Become a student

In April, during the early 1980s, a regular day became one guitarist’s nightmare and another one’s dream.

A band by the name of Metallica had already been “making some noise”, drawing a few fans and making a statement to change the future of thrash metal.

It was right before recording their famous album “Kill’ em all”, when other members of the band decided to throw out guitarist Dave Mustaine right then and there in the middle of a decrepit warehouse in downtown New York.

Mustaine had developed bad habits regarding substance abuse which led to violent outbursts and conflict with the rest of the band members, hence why they chose to go separate ways.

It was around this time where they decided to call a replacement.

A decent young gutarist by the name of Kirk Hammet who played for the band Exodus, was now to become Metallica´s new lead guitar.

It was impossible for him to know at that time but in a couple of years Metallica would go on to become one of the biggest bands in the world eventually selling over 100 million albums, winning 9 Grammy awards and becoming the first band ever to perform on all continents after their unique concert in Antartica in 2013.

But that´s not the shocking bit of this story.

As soon as Hammet took the role of lead guitar, he had a humbling realization:

Despite his years of playing and even being invited to be part of such prestigious band, he wasn’t as good as he’d like to be…

So what did Kirk do?

He asked for a couple of years to prepare and went straight back to his home, San Francisco, to look for a teacher and hopefully be ready for what was about to come.

The teacher he sought was later known as one of the best guitar players that ever existed.

His name:

Joe Satriani

Satriani alone would go on to sell over 10 million records of his unique music, proving he was as skilled as people thought he was.

Back to Kirk, the lessons with Satriani were tough, to say the least.

They consisted of weekly lessons on a variety of techniques which Kirk needed to master if he intended to improve.

After two years of constant pratice and tireless efforts to improve, Kirk went back and began his career as Metallica’s lead guitar.

Even after those two years, Kirk would continue to bring Satriani riffs and licks he’ve been working on for further review.

And what happened to Kirk’s career?

Well, let’s just say that he has influenced millions of musicians and left a legacy of what thrash metal was and continues to be.

The pretense of knowledge

A concept often associated with economist and philosopher Friedrick Hayek.

It refers to a mistaken belief that one can posses enough knowledge to predict and control complex systems, such as economies and societies.

Though this concept can be applied to each and every area of life.

Becoming a student is a powerful concept since it allows us to place ego in someone else’s hands instead of our own.

By becoming students, we’re practically placing a ceiling on our ego where we understand that we cannot be better than the master we apprentice under.

And as you might’ve though, our ego doesn’t like this.

We don’t like thinking that someone is better than us. Or that we still have a lot to learn.

We want to be done. We want to be ready.

A similar story was experienced by mixed martial arts pioneer and multi-title champion Frank Shamrock.

Shamrock trained under a system he called the plus, minus, equal. Designed to demolish the ego and encourage self improvement.

The purpose is simple:

For a fighter to become great, he needs to have someone better they can learn from, someone lesser they can teach, and someone equal that they can challenge themselves against.

The concept is pretty straightforward:

To get real and continuous feedback about what they know and what they don’t know from every angle.

If a fighter is not capable of practicing every day, learning from his mistakes, relentlessly looking for areas of improvement, and finding new techniques to learn from, he will be destroyed.

AND IN REALITY, IT’S NOT THAT DIFFERENT FROM US IS IT?

AREN’T WE ALL FIGHTING FOR OR AGAINST SOMETHING?

That’s why we must master the art of taking feedback. And not just any feedback, but harsh and critical one.

As Ryan Holiday puts it: “we need not only to take this harsh feedback, but actively solicit it.”

And remember: It is ego who avoids feedback, or rather provides a wicked version of it, disconnected from reality.

It’s deffensive, precisely when we cannot afford to be deffensive.

Thanks to the internet and the latest technological advancements, the access to knowledge has been made easily accesible and for many, even free.

Thus, there is no excuse to continue being a student and embracing the never-ending path either.

And if you ever feel your ego starting to puff when talking to someone else, yo should be wise to remember: