Why "Pianist Musashi Way"?

First of all, I guess I should explain why is the blog named after the legendary swordsman Musashi. What the hell does swordsmanship have to do with piano playing?
The main point is how he did become the best samurai the world has ever known.
It's amusing AND simple: he did it his way.
He took NO master and NO formal lessons.
This implies some interesting considerations:

1. He had no guidance: hence no one corrected his skills, were them correct or incorrect, by the most accepted standards;
2. He learned following his own pace: was it slow, or was it too fast, he learned to his heart's content;
3. Yet he had no master, he used every oportunity to learn something from someone or some situation;
4. He could explore his creativity: he could pull some tricks off his sleeve, and only him could do it;
5. As he had no parameters of comparison, he ended up being the best of all times.
   

I read the book some years ago (which I really enjoyed), so my memory could have failed me in some points, but I think the general idea is somewhat correct. At least, I think these were the most important issues.

I can say that the statements presented above are almost everything in which I believe and follow in piano playing.

1. I started playing piano intending to learn it teacherless, known as "do it yourself", pretty much like everything I did prior to piano playing.
2. Usually I play piano for fun, because it is something I do really enjoy, who knows why. Since it's a very joyful activity, I tend to do it really often, which automatically leads me to practicing a lot.
3. I'm teacherless, but only in formal education. In fact, I do have some "teachers", and not any teachers, by the way: I very often listen to the greatest pianists of the XX century, like Barenboim, Rubinstein, Horowitz (the list is limitless)... and even Rachmaninov himself, in some 1934 recording (which is in poor quality). I listen to many versions of the same piece, and "choose" which appeals me most and try to "mimic" the way the performer plays it. Of course, I will not attain the same quality level, but this way I can have some tangible goal to achieve. Not only this, I also bug a pianist friend of mine with some questions, but I didn't really get any good tip... yet... she's strict.
4. Creativity: I don't exercise this point much yet, since I'm in no condition at the moment. Just the basics for now =P and it is veeeeery much for me.
5. Unlike Musashi, I do have some people to compare to, which are the greatest pianists that I admire. But by another side, I do not know how good or how fast I'm progressing, since I don't have fellow pianists that started learning at the same time as me, so this point pretty much applies to me. Just to make it clear, I do not intend to be the best of all times (like it was that easy hahaha), but I do intend to be just great enough for my own personal standards, a very attainable level (or not, considering the harshest judges to ourselves are usually... ourselves).
   

Well, it was a long post... just bla bla, that I guess might entertain some bored people randomly browsing random blogs.
But it's true, that's my way of learning piano... I'm sure I'm not alone on this quest...