What do we mean by 'Master'? It is not what you think.
(I share here my latest post as part of a homework from a business course I'm currently on.)
 
 
I hear “master-this” and “master-that” everywhere nowadays. It couldn’t be simply a BBC cooking programme, it has to be MasterChef when only amateurs are competing. 
 
The word became trite. I can assume that one of the reasons why it did is the multitude of it’s meanings. 
 
A master is a person who has control. A leader, or a head of a school, for example.
A master can be someone who has domination over other people, like a dictator. 
A master is also a person who has and can show a very great skill in something. 
 
The word’s origin is from the Middle Ages. In medieval Europe, the craft people living in towns traded their goods and formed groups that became known as merchant guilds. To join one, a crafter would have to present a completed piece of work, hence the phrase a 'master-piece’ i.e. the piece that would demonstrate he was a master, fit to be judged by his peers on the quality of the skills he exhibited. 
 
If the master-piece was good enough, he would be admitted to the guild and have the right to open his own craft shop. To become a master meant the right to make a decent living and gain a professional reputation. But it wasn’t the pinnacle of the profession, not yet.
 
On a daily basis a master was in charge of many things at once. Call it a modern day multitasking businessman. 
He was teaching his apprentices (total beginners) and supervised his journeymen (they would be at a middle level and learning towards becoming a Master). The Master would also be a head of his own supply chain department, sales team and an accountant. 
 
The apprentices and journeymen used to spend a long time learning, before they could progress to the next stage. I wonder whether their master’s preoccupation with all the other tasks he had to complete was the reason for their slow progress. 
 
Although the word’s origin is long forgotten, being a master nowadays means the highest accomplishment in one’s skill.  What has not changed is the expectation of an ability to pass it on and a status among the peers. I was lucky enough to have met Albert Nelson who’s love for Tailoring opened a whole new world for me where there is so much to master. 
 
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Original post was published on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CDuV133JRTh/?igshid=8abk0yvpt6w9
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Founder and creative mind behind Button Stance Tailoring, a bespoke menswear tailoring brand.

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