world where you're helping other people, and you can start doing it today. By the end of the book, your only regret will be that you didn't start sooner.

This all-new Fourth Edition has been reorganized to provide a better and more actionable experience for readers. New anecdotes, shared by readers of previous editions, show you how Mastery can work for anyone, every day, and how it not only elevates your own opinion of yourself, but lets you firmly define and achieve success in a way you may simply have never considered. This Edition also re-sequences its core narrative into something more applicable, and more powerful, for almost any reader.

About the Author

Don Jones
Don Jones

Don Jones has been in the IT industry since the mid 1990s, and has been a recipient of Microsoft's "Most Valuable Professional" Award since 2003. He's a co-founder of PowerShell.org and The DevOps Collective, and a Curriculum Director for online video training company Pluralsight. Don authored some of the first books ever published for Windows PowerShell, and is the co-author of Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches, the bestselling entry-level book for PowerShell. Don's a sought-after speaker at technology conferences like Microsoft Ignite, TechMentor, and many more. In 2014, Don started writing fiction in the sci-fi and fantasy genres, and had produced several notable novels, including The Never: A Tale of Peter and the Fae, The Achillios Chronicles trilogy (Alabaster, Onyx, and Verdant), and Daniel Scratch: A Story of Witchkind. You can find him on Twitter @concentratedDon, or on his website, DonJones.com. 

Table of Contents

  •  
    • Introduction
    • The Grind
    • Timothy the Blacksmith
  • Part I: What We Get Wrong
    • Education
    • Success
    • Heroes and Role Models
  • Part II: Realize Your Worth
    • What is “Worth?”
    • A Diversity of Perspective
    • Knowing it All
    • Confidence vs. Arrogance
    • Failure and Fear
    • You ARE Worthy
  • Part III: Achieve Your Success
    • Define Your Self
    • Know Yourself
    • Define “Success”
    • De-Conflict
    • Laziness and Discipline
    • Look Around… But Look Closely
    • Make a Plan, and Get Permission
      • Defining Milestones
      • Example
    • Execute, Study, Adjust
    • Find Your Audience
  • Part IV: Help Others
    • The Value of Helping
    • Humble Helping
    • What Do You Know?
    • Contagious Teaching
  • Part V: Aspects of Mastery
    • Masters Know the Problem
    • Masters Plan to Fail
    • Masters Teach
    • Masters Make Room
    • Masters Protect
    • Masters Learn
    • Masters Improve
    • Masters Innovate
    • Masters Unite
    • Masters Leave
  • Interlude: The Grind
    • Using The Grind
    • Step 1: Define The Grind
      • Define Yourself
      • Know Yourself
      • Define Success
      • De-Conflict
      • Identify Milestones
      • Define Your Teaching Catalog
      • Define Your Apprentice Audience
      • Review Your Definitions
    • Step 2: Monthly Plans
      • Life Rules
      • Needs Improvement
      • My Current Plan
    • Step 3: Weekly Plans
    • Step 4: Weekly Reviews
    • Create a Powerful Driving Habit
  • Part VI: The Nine Rules of Life
    • Be Your Word
      • 1: Never Promise What You Can’t Deliver
      • 2: Always Deliver What You Promised
      • 3: Be Easy to Work With
    • Be Detailed and Precise
    • Cut Your Losses When the Time Is Right
    • Be Friendly in the Face of Adversity
    • Let Blue Sky Mode Happen
    • Manage Your Time
    • Communicate Well, Always
    • Respect the Yellow Line
    • Own Your Own Life
  • Bonus: On Being a Better Teacher
    • How Humans Learn
    • The Value of Repetition
    • Getting in and Doing it
    • Why Analogies Work… and How They can Fail
    • The Importance of Sequencing
    • Why Rest Time is Crucial
  • Bonus 2: On Being a Master at Work
    • Initial Thoughts
    • The Pitch for Mastery at Work
    • Hurdles to Mastery at Work
      • Fear
      • Time
      • The Optics
    • Mastery in the Workplace in Three Straightforward Steps
      • Step 1: Start Small
      • Step 2: Make a Plan
      • Step 3: Sell and Execute
  • And, in Closing
    • A Closing Thought
    • Afterword
    • Keep in Touch
    • Acknowledgements
    • Suggested Reading
  • Notes

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