2doWORLD

PrinterEmail

I reca ll one tournament In La s Vegas: I was a youn g lnrernationa l Master in a field of a thousand corn peritors incl ud ing rwenry-six st rong Grandmasters from around the world. As an up-and-coming player, I had huge respect for t he g reat sages aro und me. I had stud ied their masterpieces for hundreds of hours and was awed by the umsrry of these men. Before first-ro und play began I was seated at my board , <Jeep in thought about my openmg p repa rat ion. when t he public address system an nounced that the subject of Searrhillf!, fiir Blmb)' Fi n-her was at the event. A tournament director placed a poster of the movi e next to my fable, and immed iately a sea of fans surged around the ropes separating the mp hoards from the audi ence . As t he games p rog ressed , whe n I rose to d ea r my mind young g irls gave me their phone numbers and asked me to autog raph their stomach s or legs. This mig ht sound like a dream fo r a seven teen- year-old boy, and I won't deny enjoyinj; the attention, bur professionally it was a nig htmare. My game began to unravel. I caught myselfrhinking abour how I looked thinki ng instead of losing myself in thoug ht. T he G randmasters, my eld ers, were ignored and scowled at me . Some of them t reated me like a pariah. I had won eight national champions hi ps and had more fans, publ ic suppo rt and recog nition than I could dream of, bur none of this was hel ping my search for excellence, let alone for happiness.

At a young ag e I came to know that there is something profound ly hollow abo ut t he nature of fame, I had spent my life devoted to arristic g rowth and was used to the swea typa lmed sense of co nrent rnenr o ne gers after many hours of intense rerlecoon. This peaceful feeli ng had nothing to do wid} exte rnal ad ulation, and I yearned for a return to that innocent, fereile t ime. I missed just being a sruden r of the game, but there was no escapi ng the spotlight. I found myself dreadi ng chess, miserable before leaving for tou rname nts. I played without inspirarion and was invited to appear on television shows. I smiled. Then when I was eighteen years old J stumbled upon a little book called the T,/I) Te Chill}!" and my life took a rum. I was moved by the book's natural wisdom and I starred <Ielving lOW other Buddh ist and Taoist philosophical texts. I recognized that being at the pinnacle in other peop le's eyes had nothing to do with quality of life, and I was drawn ro the porenrial for inner tranquility. Download and continue reading...

The art of learning by Josh Waitzkin