The 5 am club

painstaking
attention into the tiniest of details and fail to refine the smallest of
finishes like the great masters do. For most people the truth is that it’s all
about the path of least resistance. Getting what they need to get done fast and
just sneaking by. 
Mailing it in instead of bringing it on
. The minority of
exceptional creative achievers operate under a completely different
philosophy.”
“Tell me,” appealed the artist, intrigued.
“They apply a mentality of granularity instead of a mindset of
superficiality. They have encoded depth as a lifetime value and exist under a
profound insistence on greatness in all that they do. Exceptionalists fully
understand that their creative output—no matter if they are bricklayers or
bakers, chief executive officers or dairy farmers, astronauts or cashiers—
represents their reputation. The best, in any endeavor, appreciate the fact that
your good name is branded onto every piece of work that you release. And
they get that you can’t put a price tag on people saying superb things about
you.”
The billionaire rubbed the bottle. Then he held it up and viewed the last
evidence of the disappearing moon through its glass before continuing his
discourse.
“But it goes deeper than social approval,” the industrialist indicated. “The
grade of work you offer to the world reflects the strength of the respect you
have for yourself. Those with unfathomable personal esteem wouldn’t dare
send out anything average. It would diminish them too much.
“If you want to lead your field,” Mr. Riley went on, “become a performer
and person of depth,” he reinforced. “Commit to being a highly unusual
human being instead of one of those timid souls who behave like everyone
else, living a sloppy life instead of a magnificent one, a derivative life instead
of an original one.”
“Profound,” the artist contributed, showing great exuberance while taking
off his muscle shirt to get some sun.
“In their work, the maestros of mastery are extraordinarily thoughtful.
They think precisely about what they are doing. They hold their labor to the
highest of standards and sweat the smallest of strokes, like master sculptor

---

Gian Lorenzo Bernini did as he crafted 
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi
—Fountain
of the Four Rivers—his masterpiece that sits gloriously in the center of Piazza
Navona in Rome. Such producers are meticulous and craft at near-flawless.
And, as obvious as this sounds, they just really, really, really care.”
“But people have a lot to do in their days, these days,” interjected the
entrepreneur. “This isn’t the 1600s. My inbox is full. My schedule is packed. I
have back-to-back meetings most days. I need to do pitches. I feel like I can
never keep up with all that’s coming at me. Shooting for mastery isn’t easy.”
“I understand,” the billionaire replied kindly. “Less is more, you know?
You’re attempting too much. Geniuses understand that it’s smarter to create
one masterwork than one thousand ordinary pieces. One of the reasons I love
being around the finest art is that the belief systems, emotional inspiration and
ways of working of those great virtuosos rub off on me. And I can tell you
with absolute certainty, these epic performers inhabited an entirely different
universe than most people in business and society populate today, as I’ve
suggested.”
Just then, a brilliantly colored butterfly perched on the very tip of Stone
Riley’s left ear. He smiled and said, “Hey, little buddy—nice to see you
again.” The magnate then added, “When you deconstruct how the superstars,
virtuosos and geniuses achieved what they did, you’ll realize that it was their
heightened