FBC – 92 – Jack of all trades, Good/bad? what’s your take?

Today I want to answer a burning question that a lot of people have. Being a jack of all trades is a good thing OR a bad thing? Maybe you are asking yourself this question because you don't specialize in anything? If that's the case, this episode is for you.

Today I wanted to talk about the notion of jack of all trades. We all know the expression a jack of all trades but master of none.

So when you talk to someone who's an employee or someone with a profession, you ask them “what do you do?” The answer is pretty simple.” I do this. I'm a carpenter, I'm a lawyer. I'm a doctor”. When you're talking to an entrepreneur, it's a bit different. You know when you ask someone “Oh what do you do?”

Well it's complicated you know because people do a lot of things. You know when you're an entrepreneur you do a lot of things. And when you're an entrepreneur you have a curiosity and you want to learn about new stuff.

So now the question is, Is it good? Is it bad? And you know a lot of people will tell you that it's bad because if you don't focus on anything then you're a master of none. Which makes sense right. It makes sense if you keep jumping from one thing to the other without actually exploring it and getting to the bottom of things.

My position is a bit different. I think that depending on how you handle it, it could be a bad thing or it could be a good thing. So if the jack of all trades is correlated with shiny object syndrome, yes it can be a bad thing, because you're trying to focus on something and then afterwards, something else comes up and then you learn a little bit about this and then you learn a little bit about that. You could be inches from making it but you jump to something else right.

Jack of all trades, Good/bad? what's your take?

So I do understand where it comes from but there is another way of seeing it and this is how I see things. It just depends on how you handle it. So the fact that you know a lot about different things, then you can use those things, but you don't have to do everything yourself. Just remember this and this is something I insist on.

What’s important for you is to know the general mechanics of whatever it is that you want to do. You want some someone else to do for you OK!! You don't want to be in a situation where it's like dark magic for you and you have no idea how it works, why it works and what's going on. Then you can find someone who knows more about it, who can then do it for you.

So that's why in that case I think it's good to be a jack of all trade in the sense that you will have knowledge about a lot of different topics that surround you, your business or the market you're in. You don't have to be a specialist anymore. I mean it's less the case than it was like I don't know like 50 years ago. 50 years ago you were doing one thing and that's all you were doing right.

Today if you have this like really comprehensive view of how everything interacts and everything works together then I think it's a great skill to have. It’s about handling the jack of all trades angle the right way which is you know understanding where that particular piece fits into your grand plan and scheme of things and understanding enough about it to be able to have a like a conversation with someone who is specialized. That’s a fantastic skill to have.

Right now you are telling yourself oh man you know what? I'm not a specialist in anything. And people are discouraging you saying you're a master of none and it's not necessarily the case