Professor Brian Garner on Mastery: Insights from Ricky Gervais and Legal Writing (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Professor Brian Garner. A lot of people call me Professor Garner. But you can call me Brian now that we know each other, if that's what you'd prefer. I teach lawyers and judges how to write well. I've done that now for 32 years. I want to talk to you about something that Ricky Gervais recently said on Twitter. He was talking about how to get seriously good at something, and I took down his words. He was so eloquent. Ricky Gervais, July 5th, 2020, quote, have a go. It's great not being good at something and deciding to become good at it. It's good, good for the soul, good for the brain, feels good. You've got pride in it. I don't think you can call anything a success unless you have to try hard. Ricky Gervais, July 2020. So what does that have to do with writing? Except everything, everything, I don't care whether it's writing or golf or piano or basketball or gardening, you're not going to get really good at something unless you make a conscious decision that you want to get really good at it. Think about human accomplishment, it's not a bell curve, it's the second half of a bell curve. It looks something like this. Whatever the skill, most people plateau early, whether it's speaking a second language or playing a sport, and they plateau early. They stay over on the left side of the curve. And many people on this side of the curve actually think that they're over here. They really have no idea, but the interesting thing is the further you move along the curve, the more acutely aware you become of what it takes to move further along the curve. So if you care to be really good at something, have a go. If you're an aspiring writer, if writing is part of your job, then decide to get really good at it. Start reading and paying attention when you read. Noticing things is one of the main differentiators between professionals and amateurs. All sorts of things in your life will change if you become a better writer. If you're single, your dating life will improve, seriously. You'll write better love letters, and you'll find that the people to whom you're writing them are probably of a different quality as well. If you're a newscaster, your popularity will grow. Same if you're a DJ. If you're in sales, your profits will go up, and so on. By the way, if you're a lawyer or a judge, you'll do better work. If you're a lawyer or a judge and you need continuing legal education of any kind, go to www.lawpros.org. That's our website, lawpros with an E on the end. We have what we think is the finest suite available of online instruction for legal writers. And my fall seminars are approaching. For the first time ever, I'll be teaching Advanced Legal Writing and Editing, our most popular course online. Available to you at your desktop, again, it's www.lawpros.org. Once again, remember the words of Ricky Gervais, if you want to get seriously good at something, have a go. Antonin Dvorak. He was seriously good. See you again soon here.