Lifelines and support
228/300. Don’t be a master of one
I just listened to the best minds talk tonight in an interative session. The most brilliant conversations I’ve listened to in a while and thanks to them, I have a food for thought for tonight.
One of them, John, said, “Nobody is born a specialist and the best in the field are generalists.”
He further said, specialist don’t go far. They don’t succeed as much as a generalist. It stung my ears and I’ve been thinking about it.
Truly, specialist don’t go far. If you’re going to succeed you cannot simply specialize on one thing.
John gave an example too, a pastor specializes in prayer but fails at teaching the word, adminstrative skills, communication skills. He can pray from today till tomorrow but he can’t fix these things and he’d eventually fail sooner because his ministry would not strive on prayer alone.
Every man should have a stack of skills. Every man should know more than one thing if they want to survive and succeed. A man with a single knowledge is bound to fail and a man with a well of knowledge is bound to succeed.
I dare say this is why the quote, Jack of all trades, master of none but oftentimes better than master of one, exists. But when we take the first half of the sentence and lead with it we end up having a less fulfilled life.
How do you be the best in your particular skill or niche but lack other interpersonal skills that would help your advancement?
This is in a way different from being a multipotentialite. Multipotentials are a different conversation.
Multipotentiallites are people with different interests and creative pursuits and they have the ability to combine this disparate skills and create something with them.
But I’m not asking you to be that person. To be a multipotentiallite. I’m speaking of simply acquiring soft skills and hard skills.
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You cannot survive with just one hard skill and zero soft skill. You cannot specialize as a Fashion designer and forget that you need to network, that you need to sell what you do, that you need to advertise. That you need to sell or be sold.
So you see being a specialist can only make you lonely and not the best. Being a generalist makes you the best that you want.
A master of one thinks he has the world at his disposal but where do you leave the world when you put your entire focus on one?
I think we talk a lot about doing one thing and staying on it but we forget to remind them that it does include doing everything related to making that one thing work to it’s fullest.
I started social media management with only emphasis on management, years later I’d be very replaceable if that is all I offer. Now I need to learn marketing, video editing, photography, videography, etc. I do not have to be the world best in all of this extra skills. I simply have to be the best I need at the moment.
And this is besides learning the skill of selling too, communication and a host of soft skills to accompany it.
And trust me this applies to everything you do. Whether it’s a hard skill or not.
As an influencer, public speaker, pastor, teacher, marketer, leader, mentor, usher, director, singer, planning committee chairman and whatever sector or organization you find yourself. You can not master the one thing you do and leave out the lifeline or support it needs.
Don’t stay a master of one. Better to be a master of none.
Learn that skill but most importantly, learn it’s accompanying life support.
The best neurosurgeon is not the specialist doctor even if they call themselves that. Because if he simply focused on neurosurgery, he probably wouldn’t know when an anesthesia is wrongly administered.
Just like a doctor wouldn’t joke with a life. We do not expect you to joke with the things you create. You give life, make sure it lives!
Water it. Nurture it. Feed it.
That breath remains in your creation, always and if it means acquiring more lifelines, get it done!
