WHY YOU SHOULD NOT BE THE JACK OF ALL TRADES?

“I can do everything on my own”

This is one of the biggest misconception going through my mind everyday as an entrepreneur. With so much excitement and energy, I started every new idea on my own — everything I do it myself. I went to Google and search how to code an app, I watched Youtube video how to design mockup using Photoshop, I went to seminar to learn how to sell. Then after 1 month, I stopped. I totally burned out. I have no passion and energy in pursuing it anymore. It is hard. These happened a lot of time and I never finished any project that I started.

Does this ever happen to you? I’m sure it does.

We have this mindset that we are capable of doing everything we want. Yes, I agree with that but we don’t realize that everyone only have 24 hours a day. It took 10,000 hours to master a skill and there are gazillion skills out there for you to learn.

This mindset have lead us to become 5/10 on most skills but never 9/10 on one skill. These are the so called “Jack of all Trades, Master of None”. No one ever get acknowledge for being 5/10 at a lot of things, the masters get recognized because they are 9/10 at one thing only.

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practices one kick 10,000 times” — Bruce Lee

So, how should I solve this problem?

You should apply the 80/20 rule in your life. Focus 80% of your time and energy on mastering your strength and another 20% on improving your weakness.

I called this the T-shaped entrepreneur — people with in-depth expertise in one thing but have diverse and breadth knowledge of other things.

To succeed as an entrepreneur, you have to be a Master at one thing. Customer don’t hire generalist to solve their problem, they hire specialist. And as a specialist you can charge premium price on your products or services. But at the same time, you need to know the basics of other things as well such as accounting, finance, human resource and so on. So, that no one can scam you and it helps your decision-making in business.

But, to build a business requires a lot of skills and expertise such as marketing, operation and finance?

That is correct. You should focus on your strength and build a team that filled your weaknesses. Today, with technology and communication tools such as Fiverr and Upwork, you can build and hire a virtual team of assistants, designers, programmers, writers — pretty much anyone to balance our weaknesses at a fraction of the cost.

Being the Jack of All Trades will only bring you so far unless you have mastered one or two skills.

What do you think: Is it better to be a Jack of All Trades, or Master of One? Let me know in the comments below.

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