A life lesson from a fish monger

I love mastery. When I see someone, anyone, that has put in the decades required to truly become elite in their craft, I’m giddy. It doesn’t matter what they do. Yesterday, I stumbled on a video about Yukitaka Yamaguchi. He’s known as the best fish monger in Tokyo, Japan and specializes in Tuna. It was clearly immediately that he was a master.

Even though I have no interest in fishing, tuna, or selling fish, I wanted to see what this master had to say.

At one point in the video, Yamaguchi cuts into a tuna and declares with total confidence that the fish came from North Carolina. From the way it felt to cut it and what the meat looked like, he knew the source of the fish. That’s mastery.

The reason I enjoy looking at masters so much is they always leave me with a new idea. Watching this video was no different. At the very end, Yamaguchi said something that hit me like a truck.

If you love something, you teach yourself. If you don’t, others teach you. — Yukitaka Yamaguchi

I instantly thought of everything I’ve taught myself over the years. Health, fitness, nutrition, handstands, martial arts, finance, business, web design, even coding. It occurred to me they were all things I truly loved. I voluntarily spent countless hours researching and experimenting for no other reason than to learn more and become better.

I realized that I only teach myself things I’m really passionate about.

Counter to those things are the subjects other people taught me. The most glaring that comes to mind is engineering. I have to give a lot of credit to the engineering profession. It started me on the path I’m on now. That said, I hated it.

I didn’t do a single thing in college that wasn’t required for a grade. Every single lesson was mandated and taught by my professors. While many of my friends were trying to build canoes out of concrete, I would stare at them in bewilderment that they would spend even a second doing this stuff if it wasn’t required.

They loved engineering. I didn’t. They wanted to teach themselves and figure it out. I only consumed information that was force fed.

It is becoming ever more valuable to double down on your strengths and do things you love. Technology has given all of us the opportunity to do whatever we want to. The question then becomes, what are your strengths? For some, this is a difficult question to answer. It certainly has been for me at various points in my life.

As soon as I heard Yamaguchi say you teach yourself the things you love, I knew I had an answer. Your strengths are the things you figure out yourself. Your strengths are things you stay up late reading about and tinkering with. Your strengths are the things that instantly put you in a state of flow and time passes in the blink of an eye. Your strengths are the things you love.

Things are not your strengths because you are good at them. They are your strengths because you’re willing to put in the time to get good at them.

I was good at engineering. I was one of the best in my class, but I have learned virtually nothing about it since I graduated. My classmates that really loved engineering went on and learned specializations and have advanced their careers tremendously. They enjoyed the discovery process and it has rewarded them in the long run.

I have since invested myself in all the things I taught myself and it has equally provided me with a fulfilling life.

The next time you question what you’re really passionate about and what you should do with your energy, ask yourself what you learn on your own. What are the things you teach yourself? Those are the things you love. Those are your strengths.