Visiting the Masters…

This post is especially dedicated to my father, the great Vincent Tseng.

What do great painters, athletes, students, businessmen/women, sculptors, chefs, writers, actors have in common? Perseverance.

“Like a postage stamp, stick to one thing until you get there.”

I recently went to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It had been a while since I was last there and honestly, I was like a kid in a candy store. I’m a sucker for history and art and mastery. I saw ancient Egyptian art and ruins, tombs, photographs from the 1800s, priceless paintings, Buddhas from ancient China, a guardian lion statue from the 6th century. As I was walking amongst all of this history and brilliance, I couldn’t help but think, “These people were all masters.”

But guess what? These were all ordinary people, but the difference between those masters and you, is that THEY were persistent and consistent. And they knew the correct strategy. You think Rembrandt had different resources than you do today? Nope, I’m pretty sure he didn’t have “magic” paint. Does Steven King use a different dictionary than you? Of course not. So the tools are the same, but you need to know the strategy and then do whatever it takes. You can try your best, OR you can do whatever it takes. Which would you choose?

As I was walking around the museum, I thought, “Wow, everywhere I look, I see masters.” And you know what? I felt that even the people VISITING the museum were masters or potential masters. So the great athlete is inside you, the great painter is inside you, the great student is inside you and the great worker is inside you…you just need to know the strategy and then persist until you get the result you want.