Robin Sharma delivers a short motivational parable (the Sword Crafter) about how deep focus, early commitment to a craft, and ruthless prioritization produce mastery. He recounts a master sword crafter who, from childhood, devoted all learning and attention to sword-making; Sharma uses this story to argue people should identify the 5 most important areas in their lives, obsessively focus on them, strip away distractions (social media, trivial tasks), and have the courage to say no. The talk closes with a call to lead without a title and play at your best.
Hi, it's Robin Sharma. Welcome in my hotel room here in New York City, one of my favorite places on the planet. And I want to share a story with you. It's called the Sword Crafter's Parable.
Many, many years ago, there was once a sword crafter. And he was known worldwide by his reputation for creating these swords that were genius level. People revered this man. He was the master craftsperson of sword people. He was biw. He was best in the world at what he did. One day, there was a great king. And the great king had heard about this swordcrafter who was playing at Picasso level, and he said, I must meet this man. So the king's people went out and found this sword crafter in a very small village. And they brought the sword crafter to meet the king. And the king, I mean, the sword crafter came in and he was very humble and he was very gentle. And the king in return was also very gracious and welcoming. And then the king asked the sword crafter his favorite question when he would meet a master. He said, swordcrafter, what is the secret to your extraordinary.
Excellence at what you do? And the sword crafter said, well, it's very simple, King. He said, ever since I was a young child, I was exposed to the craft of making swords. And he said, I fell in love with it. It didn't only speak to my head and my logic, it spoke to me at the most deep, soulful level. It spoke to my heart. And he said, when I was a young child, I made a decision that I would be the master sword crafter. So he said, as I grew up, I read books on sword crafting, and if something did not relate to sword crafting, if it did not have the word sword in it, if it did not look like a sword, if it had nothing to do with the art of sword crafting, I did not spend my time with it. And that is the secret of my mastery. Well, that parable, I call it the Sword Crafter Parable. I invite you to wrap your head around it because in many ways, it's the secret of being world class. We do live in a world where so many of us are pulled in so many different directions. We are, to use the cliche, we are time starved. And the only way you can win in your work and the only way you can win in your personal life and the only way you can get to the last hour of your last day and say, you know what? I was a master is if you devote yourself to focusing on the few things that are most important. I'll actually challenge you. What are the five things in your life that are most important? One is your career. Second may be your family. Three, may be your personal development. Four may be art. And five, I don't know what it is for you, but build your life obsessively and obsession is not a bad thing unless it's a bad thing. But obsessively focus your time and your energy on the five things that are most important and then go about stripping away all the noise and all the complexity and all the things that don't relate to your five swords. Because there are a lot of people who are really bored. And so what they do is they spend their best hours playing angry games and looking on Instagram and checking their Facebook notifications and just doing all these things. And then they argue, well, I'm really, really busy. Look at all the things that I do without divorcing themselves from what they do and stepping back and looking at what they do and saying, I'm wasting my time on all these things that are seemingly important in the moment, but they're really trivial. They're just these shiny toys that I'm giving my best hours of my best days to. So please remember the sword crafters metaphor. Please devote yourself, be one of those 1% people who really focus on the few things that matter and have the courage to say no to people who are calling for your time and have the courage to say no to those activities that are just really attractive but, you know, they're not valuable. From New York City, I wish you great focus. Keep leading without a title and playing at your absolute best. Bye Bye.
