Outwitting the Job Market Over the Long Term - Part 2
People who only focus on one thing tend to be more successful in it than those who diversify their skills. Take the example of Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek and an expert on business and productivity.
The majority of Tim's books that he has written have been about cutting out time from your life with self-improvement, technology, or alternative living advice. And because of this, his books were so successful that he is now a millionaire several times over and speaks at TED talks every other week.
Photo Credit: Tim Ferriss
"This seems counter intuitive," you might say. "Surely, people who are well-rounded and have a variety of skills should be more successful than those who are specialists in only one thing."
Especially when it's something as complex as the job market and the economy. Have you ever watched American Ninja Warrior? It's where competitors test their physical prowess with a variety of obstacles that only a few people can finish. A skilled practitioner of parkour might do well on the first few obstacles, but fail miserably by the last two or three. This is because he didn't specialize in just one specific obstacle, so therefore he was weaker than his competitors who specialized in just one obstacle.
Mastery at one thing can make you more successful in your career than doing several things which all result in mediocre skill.
Let's say you're a businessman who wants to buy a company, and you're looking for someone to run that company. If you hire an expert in business development, but at the same time he isn't an expert at anything else, then his chances of failure are higher. However, if you hire an expert in business development AND is also an engineer or a proficient writer, then he has a better chance of success because now he has skills that are transferable from company A to company B. . . . . . . . . . . .
The question is then, "How can we become more skilled in our field of work?" And there are two main ways you can do so: learning and experience.
Take a look at the graphic below to see how you can Outwit the Job Market and become more skilled at what you love to do.
Conclusion: The key is not to be the jack of all trades, but rather to focus on one thing and then learn on top of that skill set.
As you can see, being skilled in one thing will give you a huge advantage over those who are proficient in several fields. Although there is a substantial difference between the two, I have to say that being proficient at one thing is still better than being a jack of all trades.
To wrap this up, I'd like to leave you with this quote by Amit Aggarwal:
"The best and most successful people are not those who possess many skills but instead those who focus their energies on a small number of things and work tirelessly on those activities. It is focusing on your passion that will lead you to the top, not a diversification of skills. "
Happy Friday, and good luck!
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We talked a lot about how to master one skill at a time, but what if you have many? Or, what if taking 5 online Courses at once is too hard? There's no shame in doing 1 thing well if that's all that you're good at. Sometimes, the best way to become skilled at something is doing the thing itself. Which means, if you're good at something, doing it!
Performing a task well by itself isn't too hard to do. For example, you might be able to focus better and get more done if your purpose is clear. If you make a monetary goal easily attainable (like $100/month), then you're more likely to buckle down and do the work necessary to reach that goal. So what's the point in being great at so many different things? It's not always necessary to be masterful in one field of work because even those who are good at many things often have trouble mastering only one thing.
Conclusion: Even a jack of all trades might be better off focusing on only one thing. A single skill is usually easier to master than many. . . . . . . .
The most relevant point here is that we have to find what our strengths are. I've been learning about a concept called synergetics, which refers to the "unity of opposites." If you've ever heard it before, you might know it by other names like the law of polarity or the principle of "like acts with like". The concept is this:
"Opposites cannot exist as isolated entities in space and time; they require each other to exist, and are therefore bound together as equals.