Build your craft
I am Aarihant Aaryan! Welcome to the Iron Sharpen Iron newsletter,
I share my homework from my startup journey every week, learning about human behavior, and sometimes decoding industries and business models for fun.
I can’t control my curiosity :) )
In the last few years, I have done a lot of things, right from building my own company, content creation, angel investing, peak traveling, consulting and now working at a startup - It’s been an exciting journey
But what I have realized is that most people aren’t amazing at what they do, they aren’t excellent at what they do - when I started thinking more about it “I realized that most people either don’t know what their craft or do something outside their craft”
I would love to make it more simple for you, everything that we do is a craft it could be painting, singing, writing, product management, designing, coding or any other thing is a craft.
In this world, we are constantly after hacks that could make the process much faster and easier, but you can’t hack a craft
Moreover, we are constantly thinking about what could “quickly” help us get to the next level of pay package, what could multifold our bank balance - we are always thinking about those short-term avenues that could give us 1 to 2x hike in life
But life is a long-term game, you only make it when you play long games, the only way to create much value, wealth and recognition is by building your craft
All craft is a slow currency, you build your craft as you keep working on it
You can’t become the best version of your craft if you constantly think of it as a burden, job, or responsibility or an obligation
I am a huge fan of cricket, I love the sport to the core, Think of Virat Kohli for some time, he spends an insane number of hours, and efforts every day to become the master of his craft, and he does that to become the top 1% of the game - whenever he had opportunity he played every series and format, tournaments after tournaments he showed up - he rarely got injured in his career.
BCCI recently introduced workload management but before that he rarely had breaks.
Even after he reached the top 1% of status in the game, he didn’t stop - he kept going all in every day with his practice, this can only happen when you love your craft.
This is why I don’t believe in work-life balance, my craft isn’t my work, it completes me, and I enjoy doing it - I would keep doing it even if no one would pay me for it.
“ This is what even athletes do”
I don’t think anyone can become a master of their craft by beliving and operating in work-life balance mode, they’ll become mediocre - there is nothing wrong in being mediocre, it’s an active choice someone is making, which is alright but in my opinion you only live once, what’s the point of playing small games.
After trying a bunch of things, I realized my craft is to build things, I can’t stop thinking about it, talking to people about it connecting with people who are better at it, and learning from them
I make time and create opportunities for myself to read about it, teach people about it
I have often observed people who are good in their craft in the pursuit of helping other’s craft to become better
It’s not really about what we do with our craft next month, it’s more about what we will do with our craft 5/10 years later
If you are confused thinking whether something is your craft or not, just try to reflect and ask yourself “How much time do you spend thinking about it” - there lies your answer :)
If you have any thoughts share them in the comments :)
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