I’m a jack of all trades
March 24, 2008 – 10:45 amFor those of you who know me you will be aware that I am still fairly young, just turned 24 few months ago, yet I have a surprising amount of experience for my age.
I have been a founder of 3 different companies, graphic designer, retail salesman, assistant manager, regional sales manager, market intelligence supervisor, strategic procurement specialist, hotel manager, i’ve also done a little bit of programming in Perl, PHP and Ruby and worked as a online affiliate marketer.
Sounds awesome, right? Well, don’t get me wrong but sometimes it really bothers me. It feels like that I’m good at a lot of thing, but, I’m an expert at nothing. Jacks of all trades are a lot of fun and good to talk about but people actually look for experts.
I’m not saying that I’m not capable, I am a fast learner, and my knowledge in most of the above areas is very high and I still fell that I can work in a bunch of different areas and be successful, but am I an expert? No.
So why is this a problem?
It is very useful to be a “Jack of all trades” kind of guy, but if you want to be paid really good money for something then you need to be an expert otherwise you will always need to go for your own enterprises.
To make serious money from anything, you need to be in the top 1% of your field, and even then it helps to be connected. I am good/very good at many things, especially when it comes to managing teams and seeing the big picture. But if you are looking for an expert then you are probably better looking elsewhere.
My questions are as follows:
Is it possible to make a good living without being an expert in one specific area?
Given the choice, would you prefer to be good at most things or an expert at just one thing?
One Response to “I’m a jack of all trades”
I do think so. In fact I think it is the best way to make a good living. I am also a jack of all trades.
My first job was at a restaurant. The managers there had to work every section for a period of time to be a manager.
I sort of applied the same philosophy when I started making money online. Now I have a good handle on a lot of internet technologies and the marketing side.
The money: outsourcing. A person with even a little knowledge can get developers and designers to understand what they want. A person with none says, “I want you to build me a site that makes money.”
I don’t look to get paid. I look to eventually make my money work for me, by hiring others to bring life to my ideas.
Soon…
By Stephan Miller on Mar 26, 2008